Hope you all have good winds. If not, join me anytime.

“On other planets

Strong 300 kilometers per hour (190 mph) winds at Venus’s cloud tops circle the planet every four to five earth days.[148] When the poles of Mars are exposed to sunlight after their winter, the frozen CO2 sublimes, creating significant winds that sweep off the poles as fast as 400 kilometers per hour (250 mph), which subsequently transports large amounts of dust and water vapor over its landscape.[149] Other Martian winds have resulted in cleaning events and dust devils.[150][151] On Jupiter, wind speeds of 100 meters per second (220 mph) are common in zonal jet streams.[152] Saturn’s winds are among the solar system’s fastest. Cassini–Huygens data indicated peak easterly winds of 375 meters per second (840 mph).[153] On Uranus, northern hemisphere wind speeds reach as high as 240 meters per second (540 mph) near 50 degrees north latitude.[154][155][156] At the cloud tops of Neptune, prevailing winds range in speed from 400 meters per second (890 mph) along the equator to 250 meters per second (560 mph) at the poles.[157] At 70° S latitude on Neptune, a high-speed jet stream travels at a speed of 300 meters per second (670 mph).[158] (WIKIPEDIA)”

Oscillating between despair and boredom after watching the forecast for the week, I surfed the web for inspiration and found an entire world of outrage. There seems to be a whole bunch of watermen a) living in small cages a thousand miles from the ocean, banging their heads in vain against the Teahupoo photo wallpaper, b) suffering even heavier boredom than me, or c) having to deal with the same weather forecast.

But have a look for yourself.

Sigh. I guess, beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. And if I don’t get a proper day on the water, not sure what I’m going to build next

cheers, tungsten

Just a few specs to give you an idea how different it is: the board has its widest part far back; quite a bit of rocker in the tip, but almost any in the tail; it has huge amounts of volume; and the bottom shape is convex, by a huge margin.

I’m talking about the “Nugget” by Geoff McCoy. He calls the convex bottom design “the loaded dome”. People surfing this board say it’s amazing, doing everything with ease. Unfortunately I didn’t find any kiter who is using it, so… I have to build one to find out   Have some wood lying around, no problem there.

For a while I’m wrapping my head around what Geoff McCoy has to say about (surf)boards. He’s a very critical mind and calls BS on many of the common shapes, not because they don’t work, but because they don’t work for the masses of surfers out there. He has a different mind set and thinks flow and ease, rather than aggressive maneuvers forced onto the wave.

I think he has good points. In some interview of his, I also found a hint how to systematically work out a kiteboard’s characteristics, regarding rail shape, volume, rocker and across-bottom shape, plus an approach how to design, calculate and place fins. This is something I was seeking for long. I’m currently wrapping my head around fluid dynamics to get things straight and in systematic order, which takes some time, so you’ll have to wait for that one.

Here’s a link to Geoff McCoy’s website with all kind of interesting information and good pictures of his boards.  www.mccoynugget.com

And, it would not be the board builder’s blog, a couple of screen shots of my wooden nugget in the works.

Good winds, tungsten

P.S. September+October is our no-wind-season. Plenty of time to work on new toys, and plenty of stoke looking forward to trying them

P.P.S. The nugget in the photo is a different size, that’s why it’s slimmer

The difficult part is, out of all the shapes and sizes, what is a good board FOR ME?

Now, if you believe the gossip, there is a real funny war going on  about the best surfboard shape, and it’s going on for decades. Funny, because the pro surfers these boards are made for are light years ahead of anything the average surfer Joe will ever be able to do with a board,  surfing conditions can’t be compared, but the boards hitting the shelves are still copies of those pro boards. Mhhhhhhm. Something to think about.

There are a couple of shapers out there going in the opposite direction. Interesting concepts, oriented at the ease of use for a normal rider on an average day, rather than at the highest possible performance in ideal conditions, with a 59kg rider trained like a ninja fighter in his best years.

I don’t want to belittle the common board shapes. They work well in most cases. But they represent the approach, knowledge and materials available 40 years ago, and for kiting, they have some downsides in their pure surfing oriented appearance. Even “kite specific” surf boards are usually little more than a beefed up surf board. They work, but they are far from “good boards”.

