Topics

1

Random / JD, don't look at this!

« on: January 20, 2013, 04:22:03 AM »

A Croc eating a Croc...

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4373497/Alligator-eats-Croc-br-but-its-just-a-shoe.html

2

Gear Talk / Adding straps to a SUP

« on: July 20, 2012, 08:13:35 AM »

Patrice Guénolé has made a step-by-step guide on how to do it in pictures.

First step is a dose of your favorite beverage to lift the inhibitions and shutdown your "reasonable behavior" inner guide :-)

All photos at: http://www.gongsup.com/SUPstrap-Fatal-6-10.html

The white stuff is microsphere fillings mixed with epoxy. Drilling & gluing was done in the evening, Sanding and finishing in the morning

An appetizer:

Before:



After:

3

Technique / Paddling on ShortSUPs

« on: May 05, 2012, 07:44:47 AM »

Here are some tips to be able to paddle hard on ShortSUPs (less than 7')

• Try to imagine a nail (grey on the picture) sticking the tail of the board in the water at the position of the front fins. The board will pivot around it.
• Paddling normally (pink arrow) means the push will go right of the nail, making the board go left: the row effect you want to suppress
• What you want is to direct your effort more towards the board, so that the push follow the green arrow that hits the nail or go left of it. This way, the board goes straight, or even turns towards the paddle, even if you apply all your forces
• You are actually limited in paddle travel range by the board, so you must apply all the effort in less than a foot (blue part of the green arrow), then let the paddle move along the rail and get it out of the water as soon as possible. The paddle blade seem to go through a comma or C shaped trajectory, hence the name of "C stroke" (although actually the blade does not move in the water, it is your body that moves around it)
• If the board is not moving, the nail is about the middle of the board, so for the first stroke, you should exaggerate and make the arrow go through the carrying handle, but once the board moves, even a little bit, the fins grip and the nail "moves" back to the tail. On longer SUPs, the nail is so far back that the arrow naturally goes through it, this is why it is easy to counter the row effect on longer SUPs, and why if you move the fin back, you have less row: you have moved the nail with the fin. Note also that beginners will always have row as long as they row parallel to the board (pink arrow), even with a 1-mile SUP, their arrow will never meet the nail.
• ShortSUPs are very sensitive to body weight longitudinally, so you must move back on the board to lift the nose before applying power, which will push the nose in the water
• For take off, use the same kind of technique: get in surf position on the trim line of the wave, and "jump into action" with one big powerful stroke going through the nail. All the weight on the front foot, rear foot as far back as the wave is powerful, even on the tail block for extra late take offs
• Very important: practice on flat water before trying it in the waves,and begin with small, gentle waves!

Note: the paddle is nearly one foot too long, it was a borrowed one. The paddle length should be your height, no more. The board is a Gong Angel 6'4" 2011, 111 liters for my 100kg.

4

Gear Talk / C-Drive fins

« on: February 18, 2012, 02:33:55 AM »

I have been experimenting a lot with fins, and I think I have found ones that I really like: the C-Drives http://www.cdrivefins.com/







They give you a solid, positive grip at low speed, reducing row, and avoiding "squirelling" of the tail in heavy late take offs, where you do not have the luxury to start paddling early, so you drop in with relatively low water speed at the start and can spin out easily. But due to their short length and low tip area, they do not tend to "foil" at high speed, keeping the rear foot nimble and in control. And the rake at the tip  helps control in turns.

I am still experimenting, but I tend to oversize them on short (less than 7') "fish/simmons/wombat" boards for added "pumpability" speed and control (fast rocker, wide tail, volume in rails, hard tucked under edges), for instance with twins front and grommet back in quad configuration, and to undersize them (L for my 100kg) on "mini gun" shapes (more than 8', heavy rocker, thin rails, thin tails) to keep the board lively and with natural speed. I ended up buying a bit of every model, and changing fins around a lot to test.

Putting them on a board does not give you an instant revelation (well, you will notice less row effect), but the more you use them, the more you like them. My guess is that they work much better than normal fins in the extreme situations, they allow you to push the envelope, whether on insane vertical drops, or cranking a top turn on the rail, but you will not see much difference in normal situations. So the first time you try them you may say "so what?", but when you hit a tight spot you will say "whoa, I didn't knew I was so good" :-) These fins will bring you confidence.

Also the guy making them is really passionate and pleasant to interact with, and you can order any spare fins. The fins are quality built, very strong with many thin layers of fibers. So strong that I would not like to fall on them, and I advise you to sand a bit the trailing edge to spare your leash...

I now only use C-Drives on all my multi-finned boards.