The mere presence of the visible bubble vortex is interesting to me. Any time the fin is loaded, there is a tip vortex occurring, mostly invisible in clear air or water, and only sometimes does the fin have the ability to coalsece, and perhaps enhance, those bubbles, into one longer trailing visible spinning bubble getting dragged from the fintip.
When it happens, where, for how long, how it changes with different fins wave periods and sizes, water clarity, sun angle…, the strength of my coffee…
All can affect the appearance, and timing size length duration of that spinning fin tip bubble.
Is a shorter thinner stretched spinning bubble mean the fin is better? I think it means there is less drag. Is that always a better thing? Certainly not. If it were then perhaps rockerless finless and parallel sharp rails is the future.
It’s been said many times drag is control, but what if the control is as good, for less overall drag?
Airlines are wanting to save fuel with wingtiptip vortex reductions, but there are likley advantages to a shorter wingletted wing providing the same lift for the same overall drag too. My comments about a rifling pointbreak and the spiroid winglet relevancy, were singlefin minded mode, apologies. Some wing(lets) foils are obviously intended to lift efficiently only in one direction, unless angle of attack dictated otherwise.
Perhaps some spiroid winglet on each rail fin would not be irrellevant.
The ‘tipless’ mirror fin prybar tail board is genius, I wonder how it feels underfoot.
What would fin templates and foils evolve into IF for some reason the goal were to design a fin that always has that long wide bubble attached to the fin’s tip for the whole ride? Say surfing at night in a red tide and the longer and brighter the trail of blue or green phosphoresncence won you the supermodel nymphomaniac as the week long prize?
What about the fin that was seemingly always immune to the possiblility dragging along that visible, spinning bubble yet also kept the board from spinning out when angling parallel to shore or redirecting quickly, or seeking a steep angle higher on the wave face?
Does the bubble allow the water spinning around it to spin faster and break off earlier, perhaps the opposite and later? Perhaps the vortex becomin visible is Akin to when a car’s tires start breaking loose and squealing when cornering at high speeds. Kind of be better if the tires did not start squealing, if one was being chased down/ timed.
Is the ulitmate Happy medium a dol-fin style template, or something else?
Its Opinion, either way, not fact.
As far as how it feels when surfing with the camera on the fin, I know its there, but rarely did I have issues keeping ahead of the wave. Me and this surfboard together are toying the 250LB /113KG range.
No doubt a lighter surfer/board combo would feel the drag of the camera more. I’ve always preferred heavier boards, and not just from a durability aspect.
The waves I’ve towed the camera, have not been rifling waves either. Chest/neck high at best, and the in video posted conditions were barely waist / belly high after the drop. Turning is, if anything, easier with some degree of slower entry speeds, and the camera rod drag has to assist twisting the fin rotationally, as well as assisting flex laterally too, to some degree.
Honestly it still Feels pretty natural, just overall slower, sometimes much more than others. I’ve had some rides where I swore the camera ripped off the rod or the rod from the fin, as I could not feel it anymore and was cursing as i was kicking out getting ready to search underwater for it.
I’ve had some other rides where it felt like I was dragging a huge piece of kelp or lots of seagrass on the fin or camera or both, and sometimes saw them on video later, sometimes saw no visual reason why it felt draggy, when watching the footage captured shortly after while the rides are fresh in my mind. Be great to have above water footage too.
I do fear losing the board more with camera attached, since I use no leash riding this board, and the leash might shear the camera from the board if it were used. Just Getting another camera is not desirable and neither is losing the footage acquired to that point. The sandblasting on the inside in shallow water has not yet obviously dulled the lens, but I do try and limit the sand exposure, and the board hitting sand after losing it has not yet occurred. Close, but I did not hit ‘record’ properly that session. Shame, as it was likely the best conditions I videoed in.
Paddling obstacles and oblivious beginners are given a wider than usual berth or a louder grunt, but I have encouraged drop ins from a select few whose skills and temperment I trust, to hold a high line as I try and catch up and pass. No takers so far.
Some potential rides where perhaps I too late to make the drop, I opt out of instead. The camera is most noticeable when paddling at/toward an oncoming wave, then swinging its tail around and into the wave for the buoyancy assisted take off. The swing occurs much slower, feeling way more resistive, and the initial buoyancy assisted paddle does not get the same initial shoreward squirt, until the camera falls in line.
The longboard in the videos has a limited top speed with lots of tail rocker and soft rails off the tail but the top end speed does not feel significantly reduced with the camera in tow.
I am not willing to share the specifics and evolution of how I am recording this field of view, at this time.
