How fast can you go on your longboard?

[Roy Stewart]

By guess, video analysis or gps, while waveriding not roofrack riding.

[gulfsurfer]

My boards dont have a speedometer on them. For as expensive as your boards are, do they have one?

[duhkine]

I don't think most people care how fast boards go. And how could do measure how fast it goes anyway? I would guess all longboards can potentially go very fast, especially when you're taking the drop at Jaws

Aloha!

[gulfsurfer]

ya, i dont care, but Big Roy sure does!

[Roy Stewart]

My boards dont have a speedometer on them. For as expensive as your boards are, do they have one?

It's called a handheld gps unit . . super accurate, compact, and you either tape it to your board or slip it into your wettie.

After the surf, you go into the bar, lean on it, casually pull out your 'Gecko' (good aussie label), dial up your reading for the fastest 1/10th of a second for the latest sesh and then say "Damn, only 26.9 mph today peeps, must be the toe in setting on my turbo fish quad bonzer thruster retro twinfin setup".

The actual reading is irrelevant of course, and can be increased by driving to the bar. If you try to actually tell the truth you will be bagged anyway so just realise that it is important to have very accurate equipment before you start spinning any tales.

That's how it's done

Then of course there is the wonderful world of speed estimation via video analysis . . . not accurate but it has the advantage that everyone can see the moment of extreme speed and then argue about how fast it really was.

It beats arguing about wave height, I promise you




Roy Stewart, Co president of the Global Association of Speed Surfers (The G.A.S.S.)

[Phil]

lol at who ever voted above 35 mph im sorry but waves dont travel that fast when they reach the shore at least ones you can paddle into, so unless your droping in on 20ft+ reef break after being toed in by some one on a jetski then i highly dout it is possable to get any where near that speed

[babyboarder89]

how fast is walking speed? is surfing slower?

[Phil]

roy should i dig up the speed surfing thread on swaylocks

[Roy Stewart]

lol at who ever voted above 35 mph im sorry but waves dont travel that fast when they reach the shore at least ones you can paddle into, so unless your droping in on 20ft+ reef break after being toed in by some one on a jetski then i highly dout it is possable to get any where near that speed

Hey Phil, you have fallen into the first trap by forgetting that a surfer can travel faster than the speed of the wave front by angling aross the wave.

In actual fact the only thing which limits speed is friction. . . given an endless wave and no friction the speed of light would be approached, even on a very tiny wave.

We regularly achieve speeds in the 25+ mph range while riding waves with a wave front speed of 10 to 12 mph.

It is also important to remember that most of the 'thrust' which drives a board is due to gravitational potential energy, and that this is proportional to the mass of board and rider.

Phil, if you were to dig up the surfing thread on Swaylock's you will find a lot of people posting on the subject who simultaneously a) say that they are not interested in surfing speed, and b) spend a lot of time talking about the subject and even being very emotional about it! It was one of the most popular threads ever and is still treasured by the googlebots.

Go figure!

[gulfsurfer]

My boards dont have a speedometer on them. For as expensive as your boards are, do they have one?

It's called a handheld gps unit . . super accurate, compact, and you either tape it to your board or slip it into your wettie.

After the surf, you go into the bar, lean on it, casually pull out your 'Gecko' (good aussie label), dial up your reading for the fastest 1/10th of a second for the latest sesh and then say "Damn, only 26.9 mph today peeps, must be the toe in setting on my turbo fish quad bonzer thruster retro twinfin setup".

The actual reading is irrelevant of course, and can be increased by driving to the bar. If you try to actually tell the truth you will be bagged anyway so just realise that it is important to have very accurate equipment before you start spinning any tales.

That's how it's done

Then of course there is the wonderful world of speed estimation via video analysis . . . not accurate but it has the advantage that everyone can see the moment of extreme speed and then argue about how fast it really was.

It beats arguing about wave height, I promise you




Roy Stewart, Co president of the Global Association of Speed Surfers (The G.A.S.S.)

I'm surprised an old hippie like you knows how to work a GPS. And i really dont care how fast i go as long as i'm surfing.

[Roy Stewart]

My boards dont have a speedometer on them. For as expensive as your boards are, do they have one?

It's called a handheld gps unit . . super accurate, compact, and you either tape it to your board or slip it into your wettie.

After the surf, you go into the bar, lean on it, casually pull out your 'Gecko' (good aussie label), dial up your reading for the fastest 1/10th of a second for the latest sesh and then say "Damn, only 26.9 mph today peeps, must be the toe in setting on my turbo fish quad bonzer thruster retro twinfin setup".

