If you could design a board?!

[benjl]

If you could design your ideal board, what would it be?>?!

As some of you have recently read, i've been experimenting with a lot of different boards, shapes and sizes receently and it's really blown my mind. I'm starting to make up an idea in my head about what my (imaginery) perfect board would be.
I would love to know what everyone elses would be if they could design one.

Here's the criteria (and a drawing posted on here of your design would be even better!):

Nose Shape and profile:
Tail Shape and profile:
Rail profiles:
Width, thickness and length:
Rocker (nose, middle and tail):
Bottom contours (front, middle and tail):
Overall design shape:
Fin Configuration and placement:

Lastly: Design plan, ideal wave type and height

Ie. Mine would be

Nose Shape and profile: medium full, rounded to point. In less full than hypto but more than my dominator.
Tail Shape and profile: Rounded diamond (almost a mix between a squah and a pin)
Rail profiles: 60'40 soft rails for front 2/3 moving in to hard and edgy rails on the back third.
Deck Profile: Domed deck with tapered rails from 2 1/2 to 2 5/16 at the edges
Width, thickness, length and volume: 5'7 x 19 3/8 x 2 1/2 and 28.5L
Rocker (nose, middle and tail): low to moderate-low front (115mm lift), middle flat, tail medium rocker (55mm lift)
Bottom contours (front, middle and tail): Tomo style MPH front in to soft double to channels or light vee back
Construction: Epoxy, 6+6 top with 6oz bottom. Soft Flex (brain board) to suit my weight http://www.barronsurfboards.co.nz/barron-flex
Fin Configuration and placement:5 fin. Fin placement facing relatively straight for speed. Quad set up set closer to the rail than stringer but not too far out

General notes: To make a 1-6ft all rounder that is light, relatively flexy (but strong), a natural speed-er that will plane quickly in a range of conditions but still get lose and go rail to rail easily. Made to be ridden 4-6" shorter than your typical shortboard and around the same volume. The mph nose with medium full and relatively flat rocker profile will plane and pull off the line with a burst of speed to get you in and going early. The water will churn down the board and either split in to the channel or vee to give drive and enable the board to tilt easily on rail. The enhanced tail rocker will make the board fit more steep / hollow waves and give your foot something to pivot off whether going fast or slow. The rounded diamond tail will aid in giving two points on either side of the tail to pivot off but still offering flowing speed without having a clunky and edgy tail. This tail design will also give a better hold in a range of waves. The domed deck should enable lots of volume under your chest for easy paddling / speed generation but also enable your feet to help roll the board side to side and get the rails deep in the water. Thruster set up for pivot attacks while the quad will offer a balance of enhanced hold on wally-waves and added speed without being too lose. A knubster could give best of both worlds.

Would you pay for that??

[oldmansurfer]

I want a board that catches waves well and turns well...........period......and costs $1.25

[benjl]

ohhh c'mon OMS, give me your ideal surfboard (and realistic) haha. We would all love a $1.25 surfboard that does all the above!
Did you check out the Barronflex link?

[oldmansurfer]

Well I am not really sure because I haven't put in enough hours surfing but some where around a 7'6" stinger swallow tail around 24 inches wide and 3.25 inches thick. Minimal rocker but not flat, concave in front to slight v in rear. 5 fin capability. I need a board that suits my age and condition but not sure exactly what but if I do get one it might be like that or a 7 foot fish because I surfed one a while ago and it did ok

[waikikikichan]

Like asking to design the perfect woman. After awhile you'll learn to deal with ( and love ) what you got.

[Big H]

Saw this and was reminded of this post from W-chan....basically I wouldn't try to design a board since I don't really know whats involved....

...on top of that is there such a thing as an ideal board? Maybe for the conditions, but short of the so called one board quivers, there is a huge range of board types, shapes and sizes to suit a wide variety of waves, abilities, body types, age and surfing goals....

I don't think there is such a thing as "ideal".

Then the opinions of others do matter. Some good some bad, some positive some negative. But when it come to ordering a board from a master shaper or master chef, i won't second guess his craft. "Shouldn't you be using fresh cream ?" "Isn't low heat better ?" "my Mom, would marinate it longer". I think the Chef would say, "look, who's doing the cooking ?" " if you want it prepared that way, then go over there ".
The board I had custom ordered before I had one done by Ben Aipa, I did exactly what Hyesurfer did ( albeit without the internet ). Read all the magazines, ask all the local rippers, took dimensions of all the boards I liked. I wanted a fast board and ordered bevel rails, air step, step deck, single to double barrel, super light this-that, etc. everything I was told that would make the board faster. The shaper said "whatever you want" and made it with those extra features. The board sucked. Got a chance to order from Ben. Told him the same thing " i want this, that blah blah". He listened and asked me that famous question. I learned to leave it in his hands. Board came out awesome.

