drift, perspectives in surfing

The roots of these designs originated with the ideas of Bob Simmons then George Grenough, and the surfing of Nat Young and Wayne Lynch. They evolved from the first Keyo surfboard while Greg Liddle watched Nat Young ride at Malibu in 1968. Over the next twenty years the shapes were modified through trial and error to fit small point surf and other waves in Southern California and elsewhere. The rocker was actually developed after copying the rocker from one uniquely fast board that Greg shaped. He had Paul Gross make a rocker template rocker that is still in use today. The board still evolves has a unique place in anyone’s quiver, especially those that like to surf point breaks.

The templates evolved from trial and error by friends and customers; Steve Krajewski, Andy Davis, Dave Lloyd, Kirk Putnam, Paul Gross to name a few and many others. The feedback resulted in design changes to create an array of templates for different wave and different styles.

Construction

Stringer material is usually an exact 1/8" cedar. All the blanks are glued up with my own custom rocker especially designed for these boards. Fabric is 6 oz. flat weave volan and 6 oz. flat weave silene in combination. Bottom is a single 6 oz. volan . Deck is a 6oz volan in combination with a 6 oz silene layer on top that free laps onto the bottom. This weave also has higher tensile strength than the same weight of cloth with the standard twist weave. The flat weave holds less resin and gives the board more flexibility and life. In small and or weak surf this is particularly important to feel the wave.
UV cured ortho/iso combination laminating resin and the standard finishing resin on the deck and the bottom. Fin Placement
You can get used to the fin in any position but to maximize the acceleration of the board out of a turn placement is critical. Start with the fin 12” up from the tail block to trailing edge of the fin. There should be small marks along the fin channel used as reference points. Ride the board a bit to get the initial feel and then move the fin forward 1/2” and ride it again; ideally in the same conditions. You can become sensitive to 1/4” movements.

Contrasts of Styles on a Liddle : J Patton from chuck menzel on Vimeo.