McCoy Four Fins? NOT!

marc atkinson's picture
marc atkinson started the topic in Tuesday, 24 Jul 2012 at 11:02am

So I've just been in contact with Geoff McCoy and he's bummed out to discover guys are playing around with his designs by changing the fin configuration to four fins etc. In Geoff's own words, "If they worked better I would make them but they don't."

I've worked closely with Geoff for different periods of my life since 1971 and he is without doubt the most gifted and knowledgeable board designer I've personally met and/or worked with, yet he also takes the prize for the least understood by the industry he help to build in Australia.

History doesn't record Geoff McCoy in a good light; a man of vision and progressive thinking, he has instead often been portrayed in a less than glorifying light. Knowing him as I do, I have to admit often he is his own worst enemy when it comes to speaking to media and the industry and his sometimes abrupt and abrasive manner often comes back and bites him on the arse as he gets misunderstood and miss quoted etc. Yeah, we've all got our crosses to carry.

But let's get back to surfboard design.....

All you guys out there re-configuring your McCoy's with different fin set ups, do so not understanding the physics behind the design and therefore you're playing with matches and generally your pockets going to get burnt.... it's not cheap to change a board to a four fin just to find out it's not what you were expecting and hoping for. Then you gotta sell it on and the next guy also finds it's a dog and goes around telling everyone McCoy's are fucked boards etc...

Now maybe you can see why old man McCoy gets pissed off.

If you're into Geoff's boards - which is like being switched into an entirely different world of surfing, and let's face it unless you're in that world you don't get to understand the brilliant complexities of it - be careful what you think will work well with McCoy designs. Chances are it won't work as your hoping or as the media is telling you it will work. And the reason it won't is simple.... the board's not designed to work that way.

Now I know there's a whole world out there where you can do what ever you like with surfboards and get told you're improving the design, but that's not Geoff McCoy's world.

I hope I've saved a lot of you a heap of $$$ that you were about to spend ..... Now you can go take your girl out for a night on the town.

Cheers,
Marc

Pan Doblao's picture
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Pan Doblao Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 3:15pm

:)

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caml Monday, 29 Feb 2016 at 7:01pm

Hey dude how come finless surfcraft are using non soft round rails to hold in ?

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quadzilla Monday, 29 Feb 2016 at 7:56pm

stick YOUR science FIGJAM!

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udo Monday, 29 Feb 2016 at 8:22pm
Pan Doblao wrote:

My approach to surfing a McCoy lately is to forget about any favorite surfer I have had or about any maneuvers I have seen or known about. Just catch the wave and pretend you are the only surfer you have ever heard of, and see what happens and go with the flow.
I prefer the Single fins, although I have a tri-fin that is awesome.
A McCoy surfboard is shaped to the actual energy and form of a wave. It fits the wave.
I like mine heavily glassed. It doesn't slow down maneuvers, it gives more momentum.
The Gull Wing Fin is the ultimate design to go in the water and hold on, with the least drag or resistance, and it gives more maneuverability. They are foiled specially for optimum performance.
Concaves oppose wave shape and water flow. They have no control or hold. They want to stay low on the wave and they don't like to turn, but like to suck flat onto the water, and drag. The bigger the board and the wave the worse a concave or flat or vee works.
Some may say, a catamaran speed boat is the fastest. Yea, on flat smooth water, and going straight. And they flip up and over all the time. They lose control easily. Surfboards never go straight, even when running down the line they are in a constant turn, and they deal with a curling wave that's curved and bent.
McCoy's stay high on the wave in the speed line. Good surfers ride the barrel mid faced not at the bottom, unless the wave is square.
Even the best big wave riders can hardly bottom turn, and if they do, they lose so much speed, because the four towed in fins and the wide point forward narrow tail drags, the rocker is all wrong, and the edges are too sharp. They barely have control. More control, more speed. The dome cuts through chop.

