Symmetry has very little to do with a surfboard working well. How often are you ever going perfectly straight on a wave?
It probably has NOTHING to do with how well a surfboard works, really. But as part of the Discipline of Craftsmanship & Handshaping, we pay great heed to it nonetheless.
Shaped a mini twin we are calling "Echo" for Derek Thomas. Dropping into glassing today for colorwork & glassing then if the plan goes right he is on a plane to Costa Rica to hook up with Robbie @ Olo Alaia in Nosara to share some music & promo the new BF sleds hitting Olo Alaia Surf & Brew. Should be a fun time for tunes, surf 7 fondling new sleds.
"Echo" is 5'3"x19-7/8"x2-1/8". Single concave 1/4' deep runs thru bottom feeding into a double concave with vee at the split tail tips 9" apart tip to tip. My guess is about 27 liters. Derek is a fit, strong paddler at 160 lbs. The twon Futures boxes will be set at 6-1/4" up from the tail. DT likes twinnies and the rails & bottom should allow him to do some deep barrel carving.
Here's a few snapshots b4 i misplaced my phone & the battery went dead.......... tried google's "find my device" and it beeped loudly for 30 seconds before the battery gave out......... now dead silence! Gonna have to scour the place to find it. In the meantime the board got finish shaped and its off to Haakenson's to get her done and onto the silver bird for tropicana.
The Platypus, or Plattys as I call them were a shape I started playing with around 40 yrs. ago. I wanted more maneuverability from a single fin, which they delivered up quite well. That was right around the time Simon Anderson came out with his three fin "Thruster" which ended up changing the landscape of surfboards for quite awhile.
Now we are back to anything & everything in search of fun & high performance.
How does this board design differ from Lovelace's vBowls or rBowls?
Definitely more user friendly.
Forward rails are less knifey,, which Ryan cites for slicing into the wave face. Platypus are thinned but more almond or roundish, which still penetrate the wave face but are less sensitive to direction changes. The Platty nose is less hullish, just a smidge up front but generally flatter, planing up quickly & more versatile in less than stellar waves. Both boards have their wide points well behind center for that "cockpit" feel. Both designs have carefully positioned round bottoms producing a sensation of surfing on "ball bearings".
I've noticed Ryan has placed his round bottom more forward of the rider's stance whereas mine is focused with a flat into round directly under the rider's stance, with the roundness lessening or decreasing approaching the tail block. This generates a tremendous amount of speed, traction & the ability to project. Laterally, the round plane meets an extremely hard, vertical rail that runs the length of the cockpit area. This allows hte board to carry speed effortlessly versus Ryan's comments that "you have to carefully manage your speed with vBowls."
Additionally, I have placed my "rocker apex" shift back under the rider's feet which provides a nice "lever action" not dissimilar to a well riding longboard that swivels easily. This allows the board to remain maneuverable even at low speeds so commonly found with soft, gutless waves. With all the other features, the design can turn on a dime and still maintain speed..... not commonly found with most single fins out there.
I threw a 6'9" Platty to Chad Marshall (see the blue one in the pix) several years ago to play with. The comments that came back rangd from "super fun", "most drive from a single compared to a tri fin", "fast in the cockpit feeling" and my favorite "GOT THE BIGGEST AIR OF MY LIFE ON THAT BOARD!".
The best surfboards I've ever owned feel "invisible" - meaning that YOU are surfing the board, the board isn't surfing you. Plattys do that. Think where you wanna go, and Platypus takes you there!
A range of fins work on this board, with the go to fin being a Greenough Stage IV-A followed by others like the Futures Tiller Flex, an Alex Knost fin and for an upright high area fin with lots of traction, the Campbell Bonzer single fin. Most these fins have their own inherent leverage at the base which generates speed along the lines of a keel fin but more maneuverable & less definitive.
The yellow board pictured is an EPS Epoxy S Glass build I did for a doctor in Frankfurt that he & his gf own a quiver of my boards. They travel quite a bit, including duplicate boards he ordered to store at his parent's house in Spain.
The newest Platty pictured here is for Kyle, an 8'0"x22-1/4"x3" that I sent down via Amtrak yesterday to Union Station. He was gonna grab it last night and make tracks for Sano today and the week end. Ride Report forthcoming.
Other Platypus pictured including the old Aboriginal pen & ink logo updated with a bolder more graphic version. All good fun these sleds........ I'm currently shaping up a group of them for Wave Front Ventura including a DEMO so the TRY BEFORE YOU BUY experience can be had at your convenience.
Oh, and if you are so inclined,, you won't have to wait a small percentage of your lifetime to get a handshaped one from me.
