Hey! A question on board design: Consider two boards with roughly the same outline and volume where one has accentuated beveled rails and the other has a simple flat bottom. I have seen where the beveled board takes substantially longer to plane-off and get going with FD assist compared to the flat bottom board. The question is do the same principles apply when paddling into a wave? Should I expect that the flat bottom board is easier to paddle in?? THANKS in advance for any shared insight.
Hi, I believe the flat bottom takes off much easier. Had this issue towing behind the jet, can’t say if will be the same while paddling, but it was so much more difficult with a beveled board to take off than a flat one that I just got rid of the board. The flat one at 14L is much more easier than the beveled that had 23L.
Cheers
Yes I am convinced behind boat or FD powered, flat bottoms are more efficient.
Those apple trees are really nice.
much of the local FD crew rides them, different model with completely flat bottom (Apple slice maybe?) precisely because they plane off quickly, save battery and allow for a smaller foil.
I am more interested in paddling in prone and wondering if I am losing some ability to catch waves by having beveled rails over a flat bottom??
It would be so interesting (and fun) to do a side-by-side paddle in test, the V bottom versus say this one:
Bevel/chined rail is there for not scrubbing on turns when on foil. If you’re concerned about paddle speed and takeoffs then length of the board matters more than bottom shapes.
In my experience bevels remove a lot of upwards dynamic pressure as the board starts moving.
Boards with lots of beveling/canoe shape feel “weird” at first because they do move forward with less drag but they do so with much less increase in stability than you would expect.
So if you try to pump the board like you do your typical bodyboard shape it nosedives or rolls on you.They rely more on straight line speed to get up on foil.