A "Thumb" for behind the boat

[NICKYPOO]

You're welcome anytime Nick. I've been snowboarding up at Sugarbowl and looking down on Donner lake. That is so gorgeous down there, but I can imagine in the heat of summer that water temp is probably 60 degrees!

It's not the water temp, its the traffic that sucks. It's a one-way lake in the summer so it just turns into a giant soup bowl. Cambell's Chunky.

[NICKYPOO]

Nickypoo: got any vid of the hang-five move or the Jesus?

We very rarely shoot vid so, I doubt it. I can think of one pic that I know of where I'm about to fall off but, since I'm usually the one who takes the pics there is rarely any of me. I will check though.

[jbort]

Nickypoo: got any vid of the hang-five move or the Jesus?

[jbort]

on the demo approach-thinkin out loud...... I'd suggest keep simple and easy since time will be kinda short. Perhaps limit to folks u know pretty well and trust to be careful and ship to next person vs open to anybody in which it will go bye-bye pretty quick. 6-8 folks? Maybe have each person shoot some video too as part of the action. Just a few quick ideas. Shipping might be costly-will stop at UPS store to check out.

[Surfdad]

You're welcome anytime Nick. I've been snowboarding up at Sugarbowl and looking down on Donner lake. That is so gorgeous down there, but I can imagine in the heat of summer that water temp is probably 60 degrees!

I think like you suggest these sorts of boards aren't going to be for the introductory folks, so that by itself will limit the takers. That's a good starting point, is just to ask what their experience level is. If they are still figuring out what board they want, this isn't it

But like you and Timmy, it would be a something you guys could give a whirl just for fun and to get you thinking about additions to your boards.

I think this first summer there won't be much time on it. I just sprung the idea on Mike yesterday, so he hasn't even had a chance to do a file in a shaping program. He'll have to squeeze it in amongst his regular productin work and those cut files are probably all done already. I'm hoping that I'll have it around the beginning of July. Just by the number of weekends left, there probably won't be lots of demo's on it.

It'll be fun, a little challenge for these top-of-the-line shapers and we get to see innovative results from crazy ideas.

[NICKYPOO]

I'm super down to ride it. Maybe you could build some sort of hard case for it for shipping. Maybe we could just meet halfway. I'm down to drive over the hill. It ain't that far. We should hook up ride some time anyways. The problem is weight when you talk shipping. IDK. Maybe if you put some vids out of it being ridden, it'll spark some interest. Maybe win a masters event on it and some of us old folks will just have to have one. Is think it would be a hot item with the HotDoggers. Just thinking out loud here.

[Surfdad]

Yeah, if you're just carving, it's not all that thrilling. It becomes more about the social aspects of being out on the water. In the surfing world, folks have quivers, but they aren't just variations of the same board like wakesurf folks do. Some have boards for specific breaks, mostly our "breaks" are always the same. REally it's just all the same to me. Maybe a longboard that we can walk but that doesn't take up every square inch of the interior of the boat. Or the noserider. Something new would be welcome in my book.

[Timmy!]

Even my wife commented while surfing this past Sunday that she can free ride and cruise around and carve pretty good but she's not interested in aerials or spin tricks so what else is there for her to do? She said it gets boring after 5 minutes. Maybe hanging ten would be fun for her?

[Surfdad]

Thanks Timmy! Yeah, there is a TON of wakesurf board stuff on the Flyboy site. Some of it even worked!

I'd just like to see some new stuff in wakesurfing, we are just so stuck. As consumers you really have little options, who is going to commission a 5 foot nose rider with 5 fin Bonzer bottom. Oh wait, ME! You get the idea, no one will test a crazy idea because what if it doesn't work, that's like flushing $600 down the drain.

It'd be nice if we can get some new and interesting things to surf with that aren't just another skim or surf.

[Timmy!]

Thanks for trying to progress the sport Jeff! I spent a few hours last night reading through the flyboy blog and man, I forgot how much stuff you had done!

[Timmy!]

Does anyone have any good ideas for how to do that demo program? I can't imagine I'll have 5,000 folks interested, but there are only so many weekends during a summer.

Talk to ragboy...he did this for awhile with a ballast bag, pump and a board but I think someone "stole" it for awhile. That's the hard part, getting people to ship it to the next person and making sure it's kept in decent shape.

[Surfdad]

Soulcraft is in, although he wanted the noserider, he suggested a concave deck kneeboard. Not kneeboard like we did as kids, but from the ocean, think Greenough spoon style.

I think that would be crazy fun. What do you guys think?

[Surfdad]

LOL I'm not sure I like that name, but it's funny as hell. Actually, I am going to try and have a few different shapes made. I've got a call in to Jeff Whalers at Soulcraft to see if he'd be interested. It just has to be a different shape than we've all seen before. The Thumb noserider is unique and man, I am just so sick and tired of where this sport is stuck.

I'm also working with Mike Armstrong at Calibrated.

Maybe this summer we'll have something different that folks can sample and not just the endless "me too" shapes.

Does anyone have any good ideas for how to do that demo program? I can't imagine I'll have 5,000 folks interested, but there are only so many weekends during a summer.

[Timmy!]

I'd be interested in trying it out as well! The Surfdad Thumb board demo program...

[Surfdad]

@ Timmy! Yes and I've also been in touch with Mike Walker from The Walker Project, I'm going to have him build one for us too. I think we'll be doing some demo's of the collaborative efforts. Not sure how we'll manage that just yet, but I think it might be fun for people to give these things a spin.

@ Nickypoo I can't ride with my eyes closed at all. Mad props from me for doing that at all. My eye sight is crap to begin with, but it seems to be enough to stay balanced. After I get the one from TWP, give me a shout of you want to demo it. I'll figure out how to ship the thing so folks can ride it.