The question posed was if "7'0" or 7'2" by 22" would make a difference ?" I think the most informed person would be the one actually shaping the board, Ben Aipa. He can make a 7'0" float more than a 7'2". He can make a 7'2" turn more easily than a 7'0".

viewtopic.php?t=25304

[IB_Surfer]

Honestly, I have been ordering boards for a long time, 2 or 3 a year. I've gotten to the point that I know exactly what and how to order based on what I want. Here is the best iteration:

1) Widen the nose a little to add volume
2) Reduce the rocker in the middle to make it easier to paddle
3) Hard rails in back and through the middle, but soft up top so it holds up in steep waves but you don't dig a rail in big surf
4) Rounded thumb tail, I don't like squash because even though squash does cut harder the rounded pin does smoother turns and retains more speed through the turn.

I have these specs on my 6'1 shortboard, 6'5 step up and my 6'8 lazy day step up (the board I use when I'm hung over, when I don't want to work that hard, when waves are big but mushy or when it's crowded so I can move outside the pack).

All that is based on 20 ysrs experience, so it's what works for me.

[oldmansurfer]

I have to say when a board brings me so many good times I become very attached to the board. It would be very difficult for me to let anyone use my 8 foot fungun or my 7'6" fungun but it would be easier for me to let them use my 9'6" fungun because I have had it for a while and not used it much or my 9'6" longboard because while it's brought me incredible joy I haven't used it for longer than the 9'6" fungun. It deserves to get wet again. I love my boards but if I find some issue with them then I would be looking for another. I surfed my longboard until I could feel the weight of the board as I turned slowing me down. I'm slow enough so don't need a slow to turn board. I haven't felt any unsolvable problems with my funguns so not really looking for another board right now

[drowningbitbybit]

I wouldn't design the board, I'd let the shaper do it for me, but as a general guide, my favourite boards tend to be...

6'0 to 6'4 - anything longer I just don't get on with, and anything shorter (i.e. less than my height) can be a handful.
21" wide - I'm too broad for anything smaller, but anything wider feels like an inflatable airbed to me.
Some volume up front - I'm 85kg, and need that paddle power.
Fairly narrow at the back - a pin or a swallow-tail, don't like a fat rear end.
Middling rocker - the flat rocker is great for paddling, but I like a bit of curve to get into waves.
Soft fat rails up front, hard skinny rail at the tail.
Lightly glassed - I like my boards to be nice and light.
Thruster. Definitely a thruster.
Channels - god knows, that's the shaper's job.

My 'perfect board' tends towards the middle ground, but I guess that's no bad thing - shapers have been shaping for a while now, and unless they're making it for a particular wave or extreme scenario (i.e. someone else), the middle ground is probably where I want to be.

[benjl]

C'mon Waikiki and big h, it's just a fun hypothetical question! Doesn't even have to be super plausible, just curious to know what would be on everyone's wish list for their ideal board if it were possible to be made and work.

I get what you're saying about the shaper and you're right but this is just hypothetical fun. When I spoke to the shaper at primal a few weeks back about what size options they had for the 5'10 I just brought, he said that they only had 5'5, 5'7 and 5'9. When I said I would ideally like a 5'6 he said that they didn't order the blanks in that siZe but that he could take a touch of meat out of the 5'7, add a touch more rocker and concave to have an end result with a board that would have the same volume as the 5'6 but handle better waves which is what I would want. Was an interesting convo. Saying that though, I'm sure he couldn't build a board with a mph hull like Tomo knows how to do so my above board is purely just a dream of functions potentially working together

We didn't get to where we are with surfboards today by shapers just going 'here's the only board we know how to make, some day you'll get used to it and be content'!
It's only though asking the question that we get innovation and progress.
I'm sure there's things that you've liked about a board but wished it had more of this or that to make it perfect.

[dtc]

Can you invent a board with variable volume - maybe that has vacuum chambers which you can take air out of to reduce volume. So as you paddle out you can reduce volume to duck dive, then increase to paddle. Then decide on the right volume depending on wave size and type

Although I imagine that foam doesn't make a good vacuum chamber, so probably need some other material. Also a small pump that doesn't get in the way. and a fuel source. But it could be doable, just need someone to invent a few things

[Big H]

Honestly Benji...this is what I want to order....custom order only....what would I tell the inventor of this radical design? How could I look him in the eye and tell him how to make the board then pull out my cut and pasted laundry list of features from various boards? Obviously I would talk to the shaper, I'd answer any questions that he had, but for the most part including the tail choice (you can see pictured there is a bat wing tail that he prefers for daily drivers and a rounded pin for his gemini guns) I would mention what I'd liked in other boards, but would leave the bulk of the design up to him after telling him what I could about me and my ambitions.

