Since we've made a few boards for some of the Sways crew (and more on the way), it's time
to have a place to post those ride reports.
So if you've got a Coil Construction shooter shaped by either Kirk Brasington or myself, or if
you've stolen your friend's for a few waves, here's your chance to talk about it...
May 26, 2008 5:34 pm
#1
Mike,
If anybody replies, you would have to have 3 more to even Bert Burgers ride reports, only greg loehr, surfercross, and 1 other person i know of have surfed those boards.
How do YOU like your boards? No shame in telling us. So come on and dont be shy. You must have surfed quite a few different ones in your lifetime, so your opinion has weight.
Wouter
Wouter,
I'm one of those people whose brain goes into neutral when I surf, half the time I can't
even remember what I did on a wave once I kick out. I have little bits and pieces of waves
stored away, but I'm always amazed (and envious) at the detail some can provide regarding
the nuances of board performance. So I'm not very good at doing ride reports.
I know when I like a board, however, and I like my Coils. I'll try to fill in whatever else I can
later, after some of the other riders. I think their opinions matter a great deal more than mine
anyway.
[email protected]
if you give me one i will ride it and give a detailed report
Hi Mike Had a great session today on my 6'4 quad Coil.Waist to chest windswell.Third time on this board. The speed is unreal.Flat out flies and comes out of turns with heaps of speed.The lift is very apparent.Felt like a hoverboard backside.Never felt a board react the way this one does.Can't wait to ride it again.Thanks again. Jeff
Nice try, surfkid, but this is a paying-customer-only thread. I will put you on the
list of ''people who'd like a free board''. We've got Coils in the water down in San
Diego and San Clemente, so we're workin' our way up the coast and maybe you'll
see one soon.
Jeff, you know how glad I am that board goes for you. That ''hover'' comment sounds
like a sensation I get on my backhand also. Very free and fast. That board would be
a good one to post a pic, it's something ''different''.
silly, your comment about ''if it's not overhead and offshore and uncrowded'' makes
me think of line from a song called ''Jaded''. ''No place to go but the Riviera, No one
to go with but Bridgette Bardot...''. You are one spoiled Kiwi. I am glad, however, that
you share my impairment wrt ''testing''. And I guess you'll see some photos of our boards
on this thread.
edit to respond to grasshopper and sak:
Casey's fish was on the ''Coil Carbon/Spectra'' thread before he even picked it up. Glad you
''got it'' and thanks for the encouragement on taking some design chances. I think when you
refered to denting, you meant foot wells, we do get those over time, but it takes a lot to pressure
dent our boards. And there's a whole lot of differences between our boards and hand-lammed
stringerless EPS.
Thanks for the photos, sak. That's the board you call your ''quadvertible''. but since that really
references the fin configuration more than the shape, we had to think of another name. All the
really good names and alphanumeric mumbo-jumbo were spoken for, so we just call it the widerboard.
[email protected]
Does it count if it wasn't shaped by you or the Brasingtons?
I've had 3 of them from Neilson. Was happy with the construction on all of them but had a really hard time dialing the shape in. You really do have to account for the added glass in the shape of the board. Makes a huge difference in getting the feel right.
Super fast, light, durable. The boards seem to heel dent similar to 2# EPS/epoxy boards, but that's about it. No dings or pressure dents all over, just one indentation under the front foot.
Going with this construction method for any of my high performance boards from now on. Actually just rode one this evening in the wind slop we got. Works well in choppy, junky surf too. The key for me was to give up some volume throughout the board and go a little wider overall with thin, knifey rails.
6'4" x 19" x 2 1/8"
Quote:
Can you stick me on that list. Only can you make mine a longboard?
Mike, would really love to hear any ride reports, or simply to see a photo of, a longboard in this construction... photos???... reports???... beuhler??
Sorry guys, no longboards right now.
But the first surfboard Kirk and Eric Brasington ever did with what was to become the
Coil Construction process was a longboard (about 1993), so it's not out of the question
that there might be more someday. They're not anti-longboard or anything.
[email protected]
mike i find it hard to test as well
i like just about any board and adjust to it
im more interested in the waves
if its not overhead and peeling offshore uncrowded bazzas, i get bored pretty quick no mater what im riding
basically if your in the juice and your after 20 to 30 waves sessions
you more interested in how the board paddles and catches waves in critical sections
id love to have ago of one of yours mate
just on your shapes alone
we want more coil porn please
Long day and I'm too tired to put together the words, so I'll be back.
