Firewire's Linear Flex Technology -

firewire flex

its fair to consider me an experienced weekend warrior; as such i (really) don't feel flex.
should i (assuming in a turn/offdalip/stall) be?? or is the flex we are talking about an
on land thing to use as an example??

 

I feel flex (or lack of it) most under two conditions... in the pocket, and when pumping for speed. You'd intuitively think that you'd feel it most during a turn, but like it's been said... where your feet are placed is not where you'll feel flex.... all the bending that I can feel happens ahead of and behind your feet through a turn. When you're in the pocket, the whole board bends, including between your feet, and when you pump... well... every board has a resonance, and if you're pumping in time with that frequency, you can generate speed much more efficiently than if you're pumping out of sync or even against that frequency.

 

One thing....Firewire is done...I don't see many people riding them anymore...the people that I know that have them seem to hate them...I think the Firewire craze is coming to an end.

 

you must be onto something.. i was wondering why ...lost, lsd, and tomo continue to run with firewire, and now pyzel is on board as well.. must be because its a dying company with tech that doesn't work.. pure genius

 

Or maybe if it was a little stiffer on those pumping turns through the bowl we could go faster by maintaining the straighter hull lines the board had static as shaped with no bottom turn weight on it? Maybe why a fresh PU board feels quicker, snappier and has more glide than an old one. Don't know about any frequency resonance though, maybe that is you finding the angle of the keels under you heel and toe as you change rails on turns. Someone said there is a frequency resonance generator being developed by far war right now. Supposed to attract peaks and fend off snakes and chandy hangers. Can't wait.

 

(uh-oh)

since my fav hpsb is a firewire (dominator, similar outlines for jobs' new quiver) please tell
me why f/w is done…has another train left w/o me??

 

All rigid materials have a natural frequency that they vibrate at. A surfboard, even though it's a bunch of different materials put together into a single object, does too. If you've ever seen super slow motion video of guys landing airs, or surfboard sections being snapped, etc. you'd see that flex and springback clearly. Different boards, of different designs and constructions, will vibrate at different rates. If you pump a surfboard so that it's in rhythm with those vibrations you can more effectively pump for speed. Try it... you'll see. Pump your board at different speeds and you'll notice a difference in how effective the pumping is.

 

Kinda like playing music. Thanks for the insight wave guru!

 

From what i can see, Firewire is not done at all. I personally love firewire for many reasons:

1) The boards have a longer life than PU boards.
2) Firewire was the first to really embrace the concept of volume, which is now widely used by most companies.
3) They have great shapes - especially on the small wave side, which is great for EC
4) My favorite surf shop stocks them, so that helps too! hah
5) They are all about innovations - for better or worse, it's great to see companies trying new tech. Some tech will be better than others, but surfboard tech will never go anywhere without companies willing to push the envelope.

 

I am just writing without thinking....and I am probably wrong...!!!!!!!!

 

one reason i chose f/w is that they were (are) doing the right things w/respect to volume w/respect
to larger surfers. i weigh about 215 lbs but i fear w/that stoopid new jersey michelin man outfit i might
weigh as much as 250 lbs when i am actually catching a wave…just CANNOT make a 2.5" stick go…..

at the far outer reaches of this topic; anybody check out jjfs' equipment….that he does WHAT HE DOES on
those micro-chips, eeeeeekks!

 

i don't think they're done at all. the construction & materials aren't my personal cup of tea, but the company seems to be shifting focus a bit...seen lots of small wave hybrid performance type shapes from them over the last 2 or 3 years rather than the rockered out hpsb type shapes. i think that's the area where most people are willing to experiment w/ design & construction. not so much when the surf gets good, at least around here, b/c it gets good so rarely. & yes, as previously mentioned, they got the ball rolling on the volume thing, which has helped out so many surfers, including me.

 

this thread is way over my head, but I do think of a proper pu board having tensile strength, which deteriorates through use. flex, but just the right amount. don't do 75 with my hot stick on the roof.

i just always felt that whole tuflite/epoxy/firewire/coil stuff was too good to be true, a reinvent the wheel thing, like quads vs. thrusters. I always hear claims these new things will make the old things obsolete.and quads have not replaced thrusters.

this makes me hypocritical, since everything I choose to surf came from the same kind of experimentation innovation. I like singles and twins, and i'm hypocritical, since innovation experimentation got me my short channel-bottom pe/pu.

mostly I like this thread, from the radicals of the new si. keep the boring posts/threads coming. truly innovative,like, what a concept!

 

beachie... a couple thoughts on your last post...

If you know that a pu board's strength deteriorates over time, you're already ahead of the game, and this thread is not over your head, brother.

Although the quad thing has come full circle, refinements in design and materials have made the concept more relevant than ever, particularly at the low end of the ridability spectrum. Which, I would say, is just an extension of the fish concept. I'd even go so far as to say that nearly ALL small wave performance boards owe something to the fish... shorter, wider, flatter, thicker... and without center fins.

 

you just called me beachie. I like quads sometimes too. or even with a nubster. and thrusters when it's gnarly. and bonzers. all were once experimental innovations. and the fish. greenough spoon with flex, greenough high aspect ratio fin, steve lis kneeboard standup fish, reno abellira fish, MR twin, mctavish, magic sam, then one day simon came along and we would pull off turns we only imagined scribbling when we were supposed to be taking math notes in class...so I guess go firewire,go coil...I still like pu human shaped best with no computer

 

around the year 2000 i chose surf tech products and later/now i use firewire. i haven't broken or dinged a
board in about the last 14 years. see 'ya ding repairman…..

 

Trouble with Firewire is they test their construction methods on the unwashed masses as they go along releasing boards without much testing in the real world nose diving and crashing public. A lot of dudes bought those things thinking they would not break or ding justifying the big price tag. Early ones with the PU sheet foam were absolute crap breaking, delaming and turning brown on the rack. I watched our local shop replace a dozen as these kids would crash and snap them in mere days. They were thinking they were buying a Ferrari surfboard but bought a Tesla that burned on the side of the road. Then the corecell wrapped boards with gobs of white paint on the foam to make them stay white that delamed in a week. Timbertek boards that delam and gives you splinters with every sesh (bare wood with just resin that falls off?). Can't help to think the best bang for the buck is straight up PU wood stringer shaped on a machine. The 7 ply maple skate deck of surfing. Cheap and disposable. 20 great sessions, 40 meh sessions, and 15 "F this thing" seshs. Unless your seshies consist of a lot of paddling and few actual stand up rides of course.