If you're into it, you'll be into this
Designed for Waves 6 - 30ft. For the last 10 years tow in surfing has been a big part of my shaping and design life.
Being one of the Australian shaping/tow surfing pioneers, I have watched the sport of tow surfing grow to be one of the most challenging sports in the world, and from a design and shaping perspective – tow surfing has become a new frontier and direction that will bring design and technological advances to the sport of surfing. This revolution is the Formula One of surfing!
I have been blessed to work with Ross Clarke Jones for the last 7 years as my lunatic test pilot. Ross Clarke Jones is one of my best mates, and someone who I have shared major design and technological advancements with in waves that are beyond the imagination of the current surfing world.
We believe with the current boards we are testing that we are attaining speeds of anywhere up to 120kmh, and at these speeds having to turn and carve on boards that are generally 5’11” x 16”1/4 x 1”3/4 is throwing out some spectacular results. At these speeds the hydronamic world kicks in or you get your ass kicked! Everything from the fins, their placement, their angle, their stiffness, their size, their foil – is all important.
Also of note is the hull shape – we have evolved the shapes to where we have a substantial 3/4” concave running the length of the board, which gives you less wetted surface area, (think catamaran vs mono-hull) but also gives you a very straight/fast centre bottom line with all the curve for turning being on the rail line – trimming super fast, turning, accelerating and being able to do the fastest carves known to man!
Construction of the boards goes from multilayered fibreglass hulls, carbon/kevlar hulls, and now using the highest grade carbon available we have, with 80/20 foil fins, achieved the stiffest, but with memory second to none, tow board on the planet!
But what does this mean to the other 99% of surfers that don’t tow? Well, if at speeds 3 times the normal paddle board we can get the results we have with our tow boards, you can be sure that this information fed into the surfboard has produced a new evolution in regular surfing.
MC on the Tow board.
MC on C-Drive fins
Ross Clarke-Jones at Pedra Branca.
