Vee Bottom Surboards - past and present

Te whole thing with the spin out was true for some of the very deep Vbottoms that ran very far up the bottom. I believe boards like Midgets were a little more thought out with thinner rails.Matavish testing them in Hawaii did show that they had limits. The other problem is that everybody jumped on the design without a clue as to what they were doing. The V ended up being tossed in the bin of failed design. In the last 10 years A few brave souls started looking at the V. Working on blending and balancing the effect of the V into an over well preforming craft. It is getting a following. It seems the newer Boards that a few dedicated Shapers are building do sell. My personal opinion is they work as a quad or with a long narrow flex center fin. No expert here on V bottoms I just like quirky boards. Been thinking a lot about a V bottom Fish style board. The blending of the two might just make fun Board. Fish like to turn off the rail and the V would get you on to the rail. That’s my story for now. Might even stick to it.

 

The original McTavish ones that looked like a 10’ longboard with the tail sawn off and deep Vs went away fast. For that reason. Today V has so many meanings pretty much any tail that is not concave or flat has some type of vee.

 

in 69' tried a Mctavish V bottom that had made it's way to Pedro....every time I ran it down to the bottom and really leaned on the rail, the tail would promptly break loose and skid out, would only hold if I angled in and carefully nursed the turn...and the bastard was also slow as hell, just too much bottom engaged...hopefully the modern V's work much better...why surf a board you can't lay on rail with confidence..?

 

I've had two boards with V. Both around 8ft. A Hilbers 8 foot Mini Zombie and 8 2 Hilbers Hot Gen. Both were hullish with V tails and could be laid on rail with confidence. The Mini Z had more V than the Hot G. Anyhow, too much of a good thing, (in this case, V) wrecks the balance with the rest of the board and causes issues - same with any design element.

The aspects of a board have to work harmoniously and in system together. Less of one design element means more of the others to balance the board out - up to certain limits. If a board has too much of one design element, the others likely can't make up for the imbalance and you end up with a very limited board. That's my take.

 

I think it’s evolved to a similar point where you can’t just classify a board as longboard with so many variables, kinda similar as I’ve had many v’s from 7’ up to my 10’ v Hornet, square tail, vpin to pin-entirely different beasts.
When I think of v bottom as a type of board/surfing my natural inclination and association is midlegnth square tail singlefin with a more involved style of interacting with a wave- a very specific vibe and feel I love in the right conditions/waves

 

.....then there’s this funkybut
6’4, thick v pin that’s just all kinds of pure fun on the right wave/day

 

midget 1967

 

did he make it? the turn that is, we know he made the board.

 

so many ways to skin the cat...Greg Griffin's low rockered flat bottoms...Maurice Cole's highly rockered deep single concaves..latest Kai Sallas model from Takayama employs whole lotta V from mid board all the way through the rear concaves...why this is the golden age of surfboard design...after decades of development and testing, each branch on the shaping tree has matured and whatever flavor of kool aid you personally prefer, it's never tasted better..