But, in response to this:
Quote:
I'll present this (I'll go on record as saying it is my most versatile, favorite board to date):
ooh yeah baby
that quad/quins got me frothing
mike is that yours? its bloody gorgeous
do you mind if i make a compsand one for personal use
hey was watching the cloudbreak and the commentator atributed daniel rosses loss to his longer board
a 6 8
what a wank
anyway good to see the asp is doing all us old bastards a favour in keeping the myth alive
love to see as many as possible floundering around on 5 11s
Thus far I have three Coils, all shaped by Mike. The first one I’ll refer to as “the first board”, and I then received two concurrently- what I call “the quadvertible” and one of Mike’s signature E-tails (Eliptical tails).
The first board was pretty much a duplicate of my standard all ‘rounder board and served its purpose to “feel out” the technology. The next two boards were done with a much more “custom” approach to tweak a few things here and there and work with the tech a bit more. I am “sold” and plan to phase out my current boards and eventually have a Coil-dominated quiver (I’m well on my way).
I did a very in-depth review of the first board, particularily the technology, that is posted at http://www.eastcoastsurfer.com/reviews/coil/ In summary, the board goes like a bat outta hell, definitely has some spring/pop, and after a winter of heavy use, has no dings and to find any evidence of use you need to tilt the deck sideways in the right light to even see the dents. My apologies if the “article” to which I linked is long winded (hence my reason for not copy-and-pasting the entire thing here); I tried to hit on every point I could think of regarding the tech, including performance, durability, excellent communication during the custom-ordering process, and the inherent “value” of spending more up front to get something more in the long run. Also forgive me if it comes off as “Spammy”, but the intended audience is from my locale, where Coils are virtually unknown and alternate-construction/tech boards are only starting to gain acceptance. I was so impressed with the attention Mike gave me and the communication/customer service that I felt compelled to help get the word out and hopefully generate a few more orders.
Second and third boards were ordered at the same time- one is a wide, bump-squash, 6’0” “quadvertible”, and the other is one of Mike’s signature E-tails (eliptical tails) of similar dimensions to the first board but with some tweaking.
I can say all sorts of flowery things about the quadvertible, using words like “magic”, “synergy”, and the following three words in succession: “best”, “board”, “ever”. You should get my point. I have not even tapped the versatility of the fin configurations yet; I’ve only ridden it as a quad because it goes so well as just that. I am currently contemplating dropping a small 5th fin in to get a bit more control a bit when it gets OH and hollow (but it still handles those conditions well as the standard quad), and have all sorts of different and experimental fins I still need to try out, so this will be my test-platform . Also interesting to note, this board is the thinnest of the three (2 1/8” vs. 2 1/4"), and I think that might be the magic number for me to get the most “pop” out of the construction.
I cannot say all that much about the E-tail since we really have not had much juice in our surf as of late. I only rode it in one session thus far and wound up putting it into mushier surf than either of us had in mind for it, but once in a while one tripped up on the rip, peaked on the outside, and stood up on the inside, so I did manage a few moments when I could feel it out a bit. It has an exaggerated foreward double-concave (similar to Rusty’s “double D”) to free up the board a little since I felt my first board felt just a tad tight off the top. The E-tail double-concave board makes me feel like I am high and fast as it creates a bit of lift under the front foot, but with plenty of speed to burn and the ability to tilt it on rail due to the lowish rail volume. Definitely a different feel, and I am really looking foreward to figuring it all out, but Mother Ocean is not cooperating as of late and I am forced onto my small-wave designs (the quadvertible is holding me over, just fine).
OK, out of time, but I’m sure I’ll have more to add later.
Quote:
Quote:
That's sak's board and if you read his comments you'll see he's not lettin' anyone else near it.
And of course I don't mind if you make one, I'll pm ya some dims and stuff.
[email protected]
sweet mike im loving my 6 6 a the mo so if i go shorter it will need width
Not positive I want to do this, but if any bigger guys (200ish lbs.) in SoCal have a MM you want to part with, I might be willing to trade my 5'6" Mabile Ghostbuster.
starkj at cox dot net if you have something.
I'm putting my new 6'2 up for sale. Gotta go back to the drawing board to get the rail volume more similar to my other boards.
dims on this one are 6'2" x 19.25 x 2 3/8 .99cu ft
single to double concave with a subtle vee behind the rear fin.
There are two small foot wells on the deck but aside from that it's brand new. I basically rode it a half dozen sessions on my trip. It comes with an x trac pad and fins. It paddles great and catches overhead set waves with ease.
$475.00 Will ship in the US. PM me if you have any interest and we can figure the best way to ship it.
Page 4...wtf?
Springfish this a.m. Waves about waist high, mostly burgers
with a few that would have a dumpy takeoff and short section, back off, then (if you were lucky) reform inside.