Your 8'6" Mega New Machine is gonna glide like a 10'0" but you'll step back on the new tail section & pop a vert like nobody's business. Acceleration thru the 2nd half of Turns & Cutties will have other guys doing double takes, wondering & wanting. Isophthalic Resin & S Glass Premium Build will net a crazy strong & lively ride!!!!
There's NO comparison to the new stuff & what I was putting in Mollusk a few years ago. Those guys had their day and can peddle the old stuff from pop out city.
Here's a peek at what's just around the corner. 10'0" High Density Red Foam/Basswood T Bands out @ the Rails with a Cedar Center Stringer for that Classic Look & Feel. More sister ships in the 8'6" to 10'0" range on their way thru glassing. All unique, special, one of a kind. No puppy mill here....
Thanks for representing...................... V8, New Machine, & the Platty. Greatly appreciated the feedback!
I haven't posted in awhile, so here's an update. Derek was intrigued with the Stinger I had done as part of the model line up for Aviator Nation. He told me there was a 6-10 ft. swell forecast for Mexico hitting Monday and lasting thru Wednesday.
His 6'8" had been heavily surfed when he went down for the BF launch of sleds at Olo Alaia in Nosara, costa Rica. It was a great promo and owner Robbie & Derek connected, represented, & had a grat time. Derek has a clinic centered around Yoga, Breathing & Health and Nosara is very much a Yoga, Health, & Surfing community. He also performed his special brand of music at Robbie's shop as well as a few gigs Robbie got lined up for him.
Then it was off to Nicaragua where he put his sleds thru their paces. The 6'8" got buckled & repaired a couple times and he had guys down there that wanted to buy it, so one lucky soul picked it up for chump change. That left him with his 5'3" twinny that we call "Echo", his 5'6" & 6'0" New Machines.
In anticipation of this Mex swell, I jumped in the shaping room & cranked out a 6'6" New Machine, then on a lark, decided to add a 6'10" Stinger to his quiver.
Haakenson & the crew were great, cranking the boards out in two days giving me time to pack them up, sick them on Amtrak Saturday to Anaheim were Derek picked them up and jumped on a plane for Oaxaca this morning. The photogs are lined up, and were praying the surf forecast hits the nail on the head.
The 6'10" Stinger is 21-3/4"x3". A bit more float for DT, but he handles volume well and can surf anything imagineable. The bottom configs have vee in the nose entry followed by single to double concave near the fin area couple with a peaked vee that transitions to a flat bottom at the tailblock. Rails are full up front, no pinch.
Both boards were glassed with Modified-Poly-Acrylic (MAP) resin in a UV cure. Double 4 oz bottoms using S Glass & Warp Cloth. Don't want these puppies buckling or worse, snapping in big thick Mexi barrels.
To be continued when we get some surfing visuals.......
Kinda funny, I was talking to a guy at Haakenson's a couple weeks ago, another shaper w/20 yrs. into it. The board was sitting on the rack and he looked right at it and said "ah, fabric inlay, nice."
BF art, no two exactly alike. Spray can & hand paint, then overlay using doilies & other stencil type stuff.
Symmetry has very little to do with a surfboard working well. How often are you ever going perfectly straight on a wave?
It probably has NOTHING to do with how well a surfboard works, really. But as part of the Discipline of Craftsmanship & Handshaping, we pay great heed to it nonetheless.
HAND MEASURING CLOSE UP.jpg
DEREK THOMAS 5'6" NEW MACHINE.
BF'S NEW MACHINE 2019.jpg
DEREK 5'6%22 RICOCHET.jpg
DEREK 5'6%22 UNDER THE LIP LEFT.jpg
Derek Backside Bottom Turn.jpg
Derek Lip Bounce on 5'6%22 New Machine.jpg
Board Caddy 2019 Maldives.jpg
Adds new meaning to "lightning bolt".
Derek Thomas on his BF New Machine.
Derek Thomas Lightning Striking Maldives.jpg
Shaped a mini twin we are calling "Echo" for Derek Thomas. Dropping into glassing today for colorwork & glassing then if the plan goes right he is on a plane to Costa Rica to hook up with Robbie @ Olo Alaia in Nosara to share some music & promo the new BF sleds hitting Olo Alaia Surf & Brew. Should be a fun time for tunes, surf 7 fondling new sleds.
"Echo" is 5'3"x19-7/8"x2-1/8". Single concave 1/4' deep runs thru bottom feeding into a double concave with vee at the split tail tips 9" apart tip to tip. My guess is about 27 liters. Derek is a fit, strong paddler at 160 lbs. The twon Futures boxes will be set at 6-1/4" up from the tail. DT likes twinnies and the rails & bottom should allow him to do some deep barrel carving.