I had a guy the other day ask if I could sauce a plate in a certain manner like he'd seen in a magazine....I told him that if the sauce were the same consistency and texture that I would be able to but I would have to modify the recipe for the sauce used in the chosen preparation so that I would be able to make the saucing design that he preferred....in the end he allowed me to proceed in recipe and presentation the best that I knew how, which based on my 25+years is considerable, and the totality of why all the elements in that dish work together and how to make them work together for a high level taste and visual experience is more than I could or would ever choose to explain to anyone.

[RinkyDink]

I don't really have a good idea of dimensions, contours, tail shape, or number of fins. I do find epoxy boards intriguing, though. I want to surf one at some point. I suspect that the buoyancy of epoxy boards might open up different possibilities. It's kind of a pointless exercise for me, though, because I don't have enough experience with surfboards to really know what works. I took my 7'2" board out in really mushy, weak waves the other day and learned that I would have had a lot more fun riding my foamie in those waves. My softboard has all the float I need to cruise on those waves.That's about as sophisticated as my experience with surfboards is at the moment.

[Big H]

Benji....you should get into golf.....pretty much every bit of that equipment intensive sport is open for discussion, customisation and modification.....I had one set of forged clubs with customised lofts, project x 6.0 shafts +3/4" and customised lie angles with counterbalance shaft weighting and lead head weighting customised for each club, shafts frequency matched and spined for consistency, grips with 2 layers of under wrap and the grip itself that I went through 7 or 8 models before settling on....that was just for one set of irons (I had four)....drivers, putters, wedges, rescue clubs, fairway woods, utility clubs.....then there were golf shoes and the different cleats you could put in (I had a few different soft cleats and some steel inserts I'd wear when I could get away with it), golf gloves, rangefinders, groove sharpeners, lead tape....back to the putters, about 1,000,000 different shapes and designs, shaft lengths and head weights to try...any 'real" golfer has a closet full of putters that "don't work"................oh yes, good times for a tinker man.....

[benjl]

@ Dtc- that would be glorious, it really would. No sarcasm, that would be amazing.
I was just emailing Barron surfboards and he said that his new 'barronflex' prototype had been taken up by al merrick!
Have any of you had a quick geeZe at the link I sent?
He reckons he can make a surfboard flex based on your weight rather than just a fixed flex pattern for everyone. Pretty cool idea, especially for a lightweight like myself. It should mean that you can finally get an epoxy board that Flexes but is also strong and doesn't just snap like pu

[waikikikichan]

Not getting too serious at all, it's a fun discussion. You'll realize one day that everything changes ( look at the board history photo that Big H posted ), but one thing stay the same,........... the Wave. The funny thing is that Newbies and Advanced surfers are alike.......... they can ride anything and it doesn't matter. It's the beginner-intermediates or "half-goods" where everything totally matters.

Listen to this quote:

"Ride the Wave, Not the Board"

– Duke Kahanamoku

[benjl]

How does the wave stay the same? Going totally off topic, but that's one of the biggest variables. Not the board.. I used to be a world ranked badminton player and also NZ ranked for several other things but I've never had frustration like I get with surfing. The only difference is that the waves always change, Whereas most other sports have a constant variable: the court, the racket, the bike etc.
I can jump on any one of my 4 boards (3 of which I've owned for less than 3 months) and ride them in probably any wave up til 4-5ft 'ride the wave' as you and say but when it comes to aiding someone in turning or paddling etc. one 'set' board isn't going to do it. I could've stayed on my 6'1 or 6'3 for the rest of my life and ridden all the waves I could but neither would've enabled
Me to duckdive, experience shorter turning radius or discovering that a shorter board with a wider nose and less volume would equal
More waves and a greater range of waves than a longer traditional board with a pointed nose and more
Volume

[waikikikichan]

How does the wave stay the same?

The waves were there before man came along and they will be there after man is gone. In the short time that surfboards have been around they went from wood to foam/fiber glass to CF. From no fins to single to twin to thruster to quad to no fins again. From 16 feet to long to mid to gun to short to fish ( and everything in between ). But the wave stays the same.

Here a blog post about what I meant. http://alohaki.jugem.jp/?eid=513

[benjl]

But the waves change every day? .. Sure they've been here over centuries and before all kinds of Boards but at the end of the day the waves are never the same. Your board is the most constant variaAble in the equation.


So what is your ideal board Waikiki?

[waikikikichan]

Yes, every wave is unique ( like a snow flake ). Yet like Nature, it stays the same. You can't fight Nature, you have to work with it. When you learn "the wave", you'll be able to ride most any board.

What's my ideal board ? I don't have any ideal / favorite board. Depending on the day it may be Longboard to cruise and noseride, a Sponge board to not stress, a Fish to blast lips on peaky dumping waves, or No board with some flippers and let my body be it. But what do I love most about surfing ? The Glide and Trim. If the board ( or whatever your riding on ) allows that, then that's ideal.

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