Jim’s occupation is an engineer, 52 yrs old and weighs in at 200 lbs. Get’s out on the weekends and has a drive just to get to the surf, knowing Jim and his honesty about where he is with his surfing I know he doesn’t over sell himself when I inquire about his abilities. Be that said, Jim jumped on the hype wagon and ordered his new custom shape directly from the shaper that has the company name that rhymes with “FOIL”.
This new company vacuum bags all their shapes, which is great but it’s not the end all of construction and performance, especially for guys like Jim as these types of boards lack drive in comparo to a poly constructed shape of the same shape. Finally, when he gets his “custom” shape delivered it looks fine, but after his first surf he knew something was wrong as the board has no drive, can’t paddle worth a damn, can’t catch a wave worth a damn, gets stuck in the lip and has absolutely no drive what so ever.
Jim the engineer is now wondering WTF is wrong, is it him? Is it the board? He knows his basic volume and dimensions. They measure out fine, then he begins to measure the rocker, to his surprise the board has over +3.5” of tail rocker and over 6” of nose rocker, for a board 7 feet!!! When Jim mentioned this to me I thought for sure he had mis measured but he had measured correctly, he had taken the time to measure the curve every 3”. It was comical to me as I can visualize this curve and I couldn’t help but crack up, once the humor subsided I was becoming livid as how can a shaper from the right coast that should know the type of wave and Jims personals can shape such a board for him?! Jim had called the shaper to ask about why he had shaped soo much rocker in the board, and the shaper told him that it was some proven rocker BS. And basically did nothing for him basically go pound dirt. Too bad.
I mean come on man, lets get real. I haven’t shaped a board with 6” nose rocker and over 3.5” tail rocker since the potato chip early 90’s Slater craze. Even at the height of that area I never shaped those rocker dims. Let alone at 7' for a 200lb'r It's way over the top even for the most advanced rider. I doubt even Slater rode anything remotely close to those rocker dims.
When was the last time you’ve seen a 52 yrs old, +200lb, Kelly Slater? LOL!!
Hey Jim, I was soo amped to shape your board after our discussion I had this shape in my head as we were conversing and I couldn’t wait to shape it. It will be more appropriate for you. How's that saying go? Something about, “don’t believe the hype?"
I looked into coils as well. Something was off for their suggestions, and when it came down to having a conversation, the guys never called to talk. Email only. I don't know about you, but I'm not comfortable sending money via email conversations only.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, I'm going with Wayne. 8'3" Dyna Glyde coming to me soon. Catching waves > looking cool
Tell all your friends.
Talk about pushing water when paddling, Viagra in that blank....
ReplyDeletewhat are the # on that board?
nate
Wayne- The shape looks tight ! Looks like you understood what I wanted, BTW thanks for the ruler in the top 2 shots -tells the story.
ReplyDeleteThanks
jim
The early slater era boards, Wayne remember you refused to shape me a board back then? asked me if I had the money for the board and as I was going to hand the cash over you told me to toss the cash in the trash?! lol
ReplyDeleteDan V
Nate, this shape would work for you if your elbows have healed and back 100%. More length or width if your still having issues. I think the sub 7' boards will exacurbate your elobow injuries. I know, I have similar issues with my own elbows for years.
ReplyDeleteDan, That is hilarious, I remember you went out and bought a CI after that. I would watch you stuggle on the thing and miss alot of good waves. In the end isn't that what you ended up doing? Throwing good money away? LOL!
That brand that rhyme with "Foil "has a good technology, but their board are really HP. They're really targeting the early 20's/under 165lbs segment of the surfer's population. But whatever your marketing strategy is, when somebody calls for a custom, you should give them what they want.
ReplyDeleteWayne,I know the problem is rocker related, but would you say that epoxy board in general lack drive in comparaison to poly? And also, weren't you shaping for CI in the early 90's? :P
Good story.
Is HP really HP if you can't catch a wave? Maybe I'm old skool in that HP should be relative to the person that is going to ride the shape. IMHO, I think the proof would be in the puddin so to say. If it is that segment they are targeting then It would have to get the nod from the top world class level riders, then would have to stand the test of time with a wide pro level demographic. That is if the hype equates to performance levels. I'm not saying it's not a valid approach. It has it's merits. But it's not much different than alot of other alternative constructed boards out already.
ReplyDeleteI experimented with that process early on, it's nothing new. Wind sail shapes have been doing this early on. Too many limitations esp when it comes to getting thousands or even hundreds of rockers correct. That is unless everyone gets the same limited rockers. To do this process correctly it takes having to use a rocker bed for every shape, that is if you want to nail the rockers. Sure you can take short cuts but this will be at the cost of inconsistencies in curves.
Yeah for sure, Epoxy in general lack drive, you can't shape a board in poly and expect the same exact shape to ride remotely similar. To get the drive back into epoxy/eps rocker adjustments are necessary, that most likely means lowering rocker apexes, lowering in different apex area from the top rocker and bottom rockers.
What I just don't understand is why would you add excessive rocker, so much rocker that it's over the top to a process that already lacks drive from the inset, for a guy that's surfs maybe 4 times a month if lucky and weighs 200lbs and is 52 yrs old? I think KS would have difficulty riding this at 52 yrs old and 200lbs as his east coast shortboard.
Hey man, I hear you. That's definitively a bad custom. Good think you're here to help that guy out.
ReplyDeletehahaha,, Alex I like your play on werds. "Good think". That's all it really takes. Simple ain't easy. ;-)
ReplyDelete