posts: 135680
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| post_id | thread_id | thread_title | post_number | author_username | post_date | post_date_iso | post_body |
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| 135680 | 4461 | Stoker V machine - Fowler or Anderson? | 78 | Bruce Fowler | Aug 16, 2018 | 2018-08-16T11:01:12-0400 | View attachment IMG_4714.jpg View attachment IMG_2949.jpg View attachment IMG_3707.jpg View attachment IMG_2612.jpg View attachment IMG_3718.jpg View attachment IMG_4463.jpg View attachment STEP DECK GLASSING STAND.jpg View attachment IMG_4907.jpg View attachment IMG_4821.jpg View attachment IMG_3741.jpg There's really NO set hard rule for exact placement. I suggest placement and I did a work up placing the fin boxes relative to the board's length so the fins could NOT be placed farther back like what you might find on many longboards. I have always emphasized the point that the "V8" isn't a longboard, nor should it be ridden like a longboard! Control is gained by riding the boards closer toward center of the board. As you fudge your foot positioning back, the boards become looser and looser...... I intentionally designed the V8 that way to allow the rider to experiment with the ride. So looser & looser to the point of squirreliness and even controlled power sliding and inevitable spinout. Yes...... spinout. This is something I wanted to retain in the design as an homage to the original v bottoms. Back in the late 60's the boards were dubbed "spinout queens" and even "the boards that didn't work". Not a fair statement in my book...... truth is, when G&S picked up Midget's design and produced them in the states, they sold thousands of them, primarily in Florida & the eastern seaboard. The boards worked really well in 1 to 5 ft. surf. Midget's original board had a deep hatchet fin that he designed to "promote drift". So I stayed true with that in my reworked updated design, then took it further. While it is true that everything comes around that goes around that comes around that....... well, you catch my drift (pun intended) this saying doesn't mean you have to confine yourself to making something retro that can't expand upon the original design - that's what I state in my original write ups while introducing this design direction. At 66, what I have found while walking, running, swimming, surfing the planet is while many things are imaginative or creative, very few things are truly original. A large part of our lives are what I call "reruns". How many times have you........ driven to work, taken a dump, slept, or eaten a hamburger? I explain to people that "I make rides, lots of different rides" and that variety is my offering that interested parties can study, consider, demo, reject or embrace....... case in point is my "Platypus Pig".... I was making these 30+ years ago. I don't know how old Ryan (Lovelace) is, but I doubt he was shaping in 1985 to '88... but I commend him for his creativity and looking back while pushing his ideas forward. You have to be brave, or at least have resources to step out of line and make things outside of the box. I think Ryan and many true surfboard designers would feel as I do, that it is better to have surfers either embrace or reject your design(s) than to be indifferent. Like my fin recommendations for V8, I have heard comments from guys here on Jamz & elsewhere comment that they "didn't 'get' their V Bowls until they moved their feet around and found the sweet spot"....... well, my Platypus doesn't have any dead spots, but I've had years to work those things out on that particular design. Fin placement on the V8's are kind of like finding the sweet spot on Ryan's design, or anyone else's design for that matter. Years ago my room mate brought home a beautiful lightweight 7'4" Barry Kanaiapuni board, and when he let me ride it, for the life of me, I could not get the board going at all..... then my foot hit the right spot and the board was going Mach 4 and I was carving square like BK intended!!! I can't say that board was "user friendly" but man did it rip when surfed the way it was intended. So, as another friend once said, "it's the new boards, the new sensations a surfboard offers that keeps you surfing", and I think there is a lot of truth to that. P.S. Yes, the little V8's originally had 10" fin boxes in them, but I have changed ALL of them to the 15" long box to allow more fine tuning with the wide based fins. |