JEFF ROWLEY HELLMAN

For sure Southy but an extra 3/4" thickness in the stringer would have to help strengthen a board? I never thought those guns would be 4 inches thick until caml wrote that. So it's interesting to find out what dimension/glass those big wave boards are?

they don't look much thicker than 3 1/4 . but could be wrong .
Stringers obviously help , especially at an inch wide . But as a Rik jackovich found out in the late nineties when he tried aluminium stringers . The glass is really where the strength is , cross matting , carbon fibre and epoxy like caml mentioned is where its at .
Also if you have a close look at the latest vid of jaws with Dorian and his boards you'll see that the decks are extremely rounded meaning they still have reasonably ( well for a 4 inch board anyway ) defined rails . And when you fine them down like that the stringer becomes less important . Because when the wave hits it the weakest link /part the rail will buckle anyway ..... i've seen boards twist and crease either side of the stringer and the stringer barely has a crack in it ...
But i've also seen tuflite's complete with balsa rails get snapped like twigs . All depends on the depth of water the waves are coming out of etc etc .....
Glass is ultimate definer of strength .

Hey Freeride - fin configs are all 3+2. I only ride them as quads, but others prefer what they're used to, so best of both worlds, I guess. I'm actually WA born and bred - only being on the East Coast for the last 2 years. A lot of interest in the bigger sizes has been from south-west WA, Vicco, and SA. Freight couriers make it so easy these days to move these things around. Otherwise, the 6'6 to 7'6 range seem to be really popular for the traveling (Indo / Pacific Islands) guys, and there are a heap of the hard core travel crew right here in Qld. But for sure, the 9' + guys are where you'd expect.

Hi Well - shop's on the southern end of the Goldy, but not spruiking, so no addresses given ;)

Hey Southey - The boards are glassed 3x6oz, with the decks lapped over for even more strength. The stringers are 3/8" or 1/2" cedar, depending on a couple of things. Optimizing weight to generate the momentum, but limiting it so you don't feel like the captain of the Emma Maersk! With thickness and overall buoyancy, you've gotta look at where the volume is distributed throughout the entire board. Everyone talks about volume through the chest area, but you need to compare thicknesses along the entire profile of the boards also. Flex is another consideration. Imagine adding 3/4" thickness to your regular short board. Flex, and therefore drive, are drastically altered.

One last point is foam density. Knowing 'where a board is' in any given blank is important. Pat and Eric Arakawa developed a series of blanks for US Blanks specifically for these boards, and know that the density of the foam varies throughout the core. So getting the deck closest to the 'harder' foam for example, will make a stronger board than someone shaping from a non-specific blank, trying to achieve a similar rocker profile.

not only big wave boards but a good range of sizes from 5'8 up......rawson.com.au

(rawsonsurfboards.com.au) - cheers!

ok, the rawson stock boards are thinner than what i like personally . but they are stock boards made like that because they are for the average big wave hunter to buy off the rack . im sure you can order your own 3.5-4.0 thick specialty . i talked to troy from rawson aust , he said that rawson shapes have the foam distributed much more towards the rails ,so a flat deck .it makes sense to me they maybe just a different style than the thick stringer with thin rail type of shape. also as kirk birke explains ,it is the rocker that makes paddle speed not the thickness. i can tell a story of a rawson shape i had, its of ex tom carroll waimea board from about 1987 era (i could be wrong) it had the big tommy stripe and bright colours from tommys world title era . nine foot long with a single fin . it did have a flat deck and quite hard edge rails all the way to the nose . and it was a goer ! got it second hand in hawaii ,used it at sunset and it was my best board there, much to owl chapmans approval . kenny bradshaw let me try a bunch of his thrusters he shaped but none of them came close .i took the board back from haw to g-land where it lived with me for a few years . but because it had a pintail and big waimea style fin ,i chopped the tail off and made a swallow ,put a ten inch box in and a much sleeker fin . it was 8'8 then . on may 1st 1997 an incredible swell arrived in g-land,from 1ft flat ocean to the next day 12ft . this swell was silent too for some reason only known to g-land gods . rubbing my eyes in disbelief in the foggy morning i could see a perfect 12 ft swell but without noise ?? anyway that day launching pad became 12-14ft into speed reef 6-8ft with a slowly moving hi tide of 1.7 at 4pm . (quite shallow ) that arvo i rode the best barrells of my life ,(at the time) but all in a row. four, one after the other . the last one the single fin rawson sliding side ways then re gripping and coming out . yeah great board it was my favorite gun around that time 97'-01 . on the subject of stringers and flex, i believe it is the resin and cloth that gives strength to a board. also fancy techniques like southey says, stretching the cloth at 45 deg nose to tail .great.. epoxy resin great, i dont have much faith in stringers so i ask for small stringers eg half inch for my biggest guns , and even much smaller in little boards. i dont care if theres no stringer really. but always keen to pay for best glass job possible . im interested in flex for my boards ,so epoxy resin with normal blanks is my ultimate but so far i havent had many of them but my recent webster 10'10 has that. talking to gary linden in sept he reckons his balsa guns are great becos they dont flex and they wont lose speed . thats different theories there. im sure they all work just depends what u prefer. my epoxy gun doesnt feel much flex ,i dont notice it. but it has a half in stringer, just one bit of wood. three six oz each side . it doesnt ding easily and thats good . reading about how heavy the top guys are going for their jaws and cortes boards is much heavier than ive used. i like my guns a bit lighter than them . but i would be interested to try wat it feels like.

superflyte wrote:

(rawsonsurfboards.com.au) - cheers!

