Hit the Road Full Length Vee

This is my latest 7'3", a Hit the Road FLV. It's significantly different to previous HTR designs and even though I've yet to surf it in ideal conditions, I've been very impressed with the way it surf's so far. Here's a quick rundown on this latest design and why I think it's going so well. I've noticed a few crew have been comparing this new FLV to 80's style boards such as the Black Beauty and so I just want to say that this new take on a full length vee is nothing like the 80's style vee bottoms, and that the performance of them is light years ahead of the 80's style boards.

OUTLINE

As you can see, the nose is slightly wider then previous designs and the tip of the tail is slightly pinnier than previous models but still holding a softer type curve.

The slightly wider nose really improves wave catching and also adds stability to the front of the board, but without reducing the boards sensitivity or responsiveness, while the new tail shape provides better control at higher speeds and puts more outline curve up under your feet where you need it.

ROCKER

The rocker modifications are very minimal, but the new curve is slightly smoother and more even than before, providing minimal drag while generating maximum planing and drive.

THICKNESS

In line with current design directions, there is more thickness up in the front of the nose, substantially improving the board's ability to catch waves.

BOTTOM CONTOUR

Earlier this year during a design rave with John Pyzel, I got to thinking that maybe I should try some of the full length vee's that he's been running in his Padillac models and this is where the most significant design changes have occurred.

Since the concave has become the standard bottom contour, use of the vee bottom has become very limited in performance boards these days. At most, a tiny bit behind the rear fin, or up in the very first part of the nose. I had reservations about running the full length vee, as I knew that it was probably going to slow the board down. A vee creates a displacement hull.... generating lift, but also pushing water... My other concern was that the full length vee would reduce the the rocker curve along the rail of the board, creating a straighter rail line around the critical fin area.

So I was looking at a loss of speed and a loss of turning response, not a winning combo right? But maybe... there were things i wasn't even thinking about or hadn't considered?

So, after much consideration, I designed and built a full length vee that runs from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail, varying from rolled vee to concave vee as it moves it's way along the bottom of the board. The only one way to find out, right? Roll the dice, build it, and surf it!

RESULTS

Ok, so I've had a few surfs on the board now and the results have been quite surprising, with the new contours performing much better than I expected. To be honest, it's actually a very exciting board and I'm really liking the marriage of the vee with the concave.

Here's what I've discovered so far.. As expected, the full length vee does create drag and a loss of speed while the board is in a flat trim. But, when I put the board over on its rail, the straighter curve kicks in, and the board friggin flys! My feeling is that as I surf the board more, and learn how to tap into this better, that I will be able to generate some serious speed by putting this board over on it's rail. The other big surprise is the turning. The constant vee feels like it transitions out thru the tail much better than the previous concave/vee combinations. The result is a board that feels very smooth off the bottom and yet hooks much tighter under the lip than the previous concave/vee combinations. The one other thing that I really like about the new bottom contour, is the way the concave vee rolled from rail to rails on the face of the wave. I used to really like the way the old 70's and 80's vee bottoms did this, allowing the boards to make subtle trim adjustments and spontaneous direction changes very easily.

The funny thing is that I was already very happy with the performance of my previous Hit the Road boards and felt no need to improve the current single into double concave configuration. But this full length vee feels like it's opening up a whole new level of performance for the bigger boards, and I'm super keen to get this 7'3 into some more surf as soon as possible.

I've also built an 8'4" version... now just waiting for swell for it... i think it's going to be a very interesting board....

NOTES

The one thing that I never even thought about when designing this board, and it wasn't until I started padding it out the first time, that I even realised, that the vee bottom will reduce a board's overall volume when compared to a concave... quite significantly! Didn't see that one coming! Looking back at the design files, I can see that the FLV"s need to be 1/8" thicker to compensate for the vee bottom.

I also think that because the vee allows easier rail to rail transitions, that the FLV (Full Length Vee) designs could also be made a 1/4" wider.

I will be putting the FLV up on the website as a new model sometime in the near future, but in the meantime if you think you'd like one, use the order form below and just add in the comments that you'd like to try the FLV. I recommend adding an 1/8" thickness and 1/4" of width to your standard measurements.

See yas!

Jim Banks

www.jimbanksurf.com/custom

Just taking it in...

Whenever I come across an image of this board, I always stop and take a moment to just marvel at it. I just love the balance of the curves, the single wing... even the logo and the resin tint rail lap. It all looks just right.

It's a 5'10" single into double concave, '73 model inspired by the single wing, single fin pins that i used to ride in the early '70's. I've built quite a few of these for myself over the last couple of years and they've surprised me numerous times now, with just how well they surf.

I remember the very first surf on one as a single fin (early versions had the extra quad boxes). The waves were small and soft and I wasn't really expecting much, but the board just flew down the line, turning with a really nice squirt that the 70's singles never had.

Another time was slightly overhead, afternoon in the Ments. The waves were really nice shape, but very soft. The kind of waves that I would usually struggle with on a thruster. But with the '73 single fin, I just couldn't do a thing wrong and I was really surprised with just how well the board was surfing.

And then down East last year, on a quite powerful, head high, long walled right, the board just matched the wave perfectly. Often when this particular wave was breaking like this, thrusters or twinnys would build up too much speed and tend to get a a bit uncontrollable. But the '73 was just right, pulling smooth carving turns and not getting crabby like a thruster would, if I ran too far out on the shoulder.

