WINGS ON YOUR BOARDS

[fisherrat]

TO WING OR NOT TO WING THAT IS THE QUESTION! OR MAYBE DOUBLE WING. WHO LIKE THEM AND WHO DON,T WHY!!

[K-man]

MY first KBs were from freeline[mel] and the all had double wings.Not pronunced,but subtle.After switching shapers all my boards are now clean with various tails.Couldn't tell the difference.Personally I think they look better without-aesthetics ya know?There's a few tricky people on this sight who'll know what they're supposed to do.

[surfhorn]

John at Freeline has been using wings since the single fin days as a way to break water flow off of the typically straight templates of the early 70's. At that time, the wide point of a board was well in front of center so the rail after that point would run fairly straight back to the tail; the board would go straight really well but wouldn't turn without a super human effort.

The wing was a pivotal point for a turn. You should have seen the big honking wings that were called Stingers (on standup boards).........a very pronounced wing about 21" up from tail....it worked in conjunction with a 12" flex single fin...again, the late 70's.

I used wings on all my Freelines, starting when thrusters first came out and stuck with them up until a few years ago.

[red]

My twins of the 70's had hard wings to act as a pivot point aka Mark Richards'

Since then over 10 years of quads and 10 years of thrusters the wings have been gradually getting softer and more elongated, since the boards have more curve in the rail and rocker.

If I have anything nowadays it is a subtle change in the rail line to achieve a narrowed tail but retain width in the hips

Personally I think the smoother the lines the more flowing the rider can be.

[Beeline2.0]

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[nwdude]

how about a similar analysis of the classic fish tail ?

[toofast]

Ok...I ride a "stinger shallow". The "stingers" are about 14" up from the tips of the shallow tail. For me, they seem to make the board looser. All my boards have them on them

[Beeline2.0]

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[Bryan Jackson]

This may or may not be a true story, but I recall once reading (in a mainstream surf magazine) that Steve Lis' original intention with the Fish was to create a "double pin tail" !

It seems that he liked the pintail's speed and ability to hold in hollow waves, but had a problem with his swimfins creating a helluva lot of drag because they hung so far off the sides of his board . (We're talking narrow, not rounded, pintails here). In those days there was much less swimfin variety available and KBers were pretty much limited to large clumsy Duck Feet/UDTs or extremely flimsy Churchills (this was pre-Makapuu) .

His solution: cut a pintail in half and glue the two halves back together only reversed . Of course, it was not quite this simple and some other modifications had to be made as well but it is easy enough to see the basic logic of his idea . The extra wide tail would now accomodate his swimfins and keep them from dragging over the sides of the board while still functioning as a pintail and would definitely greatly increase the speed of the board .

Anyway if this story is true it would be yet another example of 'necessity being the mother of all invention' and a most serendipitous discovery !

Also, Rich Pavel once told me that the raison d' etre of the Quad fin design on the Fish (as opposed to twin keel fins) was to create a looser board without sacrificing holding power .

[nwdude]

thanks beeline for adding clarity - i ride rich pavel's quad fishes - my last 2 have been 5'7'', but am just getting a new 5'10" - at my age ( 61 ) want to see if can get more paddling speed - last trip to indo i really wanted to get in earlier than was able - my question is this - is the fish design noted for speed when riding across a hollow wall ( or just speed in general ), and if so why ?

[Beeline2.0]

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[Beeline2.0]

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[red]

My fish whips around and heads back up to the lip.

Could it be that the fish is shorter (length at the stringer) in cutback i.e. the buried pin virtually disappears because of its small surface area, whereas it has long rail length for driving down the line? I'd guess that the reduced tail area is easier to overcome so you can whip the fishboard around, but the rounded pin offers far more resistance (oh, but the drive...)

If you have hard wings they will also cause this. I used to be able to do a snap almost in the tube by pivoting on th BIG wings on a stinger I had. It was a complete "see saw on a fulcrum" effect, with the wing acting as the fulcrum and the rail aft hardly touching the water, I imagine.