Set up the board with MR 78 twins and little fiberglass GL
trailers and dug it. Fast, got up and went quickly, was still
able to throw the board up super fast, and the one good pockety
section I got, was able to lay into an incredibly quick
carve right in the pocket. Also was able to milk a couple
in the foam to the inside and do a quick whack or two in
knee deep water. Waves sucked, but good to know this setup
worked in the crap.
so the fin set up for crap waves has been located .
As far as i am concerned : yes.
Twins of no larger than 5inch base combod with small trailers, GL, sidebite or something similar.
Surfed the same set up in good dutch punchy beach break yesterday, and it still works.
twin +2 trailers = great small wave combo.
hoping some pics will show up here of our yesterday session, we got 350 long range swell
this translated to well overhead waves on the beach
i think the springfish is the board of late out of which i have learned most, progressed most on.
wouter
Wouter! Glad you guys are getting some surf, we've got a nice little swell here too - just got out of the water...
J, what's the reference to page 4? I went back and looked, there's some good stuff on page 4! Was it a fin reference or just the springfish discussion in general?
[email protected]
any mini guns being sent behind the orange curtian ?
Anyone have a pre-AARP or similar for a bigger guy that they'd like to trade for a 6'6" x 20 x 2 5/8" Blur in near-perfect condition? I like the Blur a lot, but a wider nose template would suit me a bit better. PM me if you have something.
After going Coil-less for a couple of months due to volume cutting measures I my part I picked up a 6-2 x 19.75 x 2.5 1.03 Widerboard secondhand from a friend. I'm stoked on it for when the winter waves start
[img]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-RyXjh3N8LFA/TiMVITFFzzI/AAAAAAAAAFI/D...
[img]https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-tXEcTdCGZjc/TiMVM4MKq4I/AAAAAAAAAFM/a...
Its an old-logo board and looks brand spanking new despite its age
http://mushycloseouts.wordpress.com/
I rode my buddy Casey's 5'4 fish you shaped for him - I believe there might even be a photo of it on sways somewhere.
Anyways - I was very impressed with the shape - VERY unconventional - my first though after looking at the board was "what is this thing?! no way this will have enough foam/glide for me"
Basically a skimboard with fins but with a camelhump of foam under the chest. But as soon as the tiniest wave came (it was tiny) it would glide right in and get up on a plane - very snappy feeling to it on turns - i guess that is due to the extremely thin tail/rails coupled with the coil construction - flex and response flexback.
It was very cool to see a guy out there doing this for a living shaping something so far out there - especially since IT WORKS!
I have also ridden a 6'0 Neilsen standard thruster shape - felt just like any other standard thruster - but the waves were not the best......
I like the coil construction - they do dent just as easy as a normal board but are very hard to actually ding. Positive ride. Good weight. Similar to some stringerless eps boards i have for myself made but coil seems to have more pop - they claim to use different (top secret) laminates and that must be the difference.....
richard
grasshoppersurf.com
https://instagram.com/grasshoppersurfboards/
I have a second hand report from a kid I did a ding repair for in Costa Rica, and I quote, "Awesome". Not a lot of detail, but it seems he really liked it.
The nose had been abused on the airplane and as a member of the Royal Order of Swaylockians I always carry with me epoxy and miniature vacuum bag kit(well not the vac bag kit). He was surprised I knew of "Coil" and was really "surprised" when I laid it on the ground bottom up and began jumping on it. He wouldn't let me saw it half or cut out samples for analysis, but I got to fondle it for while. Which in itself was a privilege. So the secret is safe. It is epoxy isn't it ?
That's a good story. Thanks for taking care of the kid, nice to know the Royal Order
of Swaylockians has operatives around the globe.
It is Resin Research epoxy, just not very much of it. Absurd fiber-to-resin ratio.
[email protected]
Hi Mike
Photos as requested.Hope this works.
Jeff
if this is not too top-secret to ask........what density EPS are you guys using?
https://instagram.com/grasshoppersurfboards/
Quote:
Coil uses different densities of EPS for different applications, mainly to tune flex characteristics.
BTW, when you rode Casey's fish, how did he have that thing finned?
