Matteo V wrote: ↑Thu Dec 26, 2019 7:09 am
Trent hink wrote: ↑Thu Dec 26, 2019 3:12 am
I know of a few guys who can tear up waves pretty well on a skimboard, but I'm not one of them and I very much prefer a board with "some" volume in the waves.
Matteo, you should look up "surfboard foil" as it is considered a very basic concept in surfboard design.
As for the skimboard.....Why is there virtually no volume to that type of boards????? BECAUSE YOU DO NOT PRONE PADDLE IT.......Volume is NOT necessary for anything useful once the speed of 2-3knots is reached. This is because planning forces take over once you hit 2-3knots of water speed with a surfboard/skimboard in deep water. Similar to when kitesurfing, skimboarding gets it's energy to plane from somewhere else besides using your hands to paddle onto the wave. In kitesurfing, the kite gets you up onto plane, completely skipping the displacement mode of surfing. In skimboarding, the run and throw gets you to planing speeds, also completely skipping the displacement mode.
Maybe you could elaborate or provide some links as to what you are referring to by "surfboard foil" as a "very basic concept in surfboard design". I am pretty sure any search will yield only that which is referenced to attached modern hydrofoil systems.
What I am assuming you are referring to is the likeliness to a foil shape that a surfboard has to a foil section. But by definition, a working foil section much have the same media flowing above it, as flows below it. And that is not the case with a surfboard. A surfboard is a planning vessel, not a hydrofoiling one. The distribution of volume in a prone surfboard is primarily necessitated by having volume where you CAN have, and CANNOT have, that volume. Low volume in a tail is desirable because low volume gets your foot closer to the planing surface under it, thus allowing more direct control when standing on it. Volume at the front foot is OK because having the front foot further away from the planning surface below it is not extremely detrimental to control. And throughout the board, volume is placed so that the board will paddle by hand onto a wave easily. Volume has nothing to do with how a board "rides" other than excessive volume hindering overall planning performance and control.
So the eureka moment for me was when I realized that volume only produces a force when that volume is submerged below the waterline. But once submerged, that force is not only minimal (and losing the battle against your weight in a very dynamic way), but it is also extremely unstable when submerged. The less volume to the board that is submerged below you, the more stable it is. Think about standing on a submerged beach ball in the waves - pretty unstable right? All of your energy goes into not falling over and the beach ball shooting up out of the water and into the air/away from you. Now think about removing most of the air from the beach ball......More stable right? Less "shooty" up out of water and into the air???
I used to think about 2 things in kitesurfing from the stand point of a surfer and windsurfer. They were (1) that straps sucked and were worthless and (2) that volume was a good thing. Both of those ideas that I clung to for a very long time, are absolutely wrong. At the root of why I was so wrong for so long, is that I never truly understood how either of the above actually worked, and/or what they were for. At least not until I really looked at things in an objective manner, did some comparisons, and asked "why". So give that a shot. Ask yourself:
1. Why can't I prone surf a wakeboard, but I can prone surf a surfboard?
2. Why can I kite a wakeboard and I can also kite a prone surfboard?
3. Why are high performance prone surfboards so low in volume compared to lower performance prone surfboards being higher in volume?
4. Why is it not only possible, but no big deal at all, to use a tiny kitesurfboard to kitesurf when I could never dream of using that same tiny board for prone surfing?
5. Why do I not really need a bigger/higher volume board when kitesurfing in more mushy/slow waves?
The answer, common to all 5 of these questions is that volume is only necessary for paddling onto a wave, while at the same time volume is detrimental to overall performance of the system once up on a plane.