A good kite skim board has a slightly different rocker from an original skim, more volume to it, it’s a bit larger and a tad wider. Lonny’s Magic Measurements (TM) represent a good skim board, I feel with the skimmies we are way ahead of the kite surf boards. Get a LMM one, and you’ll know what I mean. Feels like a comfy pair of shoes.

Now those different concepts. Are they good for kiting? Some I tried, and yes they’re great, some I don’t know yet. I’ll build a board of each and we’ll see. But they are sure interesting as they approach “board” from a different angle. Let’s open our minds and have a look at some details.

Concept #1: The deep concave.

This is nothing like a (kite)surfboard which often has some concave to it, it’s rather like a slalom water ski. The Ocean Rodeo Mako uses this concept, and it works great: extremely fast, ridden with equal stance, bites like no other when carving, and it’s as loose as you want it if you get off the rail. Those boards have an elliptical outline (good for carving); they have a huge amount of rocker (2-3”, symmetrically front and back), and they have a constant rocker curvature from front to rear.  The concave is nothing like in other boards: 3/4 ” of concave in the middle of the board, and still 1/2” of concave in tip and tail. That is HUGE.

Those boards are sold strapped, but there are a some wise kiters out there who take off the ball-and-chain, wax them up and enjoy a very different ride. Carvey, frightening fast, but open for trickery when you shift the weight from the rail to a more upright position. Ocean Rodeo makes them in different sizes, 150×34, 140×40, 150×40, 165×50, you see the variety of possibilities here.

I’ve got one in the works which is going to be 150×40, full deck pad, wood & glass & epoxy. Here are some pics, taken from the free AKUshaper programme, to give you an idea. I’m really looking forward to get that baby out, I own the 150×34 Mako and boy, the wider one is very promising

EDIT: It’s done! Here is how you can build your own ride. Hope you enjoy!

cheers, Tungsten

Click here to see my forum post on how you can build your own ride!

The board is way stable (good), turns on a dime (very good), upwind is good, level with other surf boards. Handling is very good, really loose, with still enough grip for sharp turns.

But it’s sloooow. Especially in choppy conditions, which happen to be what I am dealing with most of the time. It’s not slow like a big displacement hull is slow – it takes off straight away and planes. But it’s like you’re riding against an invisible brake, top speed is not enough for me, you have to constantly power the kite up which I don’t fancy. My take is it’s the rocker line. Hard to change that one once the board is done

The other day I had enough of testing and took my skimmy out, leaving the yellow snail on the beach, when a surfer stopped by and took it for a ride. Now he had a blast! I watched him having fun in our small slow shore break, and when he came back in, he said he really liked the board for being so small and so easy to ride.

Funny. I thought the board’s just crap. Turns out it’s just not for kiting. Alas, my kids just won a new toy to learn surfing on, and I have space in my trunk for a new board or two which I will build the next couple of weeks. I do already know what it’s going to be. A FAST board, in an ideal size for the LTS stickers I found in the post this morning Thanks Lonny!

There HAD to be a way to break that pimping / bashing BS cycle and get REAL information about boards. Find MY board, see what works for ME.

I was lucky enough to try a board I really liked, some times later. A flat directional, 160×47, could be ridden with or without fins and straps. Now that was different! I did some research in this new direction and discovered a small bunch of people spread over the world, riding all sorts of skims and planks and having fun. YOU GUYS. Yeeeeehaaaaaaaaaa! Back in the 80s, we rode everything from salver trays to dust bin lids on our cable park and had fun, so, I decided, it’s time to cut the crap and fire up the planer.

Several boards down, things are completely different. Now what is it that has changed for me? For sure I know more about boards, but that’s not the point.  I get to ride more different boards, easy fixes done in a couple of hours, or more sophisticated ones, which is good fun, but still not exactly the point. The point is, my attitude towards boards has changed. If you’re not a pro lucky enough to be delivered new toys to your door every other day, but a guy who has to buy boards with hard earned cash, you’re not easy about your board getting trashed, drilling holes in it, losing it, or even honestly finding it crap. That is the big difference. Don’t like the board? change it, or get rid of it and build another one, throw fins on or take them off, play with shapes. Break it? So what, make another one. Take a couple of boards to the beach and see what your pals are making with them.

What you gain is a certain disregard for the established, inherent to any child, and lost on the way by most. GO PLAY.

And: building boards teaches a lot of respect for the vintage shapers out there. You’ll find out making yours.

good winds, tungsten