[email protected]
Ah yes the coil.Craftee put the idea in my head to try out a coil from MD.I thought hell yeah it is epoxy and is the man knows how to shape so I put in my order.I talked with MD about the the board and he asked me what I liked and I believe I said just shape it how you want to shape it.About a month later I went to his shop with craftee and picked up the board and met Mike and I believe Kirk.The board looked sweet but we all know that it is really how it rides.It just so happened that there was a nice chest high swell and I was able to surf it in some pretty fun waves at place called cherynobols.The board went great and I had no problems adapting.I could feel the flex for sure and I remember doing one turn that really took me off guard.I came up to the top of the wave to rebound off the white water that was coming at me and really buried the rail and the board created its own rocker to fit into the wave and it pushed me out with greater speed.My friend John was said that he couldn't believe that I made that section.I was just as suprised as he was.These kinds of boards that have engineered flex can be hard for some people to get used to but coming off surfing my firewire for 1 1/2years has helped me learn how to use the flex to my advatage.I have had some of the best waves of my life so far on that board.They laso work great for airs.You just laod up the board on the bottom turn and release when you get to the top of the wave.My board has pretty big foot wells in it but I see those as a benefit.They help to hold your foot in place.No dings and white as hell.There you have it if anyone has a specific question about my experiance I will be more than happy to answer!!!!
Here's a question : how do they go in solid waves?
Steve,
Not wanting to hijack this thread.
Can't seem to find your Brockie and the fish killa thread.
Can you post a reply on it re- the fish killa. How's it going for you?
I was in my local surfshop this morning and looking at the FCS Layne Beachley fins which are same shape as the H2's.
Woodsy (salesman) says to me that they don't hum like the H2's. Interesting.
Pete.
Quote:
I'll let the customers speak also, but I can tell you we've got plenty of Indo, Central America, Puerto Rico,
Barbados, and North Shore miles on Coils. Winter 06-07 I made several 6'8''-7'0'' to send to Hawaii
to pass around, none of them got passed around because the first riders wouldn't give them back.
Recently had one in your area but didn't even know the guy was down there until he em'd me from Hawaii
on his way back. He lives in San Diego and has had good experiences there all winter.
We're not building ''3 foot and under'' toys here...
[email protected]
Hey Mike, no disrespect intended by that question.
I see the obvious benefit of this tech to small wave surfboards but would like some feedback/rider reports of how they perform in solid waves where lightness/flex might not have the same advantages as they do in small waves.
Steve
No offense taken here, Steve. That's actually a really good question.
Again, I think it's more important to hear it from the riders. After their comments,
I can fill in some of our viewpoint regarding how we engineer the flex.
[email protected]
Any action shots? To paraphrase, sometimes pictures speak louder than words. Great thread, just needs a few pics.
blah blah blah
I’ve been seeing shots of guys like Jeff Meyers, Josie Graves, etc.riding coils in recent issues of ESM, MundoRad, etc.
There are a few half-decent pics on my review of my first coil at: http://eastcoastsurfer.com/reviews/coil Not necessarily barn-burner action photos, but I am satisfied with them.
There is also a vid of Josie Graves winnning a contest in Barbados, available both at the coil site and at the bottom of my review.
There is a pic of some has-been/never-was (hint: I resemble that remark!) on on a Coil on page 34 of Vol 4 #2 of Garden State Surf: http://www.gardenstatesurf.com/backissues.html
Does anyone know the legal aspect of scanning and posting pics that appeared in a magazine?
Quote:
I'm sure we can arrange for some photos, in the meantime look back in the Oct 2007 issue of SURFER,
p. 106-107, for a nice spread shot of a Coil in action.
[email protected]
Cool! I'll look it up.
blah blah blah
A couple shots of Josie Graves on a coil I found buried in the depths of the Mundo Rad (magazine) website:
...and a couple of myself (the first one is the one that was selected to run in a local mag):
Go the Sak. Holy phuck that looks cold.
The stories behind the shots:
Shot #1. Cold-ass water (high 30's), air temps actually nice (in the 50's). A friend who had blown his knee out the previous spring/summer had surgery and was still rehabbing it and could not surf, but he was also going bonkers missing all the good swells. He started bodysurfing in the middle of that winter to keep sane. HE called ME to surf that day. When I got there, he grabbed a cheapo waterproof digi camera with a blinking "low battery" light, and managed to squeeze off a few shots before it died. That was the best one.
Remaining Shots: A friend from the LBI area made the drive to my neck of the woods (about 1 hour north of LBI) to surf that day. Water was in the high 30's, windchill had to be in the 20's. It was off-the-hook good (OH, elevator-drop barrels reeling down the beach) for a little while, then the tide bottomed out, swell dropped, and wind picked up and blew it ragged. I was exhausted and shivering by that point and really not into surfing in the degraded conditions, but he insisted in getting out of the water and shooting a few from the beach. I figured if he wanted to freeze his ass off on the beach, the least I could do was suck it up for a few more and give him a subject to shoot. That barrel made the extended session worth it.