Here's a few snapshots b4 i misplaced my phone & the battery went dead.......... tried google's "find my device" and it beeped loudly for 30 seconds before the battery gave out......... now dead silence! Gonna have to scour the place to find it. In the meantime the board got finish shaped and its off to Haakenson's to get her done and onto the silver bird for tropicana.
IMG_0087.jpg
IMG_0098.jpg
IMG_0086 (1).jpg
IMG_0082.jpg
IMG_0080.jpg
IMG_0083.jpg
ECHO 5'3%22 BOTTOM CLOSE UP.jpg
DEREK ON ECHO - 5'3%22 TWINNY.jpg
DEREK'S SURFBOARD:GUITAR QUIVER.jpg
Here is my platypus pig...
Sold my vbowls....and never looked back after getting this!
20190520_173135.jpg
The Platypus, or Plattys as I call them were a shape I started playing with around 40 yrs. ago. I wanted more maneuverability from a single fin, which they delivered up quite well. That was right around the time Simon Anderson came out with his three fin "Thruster" which ended up changing the landscape of surfboards for quite awhile.
Now we are back to anything & everything in search of fun & high performance.
How does this board design differ from Lovelace's vBowls or rBowls?
Definitely more user friendly.
Forward rails are less knifey,, which Ryan cites for slicing into the wave face. Platypus are thinned but more almond or roundish, which still penetrate the wave face but are less sensitive to direction changes. The Platty nose is less hullish, just a smidge up front but generally flatter, planing up quickly & more versatile in less than stellar waves. Both boards have their wide points well behind center for that "cockpit" feel. Both designs have carefully positioned round bottoms producing a sensation of surfing on "ball bearings".
I've noticed Ryan has placed his round bottom more forward of the rider's stance whereas mine is focused with a flat into round directly under the rider's stance, with the roundness lessening or decreasing approaching the tail block. This generates a tremendous amount of speed, traction & the ability to project. Laterally, the round plane meets an extremely hard, vertical rail that runs the length of the cockpit area. This allows hte board to carry speed effortlessly versus Ryan's comments that "you have to carefully manage your speed with vBowls."
Additionally, I have placed my "rocker apex" shift back under the rider's feet which provides a nice "lever action" not dissimilar to a well riding longboard that swivels easily. This allows the board to remain maneuverable even at low speeds so commonly found with soft, gutless waves. With all the other features, the design can turn on a dime and still maintain speed..... not commonly found with most single fins out there.
I threw a 6'9" Platty to Chad Marshall (see the blue one in the pix) several years ago to play with. The comments that came back rangd from "super fun", "most drive from a single compared to a tri fin", "fast in the cockpit feeling" and my favorite "GOT THE BIGGEST AIR OF MY LIFE ON THAT BOARD!".
The best surfboards I've ever owned feel "invisible" - meaning that YOU are surfing the board, the board isn't surfing you. Plattys do that. Think where you wanna go, and Platypus takes you there!
A range of fins work on this board, with the go to fin being a Greenough Stage IV-A followed by others like the Futures Tiller Flex, an Alex Knost fin and for an upright high area fin with lots of traction, the Campbell Bonzer single fin. Most these fins have their own inherent leverage at the base which generates speed along the lines of a keel fin but more maneuverable & less definitive.
The yellow board pictured is an EPS Epoxy S Glass build I did for a doctor in Frankfurt that he & his gf own a quiver of my boards. They travel quite a bit, including duplicate boards he ordered to store at his parent's house in Spain.
The newest Platty pictured here is for Kyle, an 8'0"x22-1/4"x3" that I sent down via Amtrak yesterday to Union Station. He was gonna grab it last night and make tracks for Sano today and the week end. Ride Report forthcoming.
Other Platypus pictured including the old Aboriginal pen & ink logo updated with a bolder more graphic version. All good fun these sleds........ I'm currently shaping up a group of them for Wave Front Ventura including a DEMO so the TRY BEFORE YOU BUY experience can be had at your convenience.
Oh, and if you are so inclined,, you won't have to wait a small percentage of your lifetime to get a handshaped one from me.