It's a beautiful thing.....

Do you ever make something and then just sit back and marvel at the beauty of it?

And I'm not talking about giving yourself a pat on the back, but just simply admiring at the beauty of what's just been created...​ this board is one of those for me.

Love this board!

Indo Rocket Length 6'6" Width 19 1/2" Thickness 2 5/8" Volume 34.75 litres

It's funny, but this board is full circle for me. Back in the late 70's at Cronulla, when a quiver consisted of one board, my board was a 6'6" single fin, vee bottom pintail that I surfed in everything.

But designs have come a long way since the 70's, and now my 6'6" rounded pintail is a quad finned, single into double concaved rocket that would outperform my trusty old 70's single fin by miles. The speed and acceleration and ease of turning of this board really is a modern wonder of design. And I can say this, because I have been there all the way for the last 40 years as this design has evolved.

But, you might be thinking, why does it actually go so good?

Well, at the end of the day, 90% of what we feel when we ride a board, is the bottom rocker. Over the years this 6'6's rocker has passed through countless variations of more rocker, less rocker, different styles of rocker, to arrive at this current combination of a smooth, fast entry rocker that feeds into a drivey, but loose tail rocker, that feels just right.

The most recent adjustment of this rocker was an increase in noselift, added in such a way, so as to hopefully not reduce the planing or paddling speed of the board. I remember when I first tested it on one of my best customers. It looked pretty wild at the time, and I was a bit concerned that I had gone too far. So I stayed in close contact with Dave, waiting for the possible "mmm, this one seems a bit slower than the last one..." But when he reported back that the main problem he was having with the board, was slowing it down, I let out a silent whoop! And a sigh of relief at the same time! Because, if it's one thing I have learnt as a surfboard designer is that, even though I'm armed with 40 years of knowledge and experience, I never really know until i get the the board on a wave.

Another factor that contributes to this board's exceptional performance is the bottom contour. This board's single into double concave has been evolving over the last 5 or 6 years to it's current set up, and as someone who knows, I'll tell you that you wouldn't believe how much work, and how many countless boards go into getting this just right. Too much concave and the board's going to be cranky, grabbing and bite too hard, not enough and the opposite happens. And every time a slight adjustment to the rocker is made, the concave needs to be adjusted to match the new rocker. So, it's a crazy amount of work to get this just right.

The final touch to the bottom contour was an incrementally small adjustment to the way it flows out behind that back fin. It's so incrementally subtle, that even I can't see it when I pick up the board, and I'm the one who put it in there! But it's there and it makes a huge difference to how the board feels and moves through the water.

A more obvious design aspect of this board is the quad fins. Initially when I started using them in non fish or non gun boards, I was finding that they lacked drive and just weren't working for me personally. But as the designs have evolved and fin placements evolved, the current quad setups have proven to be extremely versatile, to the point where I have many of my best customers saying that they're not interested in riding thrusters at all anymore.

This past weekend's experience with this board, really hit home the board's versatility for me. I had headed up the coast with my oldest boy, Matt and surfing/jamming buddy Ash Grunwald to a fun beach break that turned out to be soft, head high peaks with waist to chest high shoulders. Definitely not the right surf for a 6'6" pintail. But these days, I often ignore the obvious logical choice and go with my feelings... which was to take out the above 6'6".

I wasn't really expecting it to perform and was just thinking that I was going to have a slow, but hopefully graceful, surf. But right from the very first wave, I couldn't help myself when I felt the boards acceleration, and putting my foot down, I drove hard of the bottom and pointed the board straight back up at the lip. I was honestly surprised at how fast the board had accelerated and with how much speed I now had under my feet as I approached the lip. And so what to do... but try a hard hook under the lip as the the wave was about to close out! Yeah, it was a very short wave, and so much for the graceful surf idea...

But not only did the board perform the smoothest, tightest, under the lip hook, but it came around so far that I got in another tight hook as the board had swung past 180 degrees and headed back into the pocket behind me. To be honest, I was actually feeling pretty impressed with myself as I don't recall surfing like that for a long time, ha! Looks like I wasn't going to be the fat old kook in the lineup today after all. Move over young guns, old guy coming through, haha!

But old guy having a good day aside, the overall performance of this board in waves that it was not designed for, really impressed me and really hit home for me just how far we have come with surfboard design over the last 40 years.

Probably the final factor worth mentioning about this board is the planshape. Recently I have been finding that some of my longer boards have actually been going too fast (not such a bad thing at times) and so I have been pulling in the tail widths to slow them down a touch and give more control and braking at higher speeds. This was the first shorter board that I've tried it on, and to be honest, it doesn't really feel like it's slowed down at all, but i do like the increased sensitivity of the narrower tail and the way it responds to direction changes quicker. To balance out the narrower tail, the centre and nose widths have been increase and so far, it all feels good!

Of course there are still numerous factors that are behind this design, such as the balance of the thickness, the contour and foil of the rails etc, but I'm staring to feel like going for a surf could be more fun than punching away at this keyboard. And that's probably enough waffling from me for now, anyway.

Just one final point, is that lately I have been thinking, that if someone said there's no more blanks, and that we can't build any more boards, I'd actually have no problems with it. I'm very happy with my current quiver of boards, and I really do believe that the current boards surfboard builders are building these days, really are fantastic. And my own ones are built to last, so if that's what I'd have to surf for the rest of my life, no problem!

Yo!

See ya!