Quote:
Questionable logic but core love of the ocean.
re the pics of Josie:
Josie Graves (and his brother Dylan) ride Coils shaped by Kirk Brasington. Josie earned our first WQS
victory last fall. After the contest he referred to the board as his ''secret weapon'' in an interview.
We've got a whole crew of guys in Puerto Rico on the boards, as well as Mark Holder ruling Bathsheba and
the rest of the island of Barbados.
[email protected]
Mike, and Mates,
Happy to say that the coil glassing process is spot on.
I had the good furtune of Kirk flowing me a blank and glass job to test on one of my shapes.
In exchange for securing a painting process for said boards.
Well it's been over a year and the board has absolutly no wear at all.
Color is still brilliant and yes under the glass.
The Straight Poop:
Do to the glassing process, the blanks come needing no bottom alteration. You can add concaves, but no vee, or channels, or extra taik flip.
I got to shape some of the 1.5 pound foam. And that said it was in need to constant creedling to keep the nose from snapping whilst been shaped. No stringer there mates.
Was able to shape a double step rail into the deck, rail channels front and rear. And very hard edges from 1/2 way back,, top and bottom (Very thin square).
Would have liked to get the nose a bit thinner,, but the thing kept bending.
I think they solve this issue somewhat by using 2.2 lb. foam.
Deffinutly the strongest board of the quiver.
Board ended up: 6-0x8.5x16.5x13.25x1.75
I call it "Fat Bastard"
The Ride:
This board has lived and surfed here in Mainland Mexico for over a year. Surfed almost daily. And has litterally over 100 miles on it.
It is Suuuuper Responsive. I use the same demensions on my other boards. so the improved rsponce is not due to outline change.
Paddels great, even a bit more floaty then the 2.2 standard epoxy(6x6x6).
Tons of drive, and can be wipped around anytime,, anywhere. launches with ease.
Basically a great new thing. And find it maxes out(for me) at little more than two people high surf. I move back to poly when the surf gets heavy. Feels better.
Downside:
Only have a couple of weirdnesses. The size of the surf issue. And noticed that with really strong offshore winds, it tends to chatter due to the liteness, causing a reduction in speed.
Other than that,,, best little stik ever.
And THAT being said,,,,,, Kirk,, where is my next blank????
Thanks for the report from Mex, and I'm glad your recent ''incident'' hasn't affected
your stoke or typing ability.
A couple of comments:
Bottom shapes other than concave are possible, that's one of the real tricks Kirk and Eric
have; the ability to vac the things without distorting the subtleties of complex bottom contours.
Kirk and I do all our concave combinations, reverse V, whatever we want, and it comes out just the
way we shaped it. Extreme V might be a problem, but we really don't use that in modern boards
anyway.
Rocker is set on a fixture, so it's not a matter of shaping in tail flip, it can be dialed in very precisely
in the ''glassing'' process. Out with the old, in with the new.
Shaping EPS w/o stringers is different, but after the first few you get used to it. Kirk and I have probably
shaped more of them than anybody else and I've only popped the noses off two; one when my T-shirt
caught on it and one that tried to fly off the rack. That's out of about a thousand shapes I've done. Getting
the tips thin is no problem.
For bigger surf, just like in ''conventional'' boards, you go to a different lam schedule. You wouldn't ride
a single 4 oz PU in triple OH waves (not for long anyway, it would quickly be in pieces). The 7'0'' we made
for Sunset handled that so well (no chatter, solid feel) we feel confident sending that lam schedule anywhere
in the world.
[email protected]
I got one in January from Mike Daniels, so i'll post.
1st of all, the shape was perfect, exactly what I wanted. I am 5'8" x 170lbs and got a 6'0" x 18 3/8" x 2 1/4" for chest to Hx.5 surf. If the board had been poly, it would have been a magic shape as well.
So to review the construction:
I have had plenty of XTR and EPS boards before so generally I'd say I am pretty aware of the advantages/disadvantages.
Durability is not so much of a concern with me because if a board rides like crap, then I could care less if it lasts or not.
For the most part, the coil doesn't feel much different than my other boards, closest to a poly, the one major advantage over other constructions though, is the incredible spring out of turns, noticed mostly on phase two of a turn, like roundhouse cutbacks and bottom turns. Freakin slingshot. And like all of my other epoxy boards, it paddles better.
Now, for the other major benefit, after getting back from Central America for it's first week of testing, I found size 14 boot prints all over my board bag. (yes I have pics). I got really nervous pulling out my board to find it completely unscathed. It has to be the most durable board i've ever had, but still performs better than anything else I've had as well.
Need to put in an order for a 5'9" comp groveller now I think ....
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