photos courtesy of Jeff Johnson
Jeff Johnson and I got a little fire lit under our butts yesterday afternoon and whipped out a new 7'2 for him. Lately I've been wanting to shape a more pinned out version of my 7'4 pocket pleaser, and he was looking for something along the lines of what mr.Alex Knost is riding these days. We had a little chat about the plus' and minus' of each design and the intentions/realities behind them and decided to get mowing. I used 4 extremely different templates to find the curves we were after, then gave it a funkadelic foil and bottom shape much like my current v.Bowls'. A lot of the current boards have three very distinct areas of the template curve and that's the thorn in my paw with them, so I smoothed it into a more flowing arc but left just enough hips and straights to get the speed and turning that we were after.
I have some reservations about the current theory that's being put to use in these types of designs right now; everyone seems very anti-concave and I think that's pretty ridiculous...it's great to be 'oldschool' but why totally ignore the benefits of 40+ years of trial and error if its going to give your board a more responsive feel? To me its the difference between stop-and-start surfing (within these types of designs) and powerful, connected lines. I'm not talking an entirely concave bottom, just hints in specific areas to transform the design into a modern vehicle.
All confused ranting aside, I'm really stoked on how Jeff's board came out and even more excited to see it glide!