The actual reading is irrelevant of course, and can be increased by driving to the bar. If you try to actually tell the truth you will be bagged anyway so just realise that it is important to have very accurate equipment before you start spinning any tales.

That's how it's done

Then of course there is the wonderful world of speed estimation via video analysis . . . not accurate but it has the advantage that everyone can see the moment of extreme speed and then argue about how fast it really was.

It beats arguing about wave height, I promise you




Roy Stewart, Co president of the Global Association of Speed Surfers (The G.A.S.S.)

I'm surprised an old hippie like you knows how to work a GPS. And i really dont care how fast i go as long as i'm surfing.

Life, my friend, is full of surprises!!

[gulfsurfer]

(in my best napoleon dynamite voice) HECK YES IT IS!!!!!!!

[Phil]

the thing is though roy with all that weight and drag of your boards i really dout you could get 35mph + out of one of your surfboards

for those that are intrested heres the link to swaylocks

http://www.swaylocks.com/forum/gforum.c ... st=1844497

[gulfsurfer]

and you look a bit stupid with a 21' pintail longboard

[Roy Stewart]

the thing is though roy with all that weight and drag of your boards i really dout you could get 35mph + out of one of your surfboards

for those that are intrested heres the link to swaylocks

http://www.swaylocks.com/forum/gforum.c ... st=1844497

Phil old chap, the main force which drives a board is gravitational potential energy, which is proportional to the mass of board and rider . . .thus a 200 pound setup has twice the thrust which a 100 pound setup has . . . a heavy board thus has the same speed potential as a light board . . . and regarding the lift/drag ratio, it has been proven many times that a board with a tunnel fin has a superior lift/drag ratio. As for 35 mph. . . it is quite a conservative goal actually . . . time will tell. . . .that's part of the fun . . . and it is all fun, as you know!

[k mac]

zzzZZZZ

Whats that roy same old story eh ?

please do us all a favour and add somthing constuctive to the forum that we may not have heard many times before from you ........

yes you may feel that we are all scared of change and innotive new ideas ..but no 16ft wooden pintails are not a new innotive idea ,mabye you make them with ina diffrant way to others but still woodne boards went ou tback in the 1900's (you may remamber that period of time ) and yes wooden boards are pretty dam cool and i would love to own one or just experience riding one (if u would like to send me one ready made i'd happily oblige )

but there is a reason why boards are now made from more modern human-made materials,but it is cool that your are still making them traditionly but please stop with the ego driven madness that you call constuctive comments ,ok and give us some intresting stuff like how you build your boards and what shapes youre trying out and mabye inspire us to build somthig simlar of our own please Mr Stewart

[Roy Stewart]

:( zzzZZZZ

Whats that roy same old story eh ?

please do us all a favour and add somthing constuctive to the forum that we may not have heard many times before from you ........

yes you may feel that we are all scared of change and innotive new ideas ..but no 16ft wooden pintails are not a new innotive idea ,mabye you make them with ina diffrant way to others but still woodne boards went ou tback in the 1900's (you may remamber that period of time ) and yes wooden boards are pretty dam cool and i would love to own one or just experience riding one (if u would like to send me one ready made i'd happily oblige )

but there is a reason why boards are now made from more modern human-made materials,but it is cool that your are still making them traditionly but please stop with the ego driven madness that you call constuctive comments ,ok and give us some intresting stuff like how you build your boards and what shapes youre trying out and mabye inspire us to build somthig simlar of our own please Mr Stewart

There is a big difference between hearing and understanding . . . a lot of people have heard certain ideas but don't understand them . . .

If you would like to know how to build a Power Surfboard then have a look at the plans on my site and then if you have any questions I will be happy to answer them

As for ideas like 'modern', 'traditional' and so on, they really don't mean anything to me because they are completely meaningless in design terms and thus tend to prevent clear thinking. For example, a very long board is capable of certain things . . and this doesn't change hydrodynamically just because of some idea of modern or traditional which some people attach to board length.

Regarding 'Ego driven madness' . . . you really misunderstand what is going on . . . apart from a tendency to take the mickey out of people (and I enjoy people doing it to me also) I am a very dry and rational board designer, and I try to avoid allowing emotions of any kind to get in the way of rational thought. If I have anything useful to contribute at all then it is by courtesy of the creator, who designs and builds all things.

See you later

[Roy Stewart]

Play it again Sam

[WaveJunkie]

how fast is walking speed? is surfing slower?

Steady, deliberate walking speed is about 3 MPH. Boards go faster.

[WaveJunkie]

Yeah, sure . . . 42% in this poll are saying "More than 35 MPH" -- including myself.

Let me go on record as saying I lied. *LMAO* Maybe we should run a poll:

"How many of you lie when responding to polls?"