The tightest turns on the tightest spots on waves, I have done are on McCoys. I thought , how did that happen with such a fat rail. The myth is that a thin rail does that better. Wrong!
Thin sharp pointy edges are good for piercing flesh and steaks, like knives, swords, arrow heads, , but water flows. So people want a board that is sharp, angular, thin edges like hunting spears or something, and they think a round soft fat wide thick board looks boring and simple for novices. Dead wrong. Water flows and sticks and behaves differently. My blood boils whe I hear someone say, .."hard edges for more bite". Bite?!! Bite me! hard edges do the opposite of bite, hold is what they mean. Hard edges shoot water away and the board away from the water.

Well fuck me...........Dorian ,Layer, RCJ and the rest of the chargers in the world are on the wrong equipment..you can hardly bottom turn boys,your board rockers are wrong and your quad fin setups are slowing you down...Brutus what have you done, introducing those deep single concaves ...the surfing world has gone backwards...............John John - pft poor effort at the Eddie..wrong equipment son ! ???
Pan ,what size Mccoy do you recommend for big Chopes ?

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Coaster Monday, 29 Feb 2016 at 9:54pm

Very amusing, Pan. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts about a Ben Lexcen wing keel fin on a McCoy. That is, if you don't have to be going.

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Pan Doblao Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 3:15pm

:)

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southey Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 12:38am

That longer board of Derek's is the closest thing I've seen to Roy's plan outlines .

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Pan Doblao Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 3:16pm

:)

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Pan Doblao Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 3:16pm

:)

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Pan Doblao Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 3:17pm

:)

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Pan Doblao Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 3:17pm

:)

Roy Stuart's picture
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Roy Stuart Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 4:38am
southey wrote:

That longer board of Derek's is the closest thing I've seen to Roy's plan outlines .

Yeah I ogled that shape for the same reason. Perhaps just a wee bit of a fin could be added? :)

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Roy Stuart Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 4:39am
Pan Doblao wrote:

Hello Southey. Who is Roy?

It's hard to say but he's also known as Tom Bloke and Luddite.

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Roy Stuart Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 4:47am
Pan Doblao wrote:

Roy Stuart. Nice Ad Hominem and circular reasoning and vagueness, not making a specific point. The Foil? Lower end of what? What was wrong with the Foil? What was agricultural about it? What is stupid about my points?

Ad hominem yes, circular reasoning no, vagueness yes because i'm too busy to explain everything.

I refer to lower end of the scale in terms of quality of foil.

'Agricultural' I use to mean very basic, not refined, only good for digging dirt. The foil was about 50% flat and unfoiled, it is more or less just sharpened a bit at the trailing edge and rounded off at the front.

"What is stupid about my points?". That's a massive subject.

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Pan Doblao Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 3:17pm

:)

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Pan Doblao Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 3:18pm

:)

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Pan Doblao Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 3:18pm

:)

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Pan Doblao Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 3:18pm

:)

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fraser-gordon Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 9:08am
udo wrote:

Hmm I think Kerry 1 has changed shapers

HaHa yeah he has gone soft lately.

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quadzilla Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 9:47am

Pan, only a month to go and its YOUR day !

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Roy Stuart Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 11:03am

Lol

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Roy Stuart Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 11:04am

You are wrong about the fin but I heard that Geoff is getting GW's cnc foiled now so they should be good. it is a nice fin planshape to be sure.

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Roy Stuart Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 11:15am

massive
[mas-iv]
Spell Syllables
Examples Word Origin
See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com
adjective
1.
consisting of or forming a large mass; bulky and heavy:
massive columns.
2.
large and heavy-looking:
a massive forehead.
3.
large in scale, amount, or degree:
a massive breakdown in communications; massive reductions in spending.

