Noserider Fundamentals Tyler Hatzikian on the art of building and riding traditional longboards
Ideal Conditions: “The
best conditions for this board are basically ankle-to-head high. The
reason being the lift and drag, because when you ride it in a bigger
wave the board is coming up out of the water and actually going slower.
You basically want to ride this board in smaller conditions where the
board doesn’t have to go as fast or the wave is not going to allow you
to go that fast, because the faster you go with it, the more it comes up
out of the water and slows down. These are all the different elements
of lift that are incorporated in the design.” Photo: Balzer
Proper Technique: “This
board is meant to be ridden in a very traditional manner. A 10-foot
board probably weighs about twenty-five pounds. It’s made to be really
quick on fade turns. Because of the tail rocker and outline curve, you
can start that turn a little higher and project into the crease of the
wave rather than drop straight in down into the flats and making a turn
like you would on a down rail edge, flat bottom board. These are surfed
more off the rail, which is a fifty-fifty rail, and the fin serves as
just a stabilizer. The traditional way to ride it is to start with a
fade and as you project out of that turn, you come up the face and into
the vertical part of the wave. Then you run straight to the tip and
stick it there as long as you can, which is when all of those lift and
drag elements come into play.” Photo: Balzer
When
the waves are small, it’s hard to beat a traditional single-fin
longboard in terms of fun and function, and there are few individuals
more apt both on the nose and in the shaping bay than Los Angeles shaper
Tyler Hatzikian. “This is
a design I’ve been shaping for a little over twenty years now,” says
Tyler. “It has a lot of the same basic features as when I started making
them, but there have been little tweaks to the outlines, rails, and
thickness. Nowadays, alternative equipment seems to be more accepted.
Back when I was first making these boards, I just tried to separate
myself from the conventions of the ‘80s and early ‘90s. I wanted to
build a board that could advance my traditional surfing and advance my
ability to design and shape. To make something different from the
typical thrusters or longboards of the time, which were basically 9-foot
shortboards. I put a heavy focus on making the opposite kind of board,
and it felt new and exciting and it still does. Because no matter how
much you work at it, the quest for the perfect shape is still pretty
hard to achieve [laughs.]” Photos: Lowe-White
10’ x 23” x 3 ¼” Noserider: “Noseriders
are a balance of drag and lift. It’s basically a board that stalls, but
doesn’t stall too much. If you don’t have the right elements, you could
have a board that is just a dog or a board that is too fast—a board
that once you get to the nose, you’ve already outrun the wave and have
reset your line. This board is made to make a turn, get to the tip, and
stay there without outrunning or getting caught behind.” Photos: Lowe-White
Nose: “The
nose on this model is about 18 ¼”, and it has a 4-foot long concave. A
lot of spoons are just a blended type of oval, but this one has a
distinct edge around the concave so it cuts a straight line right down
the stringer, which is kind of unique. It basically has it’s own planing
surface and it creates a good amount of lift, which is required for
good noseriding. Also, having an edge on the concave allows the water to
release instead of cavitate. If the water gets trapped in that concave,
you get too much drag.” Photos: Lowe-White
Bottom Contour:
“Some of the things that help balance speed are the concave and the
tail rocker, which creates a certain amount of drag so that you’re not
outrunning the wave. Because of the tail rocker, the water has to wrap
around the bottom of the board and out the back of it. The water
actually kind of has to go uphill as it flows past tail, which gives you
lift also. The nose rocker on this board is a little bit flat, which
allows the concave to be a little bit shallower. If you had a lot of
nose rocker and you had that straight concave, the concave would be way
too deep. So there is a balance between nose rocker and flat concave.
The way I have it dialed, all of those things have to be accurate within
an eighth of an inch. If you have too much one way or the other, it’s
either too fast or too slow.” Photo: Lowe-White
Fin:
“The fin I put in there is kind of a wider pivot fin. The leading end
of the fin and the trailing edge are fairly parallel to each other. The
straight trailing edge creates kind of a certain drag also, but the main
thing with the fin is that is doesn’t have a rake. It’s pretty much
straight up and down, which allows you to break the fins side to side,
when you’re on the nose. If you’re trying to adjust or turn from the
nose, the straight up and down fin will go laterally a lot easier so you
can break your line from high in the face or banking and going around
the section. If you had a fin that had a lot of rake, it becomes tracky
because it’s hanging way out from behind the tail and it makes it kind
of stick when you try to turn. It’s placed right on the tail block and
the reason for that is because it’s the narrowest part of the board. A
lot of people think if you move the fin forward, its going to be looser,
but actually when you push the fin forward, you are in a wider part of
the board making it harder to turn. I put the fin all the way back in
the narrowest part of the board, so with a combination of curve in the
outline and tail rocker, you have a really loose turning board.” Photo: Lowe-White
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