Tomos new bottom

LBCrew · Nov 5, 2017

Mitchell said: ↑

It took me glassing a lot of boards to realize you can leave the blank with a pretty soft bottom rail edge (easier to laminate and get the cloth to wrap cleanly and not tend to want to lift) and then create the hard edges where you want them in the hot coat step. Its a lot easier to get resin to form a hard edge through taping and sanding, than to get cloth to wrap around a hard edge.

As far as chines go, i see their purpose as being more to keep the mid-forward rails from overly interacting with the water while going down the line on a relatively straight direction. I feel like they are hard to shape, easy to glass, hard to sand out.
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Yea... Even if you shape a hard edge, it loses it's crispness when you glass it. You always have to tape and sand to get it back. When I was shaping a lot of boards, the glasser told me not to shape the hard edge for the reason you described... harder to glass without getting a bubble at the edge. So I shape them in, then soften them when I "polish" the blank before blowing it off and glassing.

Chines do change water flow around the rail, too. They also reduce planing surface a bit around mid board, and make it easier to roll over onto a rail when turning. The down side is... I don't think they work in the barrel very well. Or on really steep parts of the wave anytime. At least that's been my experience.

Channels... and I mean typical 4 or 6 channel bottom boards, do control and direct water flow out the tail, much in the same way concaves do, but more effectively. They also break up that boundary layer a bit, so many people think they're just faster all around. For me, they do have more hold and drive and speed through turns, but only in smaller waves, and you have to downsize your fins or they get "tracky," at least on a hpsb. For me, they work best in small to medium waves. In bigger waves (and I know for a fact this is just me, not a general rule) I need more fin area. I get going so fast that I spin out and lose it on a lot of drops. Other people don't seem to have that problem, though. I think it's my tendency to not surf with a back footed style... I'm more even front and back foot, and use my rail more than my fins and tail.

BassMon2 · Nov 5, 2017

I can understand that. With my mini if i take it out in like chest to shoulder high stuff with some push.....i start red lining the board. Granted its not a "good wave" board, but as long as it's not super steep the board can still perform. But when you add a powerful wave to the speed of the board, its to much to handle at my skill level. Too fast. Although i do like trying to tame the thing in such conditions.

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Tomos new bottom

LBCrew Well-Known Member

BassMon2 Well-Known Member