Sunday, March 7, 2010

Inspecting inspiration...

Hynd, Litmus, 5'8" Frye keel fish, Visual interpretation from Litmus screenshot via Jack Brull at Saltstainedeyes.

The Litmus Fish really liked the spear takeoff, no paddle takeoff, fast paddle takeoff...it was all about controlled speed entries. That 5'8" liked the wave the bigger it got. I learnt another side of surfing on that old friend ala glide etc. That's not to say there hadn't been other revelations on other boards. Particularly - the key of Campbell Brothers rail fins in accelerating layback snaps at JBay in the late 80's...not unlike the feeling of Al Merrick's 6'4" bump tail of around 1987. Put the right board in the right wave and any surfer feels touches of magic.

-Derek Hynd, 2/2010

Two nice sessions on a 5'8" Frye Fish brought me a lot of pleasure this weekend. I looked back over some recent correspondence and came across the above quote. I think Derek hit the nail on the head- a traditional fish will teach you about "glide". The single-minded purity of a true keel is so enjoyable. The original recipe: short, flat, wide, double foiled big-base keels. I think I'll take the '76 5'6 Lis Keel out for a bit of crucial keeling.

Mr. Hynd, thanks for your inspiration.

4 comments:

Jamie said...

Where's the full Hynd interview????

Radalog said...

Those old fish have been known to reinvigorate quite a few surfers over the years. Effortless glide is really "enjoyable" feeling. Those fish also really excel at positioning on the face of the wave.

glider said...

Kinda funny to see that image of hyde. I snapped it from a video still of kidmans litmus and did alittle photoshop on it- my blog is www.saltstainedeyes.blogspot.com hope you can link me.-jack

borntoloser said...

Sure, Jack. Sometimes the ease and anonymity of the internet makes me lazy. Apologies.