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Roy Stuart Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 11:17am

What does OLO stand for?
Rank Abbr. Meaning
OLO Only Laughed Once
OLO Optical Local Oscillator
OLO Ontario l'Original Railway
OLO Optimal Linear Ordering
OLO Big surfboard made by Roy (hehe)

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Pan Doblao Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 3:19pm

:)

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Pan Doblao Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 3:19pm

:)

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Pan Doblao Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 3:19pm

:)

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Pan Doblao Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 3:19pm

:)

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Pan Doblao Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 3:20pm

:)

caml's picture
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caml Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 4:32pm

Did u delete your posts pan doblao ? Back pedaling ? I wanted to read what u thought about the rails on finless boards

stunet's picture
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stunet Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 4:39pm

Caml, hope I'm not putting the cat among the pigeons here....

Anyway, I had a chat to Barry Regan recently. Barry is an ex-Cronulla fella, first guy to surf Lennox, and toothpick maker extraordinaire, he was saying that you get more hold on finless (at least finless 16' toothpicks) with a curved rail, not a hard and sharp one.

It's counter intuitive, people expect an 'edge' to hold better, but his experiences say otherwise. He's adamant that a round rail, when done right, gives better hold.

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Roy Stuart Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 5:19pm

Pan d going on about how bad hard edges are and yet that's exactly what McCoy boards have.

Round rails I've been doing all the way to the tail for 21 years, Barry is right.

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Roy Stuart Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 5:22pm
Don smith shredda's picture
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Don smith shredda Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 6:30pm

Hmmmmm........

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Don smith shredda Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 at 7:42pm

Have you read the SWAYLOCKS topic on the SHREDDA ......George Greenough still rides my product and loving it .......What do you think about that Roy .......when Billabong and FCS won't let their riders go anywhere near the product or try to advance to any Hi-Teck stuff all shapers are in trouble , how many of you guys have pro surfers riding your boards ???????

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Don smith shredda Thursday, 3 Mar 2016 at 11:36pm

So do I ......anyone that shapes .....glasses .....sets the engine room ......polishes and spends his whole life designing boards that work for the industry I take my hat off to .....what a legend

caml's picture
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caml Sunday, 6 Mar 2016 at 9:30pm
stunet wrote:

Caml, hope I'm not putting the cat among the pigeons here....

Anyway, I had a chat to Barry Regan recently. Barry is an ex-Cronulla fella, first guy to surf Lennox, and toothpick maker extraordinaire, he was saying that you get more hold on finless (at least finless 16' toothpicks) with a curved rail, not a hard and sharp one.

It's counter intuitive, people expect an 'edge' to hold better, but his experiences say otherwise. He's adamant that a round rail, when done right, gives better hold.

Stu surely we both know this ? I do & have , haven't we all seen mc coys spoon with water flowing over , flip the spoon etc ? Well what I said was that the finless board designs of hynd & wegener & more are using much sharper harder corners ! Thus proving wrong what many of us thought

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caml Sunday, 6 Mar 2016 at 9:32pm

So barry regan is obviously an older gent ? Im not saying hes wrong im saying that theres often another way to skin a cat

quadzilla's picture
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quadzilla Tuesday, 23 May 2017 at 7:42am

Real mCoys are finished but a ghost will still do them in Byron.The GM planer has been hung up.A lap around the island then retirement in sunny Qld(2018).
Thai mCoys will still be available and good reports from people QUADding the XF Zots!

udo's picture
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udo Tuesday, 22 Aug 2017 at 7:02pm

A 9'2 loaded dome Mcoy single fin on Gumtree Sylvania...fine looking thing it is
$1400 as new.

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Riverrat Friday, 20 Jul 2018 at 10:36pm

Hi,
I would like to start by saying good on Geoff McCoy for his designs that I am sure fill the needs of many surfers. I understand someone being proud of their design and having confidence in its performance in all circumstances that you could possibly think of but its hard to think of all circumstances.
I am 67 year old surfer and I lost my right leg above the knee in a motor bike accident. I ride a variety of surfboards and the main thing that makes them work for me is being able to change the fin position. I can't choose the fin position on a new epoxy board because the designers understand the physics behind the design and they know where fins go.

