Discussing Roy's surfboard designs.

[zaGaffer]

*Note: I have not yet built a wooden surfboard, I'm drawing on my experience through other projects*

Paulownia is a great wood for building surfboards, boats and anything else really. It's also a very sustainable product since you can essentially harvest it and it grows back. I just think it looks kinda blah, especially if its not accompanied with something else. Plus I don't like the way it bends with or without steam because the grain is sort of all over the place and inconsistent. I also would not use it in a solid board like you would use Balsa or that funky Banana Tree stuff Gary Linden uses in some of his stuff because it's way too dense for that application. Alaias are fine with it solid because they are so thin.

For anything you are going to glass you want to avoid Teak because its so oily and I doubt you would be able to get a long lasting lamination.

The lighter (less dense) Mahoganies like Sapele, various Central American species and the incorrectly named Spanish Cedar (it's actually in the Mahogany family) are a good balance of aesthetics, density and weight in my opinion. But I'm also a sucker for iridescence and crazy grains so I would be more prone to using dense wood as well, but resawn into thin but wide veneers and laminated to something else thin and light like cedar to reduce the weight. Not sure but that may have positive or negative effects on whatever flex the board might have but will be fun to experiment with.

That said, density and weight won't matter if your joints are as sloppy and full of epoxy as Roy's. That probably adds an additional 5 lbs. to his "surf craft."

Oh yeah, Roy: The tunnel on your Makaha is obtuse, out of circle, lop-sided. I'm "sure" you're going to say you meant to do that.

Thanks man, good stuff. I think on the FireWire thread they were saying that they aren't actually laminating over the paulownia skins; but just sealing it with some kind of bio-resin. I wonder if Sunova is doing the same thing or actually putting a glass layer over the balsa to strengthen it? They were also saying that some cedar species available here in N.Am were too oily to laminate onto too.

[Roy Stuart]

None of those goons know the first thing about flex, they just use it as a marketing buzzword. There's a lot more to it than their clay footed designers realise.

Glass isn't ideal as it is compresses and stretches less than the wood... if the board is flexible it will eventually delaminate, we don't use it we simply resin coat as the resin moves with the wood.

We realised this and id it decades before firewire did, and a long time before Mr Burger... firewire are full of sh*t pretending that they thought of it. They haven't understood that functional flex is the province of longboards either... it won't work with mainstream 'Malibu' derived longboard shapes though.

[Roy Stuart]

Here's some flex on a Redwood and Monterey Pine 13-9 Dragon... the board is only 1.75 inches thick. In the water flex is a lot less, due to the pressure and load distribution... the land test is merely an indicator.

The parallel profile was designed for flex in 1994. Tapered profile boards are not ideal for it.

[brewengineer]

A ridiculous comment considering that I've posted video of my boards being ridden by myself far more competently.

What was your argument for ignoring videos of me riding my boards while concentrating on video of those who have not reached a competent level?




The video does not show that the board is slow, and re turning the riders are beginners, they are trying to turn from too far back.... a typical error which newbies make.





An impressive comeback, compelling and well supported.

Why do you look the same as these beginners in your own videos?

I compare to an Allison, as he is my favorite LB shaper. Will's performance longboard cruises, turns, and rides perfectly.

[Roy Stuart]

Why do you look the same as these beginners in your own videos?

I don't.

I compare to an Allison, as he is my favorite LB shaper. Will's performance longboard cruises, turns, and rides perfectly.

Fortunately for you you haven't encountered the Dragon, Ghost or Makaha with myself on board or your bubble of delusion would be burst.

I'm probably related to Will by the way.

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[goosemagoo]

Oh yeah, Roy: The tunnel on your Makaha is obtuse, out of circle, lop-sided. I'm "sure" you're going to say you meant to do that.
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Let me guess, you did it because the fin is actually designed for a left point break and is not for the failed corporatized construct known as the right point break....

LMAO You owe me a monitor and a new cup of coffee.

[Roy Stuart]

It's symmetrical though, but keep trolling by all means.

http://www.roystuart.biz

[MFitz73]

Roy,

[brewengineer]

I have one video of the only few waves which I have ridden on the 13 foot Ghost, it shows the correct riding position, on waves which the malibus and shortboards can't make it through on. One major advantage i have over you in this debate is that unlike you I have not only ridden both longboard types but I surf with malibu riders all the time, so I know the difference whereas you are just assuming. In the majority of sessions the malibus simply can't make the waves which I'm making successfully. This causes the other riders a lot of frustration. It's easy to look at a video and go 'Oh yeah I'd be making that AND doing lots of turns as well' but experience shows otherwise.

What are you talking about not making it? Every LB on the east coast can easily make those waves. That swell is big compared to our normal knee high stuff. I can catch anything knee high or above using a fun shape. You have experience surfing both LB types? Since when are there only 2 types. Why do you make stuff up? Personally, I have never ridden a Malibu. I have been on a tri fin and a single fin classic style, both of which easily catch small to large waves. I don't need evidence, as there is a 40 year history of east coast surfing that shows the designs are proven to work. Will Allison has been shaping for 34+ years. I think he would be considered experienced.

[brewengineer]

I don't.



Fortunately for you you haven't encountered the Dragon, Ghost or Makaha with myself on board or your bubble of delusion would be burst.

I'm probably related to Will by the way.

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Right. You are related to a man that grew up in Louisiana and moved to NC. If your boards were in east coast swell, you probably wouldn't catch anything. I wouldn't want to be anywhere near you with those weapons.