HaHa love the way you don't spruik. No one cares so why deny it, just calling a spade a spade.

my fault had I put the correct web address.......troy wouldn't have to . spruik .

Shaun me ol T--ll mate.
I went down and checked out Superflytes boards today, could I find the place, fuck me took an hour, he is not a surf shop, but an Engineer who works on race cars etc. With a little room out the back the size of a bedroom, with about 30 Rawson brds ranging from 7'0' to 10'2' all guns, impressive craftsmanship from Mr Rawson himself, all handshaped in Hawaii and shipped over here at Superflytes expense, he caters for big gun type boards, where no other shop does, which obviously is in his realm.
He paddles big waves himself and is only giving Rawson a helping hand here in OZ, probably from personally knowing him from Hawaii, I had a good look around his little immodest room, Wow would love to buy one soon, not that I would come and surf the Bombie (piss take) but Superflyte has.
Goes to show an engineer with a little room full of premium guns, shaped by the "God Father of Guns" who loves paddling into big waves. He's off to Hawaii this week to try and catch some big paddle in waves.
Good luck I say.
Beautiful looking boards for sure.
:)

Hey Camel, I didn't realize that Rawson was a single. If only you knew the serial number on it, I could dig up the old hard-copy sheet from the archives and tell you exactly how it went together. I'll have to let you have a crack on my own 10'2 to see if you pick the difference. It's pretty narrow for a 10'2 though, at an even 20" wide (3-1/4" thick).

I'm running some trials at the moment through my composites business with different types of resins, cloths, reinforcements, and lamination schedules. Mostly related to high end composite race car chassis, but the technology will translate directly to surfboards (particularly the big wave boards), which will be really interesting for all of us I think, in the future.

Hi Wellymon - excellent that you found the place. Great to chat today too. Always stoked to talk to guys that appreciate these things. Here's to a decent series of swells to keep us all busy over the summer up here on the Goldy. And for sure, it looks like Hawaii will throw up some big swells, just as I arrive. Should be fun!

Welly, I'm glad you found something that was real on the internet, and a room full of rawsons would be impressive. But please welly be very careful, remember you only know this guy from surfing the net and he has lured you to what appears to be a bedroom(your words) tucked down the back of a factory, full of all your favourite candy, you were conscience at all times? No blackouts, lost hours? To be on the safe side , I suggest if you have to go back there to caress those boards again, do it in business hours.

i'm so glad you didn't write raw sons shaun . that would be creepy .
give Troy a break he's from WA .
why the hell one would relocate to SE QLD is probably more the question ?

Well , I can see why, he's a petrol head. Also there are so many wide eyed lads like wheelybin up there that he can groom and then lure to his hard to find factory, be grateful southy, I may have exposed one of the most evil serial killers of our times.

I was only giving him a bit of stick cause blind freddy could have seen he had his salesman hat on from the word go, which is ok just don't deny the obvious.

I wouldn't be so quick to blame the SE Qlander. More than likely the other way around. Unwelly, THE BRONZED GIMP, and sidekick, aka groges, probably cunningly found out where he is, have the poor guy bailed up and he's being forced to use the rawsons to barracade the door until the authorities arrive. Luckily none of THE BRONZED GIMPS team tabata can pull the skin off a rice pudding.

thanx. shaun for such gracious service .... i was thinking to get a dog to help protect my kids from snakes and the like .
is Morris free ? perhaps some of that kiddy fiddling Radar of yours could of washed off onto him ;-)
whats you take for swell sunday will be in your neck of the woods .

Classic stuff fellas :), lucky this Bronzed Tabata Gimp Whanger pulled it off during business hours, most enjoyable.
Rice pudding..? too many carbs.
You wanna snake dog Southie ,cant go past the little Jack's , they get there little nosey heads into all sorts of nooks and crannies. Got some stick too them as well, 10ft tall and fearless, untill they get a big kick up the arse.

Haha.. Yep, I heard he was going to Hawaii, so we locked him in and forced him to eat 200 boiled eggs. It was for his own good.

Just watched that jaws footage. How much does Dorian weigh?? 70kg?? Scrawny little fucker. Too bad for someone on here that it takes a bit more than fitness and being strong to surf big waves. A big set of nuts. Which a certain someone is missing.... This thread reminded me of his best and most used excuse when the swell got up. "Oh I'd go out but I don't have a big board" or left my proper board at home" or snapped my big board on the last swell". Yep, takes a bit more than fitness to paddle over the ledge, doesn't it uppity??

Southy, with a 1.m swell at 9 or 10 sec it will be a great day for diving or spending some time with the family and banking some brownie points, but on the other hand in your situation it might be a great day to just go and have look with no great expectations.

Be patient grogan, upskirt will come out to play sooner or later.

yeah shaun . the forecast is grim . and if i was in normal circumstances i wouldn't bother its just that this is my weekend . but i'll be doing everything to find the best spot , and maybe i might need to put on the hiking boots and chase waterfalls ..... even if i'll be relying on the tertiary swell to provide some quality sets .
on another note all you whingers , it looks like there's a few LAGO's in the next week or so's forecast .
now they are definitely not something to whinge about ... i LOVE lago's .

welly , yeah jack's are the shit . i grew up with them and probably saved my life a few times in the bush as a young fella . they are hard though with so many national parks down here coastal . and just another mouth to feed , bonus though they are small enough to shove in glove box in said NP's . but yeah size of fight in the dog . bullet proof ....