All the neat Harbour designs get my mind thinking about surfboards again, after years of cobwebs, and I realize things I thought I understood I really
don't. One of these is what facilitates paddle speed.
In the short board era I always equated a wider nose with "better" paddling, e.g. if the nose of my 6'6" was an inch wider, the board would paddle better and catch waves more easily. Of course on a 6'6" I suppose that inch of forward width was adding a significant % of overall foam and buoyancy. Would my board have paddled as fast or faster if that same amount of foam was added in tail width?
More to current considerations, with longer (adult sized :-) boards, just in terms of paddling speed, is a wider nose helping me get up to speed paddling, or making it harder? A wider nose hardly streamlines the boat, in fact boats and paddle boards have narrow noses, right? And it seems like it would be easy to add the cubic inches of foam or square inches of planning area lost with a narrower nose a little further back on a 10 foot board (or make the board an inch longer).
The long board I started on had a very wide nose and paddled well, but I was young & scrawnny back then, and it was a whole different design (thick tail, belly nose, etc.), and I never compared how it worked with a similar board with a narrower nose.
Granted, a narrower nose is going to change the nose riding equation a bit, maybe harder to nose ride on a slow wave, but nose rides at higher speed?
OK, I might be trolling for Rich's knowledge, though I am sure he has answered this sort of question thousands of times already and maybe the answer is tribal knowledge here.
Eric
"Busy earning points with honey-do's, since the wife does not yet understand the value of a quiver ... unless the quiver is made of boots or handbags..."
In the short board era I always equated a wider nose with "better" paddling, e.g. if the nose of my 6'6" was an inch wider, the board would paddle better and catch waves more easily. Of course on a 6'6" I suppose that inch of forward width was adding a significant % of overall foam and buoyancy. Would my board have paddled as fast or faster if that same amount of foam was added in tail width?
More to current considerations, with longer (adult sized :-) boards, just in terms of paddling speed, is a wider nose helping me get up to speed paddling, or making it harder? A wider nose hardly streamlines the boat, in fact boats and paddle boards have narrow noses, right? And it seems like it would be easy to add the cubic inches of foam or square inches of planning area lost with a narrower nose a little further back on a 10 foot board (or make the board an inch longer).
The long board I started on had a very wide nose and paddled well, but I was young & scrawnny back then, and it was a whole different design (thick tail, belly nose, etc.), and I never compared how it worked with a similar board with a narrower nose.
Granted, a narrower nose is going to change the nose riding equation a bit, maybe harder to nose ride on a slow wave, but nose rides at higher speed?
OK, I might be trolling for Rich's knowledge, though I am sure he has answered this sort of question thousands of times already and maybe the answer is tribal knowledge here.
Eric
"Busy earning points with honey-do's, since the wife does not yet understand the value of a quiver ... unless the quiver is made of boots or handbags..."