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redmondo Saturday, 17 Nov 2018 at 7:23pm

I am going give a McCoy a go. He makes a lot of sense to me. Like the designs too and I'm pretty sure I will be infinite and supreme pure LIGHT on a McCoy.

velocityjohnno's picture
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velocityjohnno Sunday, 18 Nov 2018 at 11:09am

Well, I guess I missed a bit of the recent controversy in this thread but watching Nazarre got me thinking:

Udo:

"Well fuck me...........Dorian ,Layer, RCJ and the rest of the chargers in the world are on the wrong equipment..you can hardly bottom turn boys,your board rockers are wrong and your quad fin setups are slowing you down..."

Not that I disagree with your sentiment Udo (for the best in world are using this quad design and frankly I'm interested) - but did you notice how hard those 10' boards, long straight rail were to turn in the Nazarre comp. McCoy has merit here, the floaty tail and loaded dome would turn far more easily in those critical section, and the single fin would hold. If you all remember Cheyne surfed 30' Waimea, PADDLE, on a 5'8 McCoy modified Lazor Zap. So he's proved that wave can be paddled into. Now for Nazarre, anyone is going to need the length, but I wonder if a Zap style gun, paddled in similarly, could lift the performance considerably. Harder to see in reality as no one is riding them there at present.

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simba Sunday, 18 Nov 2018 at 3:37pm

im sure they said Twiggys board was 90 liters ? fukkin lot of board to turn.

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Island Bay Monday, 19 Nov 2018 at 5:47am

Lucas Chumbo was swinging his Lyle Carlson around like it was a 7'6. And those boards have super straight and narrow swallow tails:

velocityjohnno's picture
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velocityjohnno Monday, 19 Nov 2018 at 9:06am

Lucas is probably most interesting to watch out there as he is pulling the board out of trim, almost pumping it to generate more speed like a much smaller board. He's getting massive drive off the bottom of the wave too.

As for the Zap, my experience surfing much smaller waves is that it will hold, hold, hold then release you into the most critical, steep part of the wave - where it likes to be. Then its pivot turns in the pocket are unmatched. Not sure I'd want that holding at 20ft Nazarre, but maybe a 9'0 version would get in sooner?

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drodders Friday, 13 Nov 2020 at 7:49pm

I know this is a really old thread, but I haven’t surfed a thruster for about 5 years...until about 4 weeks ago when I surfed a 2000 model McCoy shaped by Darren Rogers, water logged, heavy as shit in 3ft glassy waves.

After 4 waves when I worked out not to move from the rear it worked...really well, glide like a single pivot off the top.

Long story short I purchased a 6’3 XF nugget, so much fun, i have surfed it in 1-4ft waves, most of the time bumpy crap, it flies. I’ve had two surfs in 3-4ft clean waves - amazing.

Anyway I really am impressed, I probably could have gone a 6’1 or even a 5’11, and I still may yet.

I think, for me, thrusters have always worked with a wide tail, this thing just works.

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Westofthelake Friday, 13 Nov 2020 at 8:55pm

I hear ya drodders.

Tried 4 fins a long time ago, and just simply missed the drive that the thruster thou provide.

Speaking of old threads, here's a nugget I found in the swellnet sub-cockles where Cheyne Horan and Geoff McCoy discuss riding a 5' 8" in huge Waimea Bay.

https://www.swellnet.com/news/design-outline/2012/10/09/waimea-bay-58-tw...

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quadzilla Saturday, 14 Nov 2020 at 12:01am

Sorry to disappoint the last 2 posters but Quad Mcoys outdrive and outspeed any mcCoy thruster ive ridden(around 50 or so).

If ya wanta have sub par performance on a McCoy ride a single,then get on a 3 fin and get some performance.

Top speed is with NO fin on the stringer.

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lostdoggy Saturday, 14 Nov 2020 at 6:51am

“Tried 4 fins a long time ago, and just simply missed the drive that the thruster thou provide.“

Pretty sure it’s quads that offer drive which thrusters sometimes lack.

So might’ve been something wrong with the quad you tried.