An hour glass shaped surfboard. Kind of interesting theory and it appears to work: <BR><a href="http://gizmodo.com/5348044/riding-a-surfboard-made-by-an-old-apple-designer" target="_blank">http://gizmodo.com/5348044/riding-a-surfboard-made-by-an-old-apple-designer</a>

A friend was talking about these boards the other day. thx for the link.

Sidecut like a snowboard. I snapped a quick picture of one of the riders in the men's am up at the NWWSA open. You can't see it from the picture but it was a quad using probox boxes and the bottom had a slight V through the belly with a channel out of the swallowtail. It seemed super fast down-the-line, but the turning looked "odd". Like the center tried to sink before the nose, so turns seemed to initiate in a jerky fashion, with the nose almost trailing behind. <BR> <BR><img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/87668/730520.jpg" alt="Upload">

on the gizmodo the boards seem to barely work. I'm all about new technologies and going against established trends but I'm just not that impressed by the way this implementation at this time (not saying it won't be improved upon)

Watching him ride, it seemed to work, and he rode it fairly well, but like Jeff said, it did seemed to turn odd. You will see when I get to that video.

Yeah, it went fast down-the-line, but turns were just weird. caskimmer has tons more snowboard experience than me, so he might be able to address the sidecut theory better...on a snowboard, well at least on groomers, the snow is hard and inflexible, so the nose and tail of a snowboard grab at the intitiation of a turn and the sidecut in combination with the flex baisically creates the rocker that a standard surfboard has. This is further enhanced with bindings well between the two bulbous nodes at the tip an tail. That stance isn't dupilicated on a surfboard, nor is there the significant flex that would engage the rail similarly. I have read some theory that the side cut helps eliminate drag as the nose sort of clears the way and doesn't grab at the mid-section, I think what happens though is that it creates that weird turning characteristic. It didn't appear smooth or fluid.

It just seemed to me that (in the video above) that turning was extremely sluggish and might have even been throwing them off balance (don't know how good they were). <BR> <BR>IMO anything that messes with the fluidity &amp; responsiveness of turning is huge step in the wrong direction.

I was watching fuel TV and it looks like they will be talking about a surf board with that shape tomorrow (Sept 4th) on the Daily Habit

ok, so I finally got to this video in the Amateur Male footage. <BR> <BR><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9NVkBW7on8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9NVkBW7on8</a> <BR> <BR>I must be getting old, I thought I remembered the board riding pretty well when I watched it on the monitor during the contest. But watching the video, it SEEMS like the rider is really fighting to turn it, and also seems very tough to keep in the sweet spot. He is either falling back or pearling. Its almost like when water gets in that side groove, it acts like a wing pulling the board underwater. I am sure others like surfdad may have a better explanation, but the rider definitely seems to be fighting the board alot.