About good boards #2
In the quest for finding a good board (read: a board that feels like a comfy pair of sneakers), here we go again, having a look at board shapes outside the box. I found this surfboard, which seems to be just the opposite of a standard shortboard, in all aspects. The shaper is a world renowned man, shaping for decades, and always following his own wits rather than fashion.
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
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