Surferguy80
12-14-2008, 02:03 PM
So, this is a design forum, so I figured I would spend a bit of time and explain a few design prinicipals with anyone who was wondering what exactly is going on with your board or why your shaper put this curve here or that flat spot there.
This is going to take a long time, so I'll start with the template curves and work from there...
When you're designing the template of a board you want to keep in mind the wave you are shaping it for, and you want to match the curve of the wave to the curve of your board, think:
Twin fish's have a long straight template (wide straight tail), so they are going to work best with a flat faced wave. Whereas a drawn in pintail is going to fit you nice and tightly against the wall of a steep wave (ie; a thumping barrel).
The planing area of your board is going to give you more or less overall lift in any given wave so again; a wide flat fishy tail gives you more planing area which will help you on a slow, mushy wave; and a pintail which has very little planing area wont do well in a mushy wave since there is no tail area to provide lift...but you don't need that planing area in a powerful, hollow wave.
(I realize I'm using extremes of the board design spectrum, but I don't want to go into SUPER specifics and put you to sleep!)
The nose width of your board is going to give you paddling and planing lift, so again, more nose = more planing area = more paddle speed; BUT:
there is a major issue here depending on what waves youre surfing; a wide nose will tend to hang you up in a beachbreak or hollow wave no matter how fast you paddle...which is why nose-less shortboards do so well in beachbreaks; they 'slip' into the wave more than glide into it, you fit in under the lip and won't get caught and thrown.
This is going to take a long time, so I'll start with the template curves and work from there...
When you're designing the template of a board you want to keep in mind the wave you are shaping it for, and you want to match the curve of the wave to the curve of your board, think:
Twin fish's have a long straight template (wide straight tail), so they are going to work best with a flat faced wave. Whereas a drawn in pintail is going to fit you nice and tightly against the wall of a steep wave (ie; a thumping barrel).
The planing area of your board is going to give you more or less overall lift in any given wave so again; a wide flat fishy tail gives you more planing area which will help you on a slow, mushy wave; and a pintail which has very little planing area wont do well in a mushy wave since there is no tail area to provide lift...but you don't need that planing area in a powerful, hollow wave.
(I realize I'm using extremes of the board design spectrum, but I don't want to go into SUPER specifics and put you to sleep!)
The nose width of your board is going to give you paddling and planing lift, so again, more nose = more planing area = more paddle speed; BUT:
there is a major issue here depending on what waves youre surfing; a wide nose will tend to hang you up in a beachbreak or hollow wave no matter how fast you paddle...which is why nose-less shortboards do so well in beachbreaks; they 'slip' into the wave more than glide into it, you fit in under the lip and won't get caught and thrown.