Speaking Of DIMPLES.....

Cool just like a golf ball.

 

Did he actually say dimpled bottom, or just new technology? THE place to find Coil info is on the Swaylocks Coil Ride Reports forum, and there's been no mention of it...

 

Hahahaha! Some of you may be old enough to remember that dimple-bottomed boards have been tried before... in the late 80s!! (with less than stellar results)

The problem is that the same principle of lift that applies to golf balls does not translate directly to planing surfaces. If this were the case, you could be sure that ship and boat builders would already be designing all of our vessels with dimpled bottoms.

Thinking about fins similarly, one would think that this design would've already popped up in other applications. It still seems to me that foil is more critical to the lift/drag ratio. Nevertheless, more power to these guys. I'm always in favor of folks trying to find ways to advance our sport. On the flip side, it'd be a shame for a company to take advantage of folks lack of knowledge, intending to make their money selling a "gimmick" that in no way advances our craft.

It'd be great if someone affiliated with 3Dfins could post with more explanation of how they think the dimples are helping. Same with anyone proposing to bring back dimple-bottomed boards.

Merry Christmas Dudes!

 

Anyone remember "speed spray" from the late 1980s early 1990s?....same principle. Spray applicant that went on the bottom of your board and give it a textured surface that supposedly broke up the laminar flow right along the surface for more speed. AND could easily be removed after you realized it made no difference, unlike the dimples that also got a little play back then.

 

I concur.....Wouldn't dimples on a planning surface catch water, making bubbles which would in turn cause drag???

 

Well let me know how they work out for ya Brah.....

 

While the bottoms of boats and ships aren't "dimpled", the anti-fouling bottom paint provides this texture. If you have ever touched the bottom of a boat, it is anything but smooth. There are new bottom paints coming out that actually increase the "roughness" of the finished coat, to add more "lift".

 

I did a little checking and found more and more debate. Swaylocks has some good discussion, so do several sailing threads. Most of what I'm reading from reputable sources seems to indicate that the intended effect of reducing drag/increasing speed is minuscule at best when applied to small, slow moving planing surfaces (like surfboards/fins). The "worst" case scenario suggests that the effect is the reverse of that which is intended, increasing drag. Having witnessed it 1st-hand, I can say that the BIG dimple bottomed boards of the late 80s & 90s fell into this category. I hope and pray that no board-builder is trying to bring these dogs back from the grave.


What seems to be missing from the debate is any engineering or scientific literature discussing testing methodologies and results. My guess is that, for the surfing industry, it's not worth the expense of rigorously testing a prototype in order to verify and document the claimed improvements. It's much easier & less expensive (even profit-making) to user test the technology and let the market decide. To use the old saying, "Just keep throwing s#@t against the wall and see what sticks."

Like wave1rider65 and others, I think I'll sit this one out and see what happens... Hell, maybe we'll all have a Titleist in our quivers one day!

 

the small dimples cause areas of cavitation to occur, vaporizing water into air in it's path (seen as little white bubbles). Sometimes this can be a good thing. Resistance though air is less than water. If you can use the effect of caviation to your advantage, you can basically ride under water in a bubble. It's actually one of those cool things that man learned from nature, watch some youtube videos of dolphins creating air pockets and riding in them. It's amazing. Now the navy uses it for making underwater torpedo's and **** go faster. Cavitation that is, not dimples...

The way the golf ball works is similar, not only do the dimples regulate spin but also tiny areas of turbulence form in the dimples all around the ball causing it to "float".

har har

 

Hi All, So stoked to see you frothing on our dimple fins. Dimples really work!! The key to understanding why Dimples work is in the size of the dimples. If they are too big or too small it creates more resistance (Drag) when they are just right size they create less resistance (speed) while producing more hold. We have used a program called Computational Fluid Dynamics (which is such an advancement from tank testing, its like comparing the horse and cart to a jet plane) to prove up our theories before going into production. Kerzzy has been pushing us to make the dimples the best for everyone who rides them, and had such confidence, he rode them in a WCT for the first time at Pipe, beating Kelly twice and getting his best Career result 2nd. We have had a 100% result of surfers saying it makes them go faster, which has blown us away, but from the test results does not surprise us. You tend to have doubts until it becomes a reality. Dimples will become a standard for fins over the next few years. We are just about to sign an american distributor and they will be everywhere, but in the mean time if you go to 3dfins.com I will ship from Australia free for all American, cheers Tom

 

Has anyone riden the new coils with "kick" (the dimples)? Looking for some feedback.....