Enjoy................................. ds ;-)
KYLE'S PLATYPUS!.jpg
20190820_161311.jpg
PLATTY GREEN 8'4%22 & RED FOY.jpg
IMG_4714.jpg
PLATYPUS YELLOW TAIL.jpg
PLATYPUS YELLOW ANGLE VIEW.jpg
PLATYPUS NOSE CLOSE UP.jpg
PLATYPUS PROFILE.jpg
PLATTY YELLOW LOGO.jpg
IMG_4726 (1).jpg
IMG_4722 (1).jpg
IMG_4127.jpg
VOLAN SPECIAL KNOST FIN.jpg
FUTURES TILLER 8.0.jpg
FUTURES MACHADO PIVOT 7.5%22.jpg
Greenough IV-A.jpg
GREENOUGH HI SPEED.jpg
Greenough fins.jpg
2+1.jpg
PKATYPUSOVERHEADVIEW.jpg
Platypus.jpg
Can't wait to get your newest sled done!
Your 8'6" Mega New Machine is gonna glide like a 10'0" but you'll step back on the new tail section & pop a vert like nobody's business. Acceleration thru the 2nd half of Turns & Cutties will have other guys doing double takes, wondering & wanting. Isophthalic Resin & S Glass Premium Build will net a crazy strong & lively ride!!!!
There's NO comparison to the new stuff & what I was putting in Mollusk a few years ago. Those guys had their day and can peddle the old stuff from pop out city.
Here's a peek at what's just around the corner. 10'0" High Density Red Foam/Basswood T Bands out @ the Rails with a Cedar Center Stringer for that Classic Look & Feel. More sister ships in the 8'6" to 10'0" range on their way thru glassing. All unique, special, one of a kind. No puppy mill here....
Lead, Follow, or GET OUT OF THE WAY! :-O
10'0%22 New Machine 2019.jpg
Dan
Thanks for representing...................... V8, New Machine, & the Platty. Greatly appreciated the feedback!
I haven't posted in awhile, so here's an update. Derek was intrigued with the Stinger I had done as part of the model line up for Aviator Nation. He told me there was a 6-10 ft. swell forecast for Mexico hitting Monday and lasting thru Wednesday.
His 6'8" had been heavily surfed when he went down for the BF launch of sleds at Olo Alaia in Nosara, costa Rica. It was a great promo and owner Robbie & Derek connected, represented, & had a grat time. Derek has a clinic centered around Yoga, Breathing & Health and Nosara is very much a Yoga, Health, & Surfing community. He also performed his special brand of music at Robbie's shop as well as a few gigs Robbie got lined up for him.
Then it was off to Nicaragua where he put his sleds thru their paces. The 6'8" got buckled & repaired a couple times and he had guys down there that wanted to buy it, so one lucky soul picked it up for chump change. That left him with his 5'3" twinny that we call "Echo", his 5'6" & 6'0" New Machines.
In anticipation of this Mex swell, I jumped in the shaping room & cranked out a 6'6" New Machine, then on a lark, decided to add a 6'10" Stinger to his quiver.
Haakenson & the crew were great, cranking the boards out in two days giving me time to pack them up, sick them on Amtrak Saturday to Anaheim were Derek picked them up and jumped on a plane for Oaxaca this morning. The photogs are lined up, and were praying the surf forecast hits the nail on the head.
The 6'10" Stinger is 21-3/4"x3". A bit more float for DT, but he handles volume well and can surf anything imagineable. The bottom configs have vee in the nose entry followed by single to double concave near the fin area couple with a peaked vee that transitions to a flat bottom at the tailblock. Rails are full up front, no pinch.
Both boards were glassed with Modified-Poly-Acrylic (MAP) resin in a UV cure. Double 4 oz bottoms using S Glass & Warp Cloth. Don't want these puppies buckling or worse, snapping in big thick Mexi barrels.
To be continued when we get some surfing visuals.......
P.S. Last pic is of the 6'6" New Machine
STINGER DECK VIEW FROM NOSE.jpg
STINGER BOTTOM FROM NOSE VIEW.jpg
STINGER DECK VIEW FROM TAIL.jpg
STINGER FUTURES CARBON PRESSED RECYCLED FISH NET.jpg
STINGER PROFILE 2019.jpg
STING FROM ABOVE 2019.jpg
STINGER 610 BONZER 7.0.jpg
STINGER 610 SIDEBITE UPPER ANGLE.jpg
STINGER 610:7.0 BONZER &SIDEBITES.jpg
GREENOUGH HI SPEED FIN.jpg
DEREK'S 6'6%22 NEW MACHINE.jpg
Is that bottom one a cloth inlay?
all the best
Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught. - Winston Churchill
Greg,
Kinda funny, I was talking to a guy at Haakenson's a couple weeks ago, another shaper w/20 yrs. into it. The board was sitting on the rack and he looked right at it and said "ah, fabric inlay, nice."
BF art, no two exactly alike. Spray can & hand paint, then overlay using doilies & other stencil type stuff.
;-)
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