Re: [Paddlewise] Do Surfing Vessels Plane?

Rob,

I'll take that bet.  How much you got to lose?  'Cause you are wrong, 
wrong, wrong on this one...

Shortboards like the one in your photo are the slowest of the slow.  They 
are short (obviously) and have very low flotation.  If the surfer doesn't 
keep them in the pocket or turning constantly, they slow and sink.  A 
surfkayak or longboard is much faster but they have their own set of 
limitations.  My problem when surfing is that my kayak is too damn fast.  I 
keep outrunning the pocket and am sometimes not able to execute well enough 
to stay there.

Just for a little photographic confirmation here's a link of a picture of a 
fellow surfing a glass surfkayak in Indonesia:

http://www.playboating.com/

Like my good friend Kevin said, a little more practical experimentation 
might serve you guys a little better than all this ASCII 
speculation.  Here's the kind of kayak people use to surf ocean waves these 
days:

http://www.mega-kayaks.co.uk/ufo.html

Wow, they have "planing hulls".  If planing isn't the correct term then 
someone needs to tell every single whitewater and surf kayak 
manufacturer.  They sure don't refer to their designs as a "Something That 
May Be Surfing/Planing Depending On What Part Of The Wave You're On Hull".

Regards,

Thomas

At 03:11 PM 1/18/2002 -0800, Rob MacDonald wrote:
>Check out http://surfpics.freeservers.com/images/surf4.jpg.
>
>
>Mostly, though, surfing kayaks don't go anywhere near this fast, I would 
>bet.  A couple of knots kick at best is more like it, which wouldn't count 
>as planing.  But it sure is fun!
>
>Rob.


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