@shralpstories love the videos. You’re ripping! I just ordered a custom Alley Rat, so stoked! I noticed you don’t have any carbon tail patches on your boards, especially the channel bottoms where foam is taken out from tail. Do you not get any tail cancer in your boards? Would you recommend getting carbon tail patches in the boards with channels for more durability?
I like having my boards thin and light because I’d rather break my board then break my leg. Some people like boards to last a while but I’d rather spend money replacing a board then getting surgery
Slats was commonly on 6'2 x 18 x 2 1/8.... Machado even smaller, like 6'1 x 17 3/4" x 2". I find it interesting that a lot people think those boards 'ruined' surfing, I had some of my best surfing years on those types of boards, but maybe 6'3 or 6'4 for myself. Check any old footage of Brendan Margieson to see how well they could work. I think the opposite is true now, and that the ultra short iterations of the HPSB have resulted in choppy, slightly schizo surfing that has lost flow and power for the sake of aerial prowess.
Cool video and Awesome surfing! I used to love these things as they were so versatile and remember how surprised I was on the spectrum I could surf it on
In an attempt to reproduce a fish outline with rule of three to keep proportions, i have noticed swallow-tail is excluded in the size. For this board, it means it is probably 5.5 from the nose to the base of the swallow-tail. 2 inches for the additional swallow.
Good work. The wings also reduce the area of the tail by allowing the outline to dramatically change direction, thus pulling the tail in. Also mimicks the old CI hip and that feature is still on some modern models, though not as exaggerated. One top shaper states the round pin/thumb allows the board to turn more vertical off the bottom to the top (top to bottom). It's radius apparently lets it whip a turn on a dime. There's a reason all CT surfers ride those when it's head high and up. One is they're smooth in transition, rail to rail, and that leads to smooth and fluid surfing. Speed Power and Flow. Cheers
I liked the squash tails up to around 7'0"". Rounded above that. The swallow tails are great in the short sizes but I would never get one because I'm sure I would ding the sharp points on it again. I'd never trust a choice to a coin toss.
Never really gave tail shape the credit it deserves until I got a Ghost with my first round tail. I had just gotten a Pyzelian with swallow tail and both are 6'2"so able to compare although the ghost is a couple Liters lower. The difference is clear as day how smooth and almost effortless the turns were on the Ghost. And the ability pivot off a bottom and top turn was so clearly better on the Pyzel Ghost. And holding in steep hurricane surf last week. Love it at head-high Uppers a week or so ago on our trip out to California. Same with fins like your recent show suggested. Been experimenting and the large Pyzel fins that work in the Ghost, make the swallow tail stiff. Cheaper Ho Stevie more flex fins give the Pyzelian swallow tail so much drive in small surf. Figure that flex reverb is adding drive like a spring in my surf-skate trucks. Those same fins skipped out dropping into more punchy surf. Lots of good nuggets Kolton!
If you were to throw a squash vs a round tail on the same template, they create a straighter rail line. straighter outline=more drive. The squash will plane better and is better when the waves have less push, but that little more width=less hold and more slide.
It doesnt give it a straighter rail line if it's the same template it's the same rail curve squash tails are faster because essentially a 6'0 squash is like a 6'4 rounded pin depending on where the shaper chopped it a 6'0 squash vs round tail the squash will have more volume because essentially it's a longer board
@@bsmbB going on your logic if a 6'0 squash has the same rail line as a 6'4" it is just clipped off 4" up from what would have been the tip, it has the proportionately straighter rail line of the longer board than the 6'0 round tail does. That wouldn't be the same template as the wide point has been moved back relative to the length of the board, among other things. I can't share images here in the comments, but I have a screen shot showing what happens to the rail line when you switch from a round tail to a squash on the same template in shaping software, to illustrate that the rail rail has had more curve added by switching to a roundtail. Drop your contact info if you want to see it.
I assume that was trestles? How come in all the footage I’ve watched of that place I’ve never seen that random rock pop up? It was pumping though yewwwwwwww👌
Nice work. It's interesting how different tail shapes work with different fins. Narrower tails usually work better with smaller more upright fins and wider tails usually work better with larger more raked fins. Like you say, you're either getting your drive/hold from the fins or the rail so a squash tail that like to slide around needs more fin to control it. Guys that like squash tails like Mick Fanning tend to also prefer larger more raked fins, and guys that ride narrow rounded pins like JJF use smaller more upright fins. If you take fins that are dialled in for one tail type and put them on a board with a completely different tail it's probably not going to work as well.
My first custom was a Midget Smith around year 1997 similar to this shape. Sold it for beer money when I was young and broke. Would pay anything to get that board back! I think Cole and Midget had a lot to do with this design as well. That whole alley was a hotbed for design at the time.
That’s rad! I had a midget smith board growing up. My first board was a Timmy and then I got the midget and it was more of a shorty blade kinda thing. It was 6’ glass on 3 fin, I may still have that thing laying around somewhere now that I think of it
The slater boards were even narrower than what you mentioned. I mean the 90s were a whole decade, this kind of over simplifies it. Those long narrow board weren't driven my timmy and matt, but greg weber and merrick.
Surfed my dads old 6’8 by 18’1/4 today in 6-8 off shores in the uk still goes epic in good waves holds in, super fast on rail but loosens up a shit tone when you want
I think the one thing that wouldn’t hold up would be the stringer and it looked like it in the turns. It looked like the board didn’t snap and speed through turn like you see out of a freshie
80's style outlines and foil are my favorite, with some modern upgrades of bottom and rocker. Rusty Blade is a great example for speed, drive, and ripping. The Rusty 1984 model should be narrower to make more drivey. I tried the Synthetic '84 by TP, but that outline is too wide.
All my of my Timmy and PYZEL boards measure off rocker and Mayhem(CI as well..) are from floor to nose. So my 5’8 Timmy is the same length as my 5’7.5 Mayhem. I took tape down to the shop just make sure it wasn’t just my customs and all the stock boards were measured this way between brands.
