Select to expand quote
Another great read from Swellnet -- those boys are putting together a nice catalogue of readings if you ask me.
10 foot 6: The number of the beast
/images/misc/forum-image-missing.gif Oh
Dear god you should hold one of these things! 10 foot 6 inches of foam, fibreglass, and fin wrapped in three layers of six ounce glass housing the most beautiful stringers you'll ever lay your eyes upon.It's the modern BIG wave board. And it's all yours.if you want it.Tucked under your arm at just the right angle it feels oh-so-good, and within a second your mind starts to believe you really could ride one of these things in the manner for which it was intended. But shuffle that sucker just an inch or so either way...the balance shifts, it becomes heavy, awkward, scary even, and the reality of what, and who, it was made for becomes frighteningly apparent. The bubble's been burst and best you put that thing back in the rack, slowly...it ain't for you.But the fact is, that 10'6" and perhaps about 100 or so worldwide were made for someone. A handful were destroyed at Jaws a couple weeks ago but the rest are currently asleep waiting for the next purple blob to appear to appear on the wave models. And if you were to hazard a guess at who or what was partially responsible for the modern big wave board what'd be your pick?Dorian? Yep, for sure, but try again. Jaws? Mmm, sorta. The retro movement of the late 2000s...? Bingo! Well, so says John Carper anyway. And if the same guy who crafts boards for Dorian to ride at Jaws says so, it's probably worth a listen."In a way we had to go back before we went forward," Carper told Swellnet from his Oahu shaping bay."And it kind of all started with a couple of retro fishy type boards I shaped a while back. They had a lot of volume; real straight rocker and those real full beaked noses that were common back in the seventies. Anyway, all the guys like Rasta, Andy (Irons) and Shane (Dorian) were having a blast on them at pretty solid Backdoor and Pipe and finding they just wouldn't pearl. About the same time we were trying to figure out a way for Shane to deal with those massive chops in the face at Jaws and I figured, let's just put this in the guns and see what happens."History now shows the little "see what happens" experiment worked, but Carper says there was a lot of back and forth between himself and Dorian before the magic started to happen."Initially we went up to 12-to-13 foot boards but the feedback indicated that was just too much board," says Carper."So it was just a matter of careful refinement till we got what we were chasing. The most frustrating part was that each of those boards I shaped had to basically equal 10 boards 'cos I make so few. I've literally made thousands and thousands and thousands of 6'1 squash tails but only a handful of these [the 10'6's], so I'd spend up to four hours designing and redesigning the board on my computer before sending it to the shaping machine to be cut." /images/misc/forum-image-missing.gif
When the dust finally settled, there sat a beast of a board measuring 10'6" x 21 inches wide x 3.75 inches thick. Flipped over, the bottom reveals very little rocker with a straight "vee" profile running through the length of the board which was glassed with three layers top and bottom of six ounce glass and a quad fin set-up.Carper says this year's quiver were fairly similar to the original landmark board save for a fraction extra width and a touch more thickness."It all comes down to Shane and the guys wanting to "surf" those waves, not just ride them," Carper says. "And the level of confidence is so high with those guys that I think we'll now see some experimenting going on within that magic number."Which is exactly what is starting to happen an island away in Sean Ordonez's shaping bay on Maui. Ordonez is responsible for the boards underneath the feet of some of Maui's finest, including Albee Layer, Matt Meola and Paige Alms. He, like Carper, says the push for continual refinement stems from his teams' urge to get barrelled at macking Jaws."A very important advancement that came out last season was a new style of nose riding gun that can be ridden a foot shorter than previously,'' says Ordonez. "For example, I had Albee Layer riding a 10'2 and 10'4 last season and this year he's already comfortable on a 9'4" and an 8'8". It all stems from the new breed of young charging surfers who have that under the lip take off approach into the barrel that I guess they picked up from body boarders."And with the first Jaws swell of the season out of the way Ordonez was quick to seek any feedback from his riders."The new widths and lengths worked really well. Paige and Nokoa (Decoite) were particularly excited about the smoothness which gave them extra confidence to charge," Ordonez reports. "I asked Albee what I could change to improve the 8'8" he was riding and he paused and didn't answer which I deduced means he like it as is!".
One of Australia's leading big wave shapers, Marty Littlewood, was just as quick to pick up and run with the idea that an increased thickness was the obvious step forward in big board design. So much so his supplier Burford Blanks had to add more volume to its thickest available blank, bringing it up to 4 ?" which allowed Littlewood to get a finished thickness of four inches."There's more volume and weight in the boards now for sure, and that's been the biggest addition to what we've known for a long time," says Littlewood. "Outlines and rockers have been sorted for ages but now with all the outside bombies being surfed everyone's looking for paddle power," he says.One of Littlewood's most recent boards for Damon Eastaugh measures 10'6" x 21 ? x 4" and is set up with a Grant "Twiggy" Baker signature double foiled fin set. Like most of Littlewood's boards, it was machine shaped a couple clicks up the road in fellow big wave board shaping veteran Al Bean's shaping bay. And like Carper, the underside of Littlewood's boards reveal nothing too radical other than a tried and tested design."As for the bottom contour it's vee, vee and more vee going to a rolled vee in the front third and I'm now starting to put a double concave in the belly," he says. "The double concave seems to work really well with the additional weight of those boards and just helps to build up momentum which is what you want when you're hunting down a 20 plus footer."And as for fin set up, Littlewood is convinced quads will begin to gain popularity once they are proven amongst Margaret River's big wave elite. "Quads are coming and I can see the point to them," he says."But I only make what people ask for, I certainly don't try and point anyone in any direction 'cos we're dealing with waves of serious consequence and I don't want that responsiblilty!"And what story about big waves and big boards would be complete without referencing Jeff "Camel" Goulden who recently returned to Margaret River to trial a stash of new big boards shaped by East Coast shaper, Wayne Webster. Swellnet bumped into Camel in the car park at Mainbreak shortly after he'd put a new 9'6'' quad through its paces in silky smooth conditions out at Southsides.Though always known for his prowess in big waves, Camel has indeed stepped things up a notch or two of late, in part, he says, due to an increased confidence in board design due to the partnership with Webster, who also shapes for Grant "Twiggy'' Baker. And the partnership has already paid dividends, with Camel putting in some incredible performances out at Cow Bombie and other southwest bombies of late."I went through a stage where I rode any type of board I could find that was bigger than 10 foot. These boards are basically an accumulation of that and they're the closest I've ever gotten to the boards that I've always wanted," says Camel. "I'll ride them in all sorts of conditions and try all the different fin set ups so when it's on.I know exactly what I'm doing."Indeed he does, as a brace of recent XXL nominations will attest to. Camel offers the board for inspection and it certainly is a thing of beauty and much heft. Yet held under arm at just the right point it feels light as a feather.The board is returned and Camel wanders off through the car park, tucking the future of big wave surfing gently into the back of a Landcruiser. Oh dear god you should hold one of those things! //ANTHONY PANCIA
Ted the Kiwi
> 9 months ago, 2 Dec 2014
