Neil Luke-Island Surfboards

[halbs]

Mike that looks ssooo cold, great work fella!! We're you going for a surf, returning from a surf or ready to enter one of those warm looking houses in the background to sit by a fire!! From memory you go to Indo a bit, now I know why. From a bloke who lives in a semi-desert environment hats off to ya your wetty must be held in very high regard. great work and nice board. cheers halbs

[john -]

quote="Dane"]I can't remember the last time a kneeboard had value as a trade-in. It lasted a week in the shop and it was gone...and for a good price.

yes I bought it

.[/quote]



Lucky man Kev

If i had of been thinking i would have scored that board but it seems there may be another on the racks at Island thats suitable for me, that Neil recommends as the one to get


Finger (Gary) is checking it out this weekend




In my minor dealings with Neil and Island surboards thus far they seem a very chilled affair, customer friendly without baggage


It will also be interesting to hear more about Dane's quad as he is putting it foward as his smaller wave ride----im interested to know if that is fin based or shape based--even though they are both freaks

[Mike Fernandez]

Tom, I am looking for some hardy soul who will brave the chill so I can pay them to take some pics of the surf here, and I use the word "surf" loosely

Thank's Halbs, yep I am loading up the ute to surf this weekend. My suit is an Oneill Psycho II 6/4mm with a 5 mm hood and booties. Works great! I can survive from 3-5 hours in 20f air, and 48f water with a 25mph wind, and overcast. Longer with the sun out.

Tomorrow's surf report will dictate where I am going. New York City was 4-5 ft. Montauk Point, the home of the Great White Landlord was 5-8 ft but dropping, and my local haunt is 2-3 ft, but a closer drive. Montauk is probably a 7 hour drive.
I am surfing somewhere this weekend

[willli]

for Mike, link to photos of Montauk. sorry no KB. water up here is 39deg. 5mil boots & gloves will give you 3hrs.

http://mjrphoto.smugmug.com/gallery/2595914#136850801

[Kev]

Lucky man Kev
... but it seems there may be another on the racks at Island thats suitable for me, that Neil recommends as the one to get

... more about Dane's quad as he is putting it foward as his smaller wave ride----im interested to know if that is fin based or shape based--even though they are both freaks

yes I do feel lucky as it does fit my current needs and at a fair price.
It will give me some time to work out what I will need in the future.

Neil does have a few Freaks on the shelf and some are pictured at the web site
but do ask him as there may be a few others including second-hand stuff out the back.

I met Dane last Saturday morning and we had a short surf at Jan Jac. I saw his Quad and he says it's just like his Tri Fin Freak but has four fins ... so I guess it could be all about fin position.
He is a big fellow and the boards are long at 6'3" or 6'4".
I'll let Dane give the full details as I'll just get it wrong.

To my eyes it did seem narrow-ish in the tail and fuller in the nose but it could just be the length and where I was standing and the point of view I had.

put your glasses on Kev


oh and thanks to Dane for an enjoyable surf and the help with choosing a Peak 4/3 steamer to take me into the winter.

[Mike Fernandez]

Thanks Willi, I will contact you when I come up. I surfed Manasquan Inlet Sunday, it was a gutless 4ft face. Wind was howling at 30mph offshore, I survived 3 hrs, the last hour was rough, took me about 1.5 hrs. to stop shivering I shoulda went to MP

[willli]

problem with east coast this time of year is hit and run swells. jet stream picks up the lows and kicks them up to Nova, then on to europe. even so, some nuggets sneak through: a Mike Nelson shot:

http://www.newyorksurf.com/modules/ipbo ... _12809.jpg

some place on Long Island St. Paddy's day. stand-up in photo for size reference

[Mike Fernandez]

OOOOOH MAN, now that's a wave, when and where was that?

[Dane]

Kev...you got me wondering...is the quad narrow in the tail? So I dragged both boards out of the shed...stripped off their covers and laid them out on the loungeroom floor (as you do). And you know what...the quad did look a little narrower in the tail than the tri-fin.

So to be sure...I took out all the fins on both boards and laid them on top of each other. Identical. To test my finding I then ran a tape measure over both boards. Identical.

The conclusion is that it is an optical illusion caused by the two smaller back fins sitting just inside and behind the two larger leading fins. So there's today's useless information and yes...I know I need to get a life...but these are the issues that plague the mind of a surfer that hasn't had a decent wave in about a month.

[Kev]

...stripped off their covers and laid them out on the loungeroom floor (as you do).
... Identical.
... the mind of a surfer that hasn't had a decent wave in about a month.

yeah I do ... do that
and
try to think of ways to compare boards by numbers
like defining rocker as per the thread here
and specify floatation via litres or volume ... again there is another thread here about that

I guess it is the computer modelling geek in me that comes out this way.
In the past I have built and modelled speakers using software. I know this flys in the face of the way Neil likes to do things. He is more about Eyes, Hands and Feel.

So your boards are identical apart from Fin placement.
...
interesting


I need to find some fitness and a decent wave ... not necessarily in that order.

[john -]

As Steenos says


fin placement not number?!


Im still interested to hear your comments about the tri v the quad on a same board theory (freak) in good winter waves


Dane, you could come really close to answering many a punters arguments regarding fin number as the ultimate test has to be in that circumstance (on a freaks [same board theory] made for the same guy reasonably close to each in time)


cheers

[Dane]

Damn Dorjie...you are right. I've set myself up as a controlled experiment. Without going into too much detail...Neil Luke has shaped me two boards. Both are 6'3" x 24 1/2" x 2 34"...as I am 6'4" tall and about 260 lbs (118 kg). I am stoked with the outcome. The boards have discernably different riding characteristics and both boards do excactly what they were designed to do.

The Freak Tri - Reef breaks mainly. My Winter board for when the waves have more size and "push" in them, when the faces are a little steeper and there is the odd section that needs to be made...or you eat the reef. The board goes hard at speed and holds well into the turns.

The Freak Quad - Beach breaks mainly. My Summer board for when the waves are smaller and lack the volume and the faces are often less steep than they are in Winter. This board actually feels faster than the tri-fin in these conditions. The quad-fin layout means that it will slot into the face really well and when released for a turn, it can be thrown around much tighter than the tri-fin.

On both boards the leading fins are identically located with the difference being where the centre trailing fin is on the tri and the two smaller fins are on the quad. The Tri-fin runs Speedfins while the Quad has FCS. It raises the question as to whether it would be feasible to have a "board for all seasons" with plugs placed for either set-up. The latest Speedfins plugs have an adaptor and are interchangable with FCS...so I suppose it's possible.

[Kev]

... It raises the question as to whether it would be feasible to have a "board for all seasons" with plugs placed for either set-up.

now that is something I have been contemplating since finding this forum
but
I just didn't have the guts to say it.

I'm keen on the idea of a board with a more simple tail than the swallow
(just for less chance of damage when storing and transporting)
5 fin positions.
with a mixture of fins of various sizes, (which could get expensive)
you could cover many wave types and people types with one board
... provided it wasn't too big for the rider.

The sort of board you could leave at a holiday house and anyone could ride.

it may actually require a couple of board sizes to cover people with very different sizes and weights ... but you get the idea.

Heaven forbid if I mention the possibility of a ... softboard

[K-man]

Found this....General idea.


album_showpage.php?pic_id=9163

[Kev]

yep
that sort of thing

what a great gift for the locals kids