Concave on the bottom of your board .

I'm taking this to PR on friday for its maiden surf. I will let you know how the channels work. Forecast is OH

 

I've had good success with channel bottoms... I happen to like them on small wave boards, in combination with smaller fins and more rocker than your typical flat-rockered grovelers. Here's a section on channel bottoms that I wrote a couple of years ago in a chapter on bottom contours:

Channel Bottoms

Like concaves, channel bottoms are designed, in theory, to direct water flow from nose to tail and in doing so, generate more drive and speed. They may also facilitate some ventilation or introduce some boundary layer turbulence, depending on their shape and length. But unlike concaves, channels do not alter rocker in any significant manner. Rather, channels are simply wedge shaped grooves shaped into the existing bottom of the board, whether it be flat, concave or (rarely) convex. The channels are most often toed in at the same angle as the rail fins, and may be uniform in width, or flared slightly from entry to exit. Typically 4 to 8 grooves are shaped into the bottom of the board through the tail section only, although some channel bottoms can begin to fade in at about the middle of the board. The long and deeper the channels, the more their effects are felt. The channels may fade out behind the trailing fin, or may run right off the tail rails and out the tail block. The trailing fin most often sits on the peak created by the two centermost channels, and the rail fins may sit within a channel, or on the edge of a channel.

Most commonly used on boards for small to medium surf, channel bottoms are effective in creating more hold and drive, but at speed have a tendency to become tracky. To compensate for this trackiness would require accelerated rocker, smaller fins, or a narrower tail, all of which would effectively undo what small wave boards are designed to do – plane higher, flatter and faster in weak or small surf. Still, channels do provide excellent hold on steep sections, conserve speed through turns, and add heaps of drive, and so modest accommodations can be made: smaller fins and (because bottom channels, like rail channels, tend to stiffen a board) a touch more rocker are common combinations with this design.

 

theoretically, they should go like hell in the barrel.

i almost want to say i remember tom carroll using them on his boards to great effect in the mid-80s.


edit:LBCrew absolutely nailed it, btw.

 

looks like walden's patented "magic bottom", to me. chine rails paired w/ double concaves. seems to keep the board nice & lively while allowing for a bit of extra width for stability. the "magic bottom", w/ the chine rails, allows the board to "turn like a narrower board" b/c the edge of the rail is tucked so far under the board, usu. 1-2". b/c of this, the OG "magic model" is very popular w/ the weekend warrior & beginner-intermediate set. makes them feel like they're better than they are.

 

Hah! That sounds about right. Thanks. From 12-21 i was a surf addict. But at 22 I joined the military.After an 8 year commitment to the Marines and no surfing I got back into it in 2009. I got a thin narrow short board and I sucked. In 2011 I got that thing and it definitely helped me find my mojo again. Now I ride a copy of the hypto krypto and love it. Your knowledge helps me understand why I can throw loose turns so easily on that thing.

 

glad to help. these types of discussions are what drew me in & kept me posting here in the first place. the reality show-like drama & pissing contests, not so much. i've posted more in the last 24-48hrs than in the previous week.

also, thanks for serving!

 

I would like to see more threads involving surf discussion as well. This one was good and I learned a few things and saw some good pics.

 

Is that a Richard Price design? It looks really fast. I used to surf Natural Arts designed by R.P. and loved them.

 

it's sad that threads like this will go for a few pages, 5 tops, but the trainwrecks go on for dozens of pages & constantly clog up the front page of the forum.

 

i cannot wait to hear a ride report on this board! i've been thinking that my next hpsb should be a 6 channel.

 

Yes, it's a Richard Price shaped custom for PR for me. Its not a hpsb though, its a 6"8 step up for big PR. Forecast is HH but its usually a cpl feet bigger than forecast so I think I'm gonna bring it. Also its poly, Price says they are better for bigger surf instead of eps. I tend to not tell him anything more than length, where I will be surfing it, how much I weigh. He knows better than me about all the rest. This thread did make me get out a flat edge to see where the concave starts and its WAY up near the front. I may take pics of the straight edge on the concave if you're interested.

 

If you don't bring that thing to PR you will regret it. when you find yourself dropping in a little too steep deep and late and don't make it. you'll say to your self " I would have made that if only I had...". They are super fast and really stick in the face of the wave. They also really keep speed on cut backs. I have a 6'2" Byrning Spear Spear double wing swallow channel bottom that gets surfed rarely here but always goes in the bag for surftrips.

 

Please send pics. I am debating between an Orion, CI, or a R.P. on my next custom step up shape. I don't mind when it's typical waist to chest semi mush to ride my home made fish, but when it gets good I leave it to the pros to make me a sled that will take a late drop and get down the line, and still be able to cutback with power without losing speed. The rounded tail on your board looks barrel friendly. Go steep and stay deep brah.

 

out in the cold - but wanting to come in….

i read it all - enjoyably (really) - but still left the dinner table feeling hungry.i have enuf experience to know that some (or many) of you know your ****; with respect to channels
and the holy grail of speed i think it was musical chairs and i was left standing…due, i guess,
to (repeated) poor equipment choice. i was always NOT INTO competition, as such always
(of course) had to fork out so I REMEMBER the stix that didn't go…sorry if this devolved into
rant….if there is an upside its that bad choices likely led to better focus on equipment.

 

This is my second RP. For a hpsb I ride his transformer2 6"0 eps 5 box squash. That is hands down the best board I have ever ridden. I don't know what it is about that board but it does everything I ask it to from 2 ft to well OH. I had a few custom orions too but prefer RP. Go to the RP website and read up.

 

Roger that!

 

well, like anything, channel bottoms are not for everyone. personally, i prefer bonzers, but not everyone likes them. keep an open mind, take a "live & learn" approach to boards, & you'll figure out what you like & don't like pretty quickly.

 

while we're on the subject, any of you guys who've had channel bottom boards had one set up as a quad? i'm thinking that if i do end up ordering one i might set it up w/ a 5 pack of boxes.

 

I rode a rip curl 5"8 quad squash with channels in the late 80s. I loved it but interestingly enough there were 4 channels and they were in the middle of the board. They did not go out the tail. They were in the center1/3 of the board. It was fast and a great board

 

No, but I can tell you that I had to sand down the tabs of the FCS side fins so they fit in the slots without a gap.they sit in the channel so they kinda sit weird.