older designs are still relevant

[silentbutdeadly]

dents (ok, foot wells) are good. Glad my dank farts has em. Took a lot longer to form but they're there.

 

[oeste858]

dents (ok, foot wells) are good. Glad my dank farts has em. Took a lot longer to form but they're there.

Then you would love varial!

Gets there much quicker, then you’re all set for rippage

 

[Duffy LaCoronilla]

dents (ok, foot wells) are good. Glad my dank farts has em. Took a lot longer to form but they're there.

“Foot wells” are damage.

My DA Plasmic has a pretty good foot well going on under the pad.

 

[Ifallalot]

A fish is still the best board for most average days, especially a quad

 

[Duffy LaCoronilla]

Then you would love varial!

Gets there much quicker, then you’re all set for rippage

 

[freeride76]

agree with everything you said.
probably not well articulated in the op was that i think there is little room for improvement for the humble everyday thruster hpsb - and i tried to stay away from construction.
i agree there is an amount of refinement going on - much of it making boards (slightly) easier to ride and more accommodating.
but with this style of board it has been small refinements for ten or more years (really since the introduction of concaves in the late 90s/early 2000s).
thus, an everyday hpsb thruster from 2010ish would probably work just as well as the new thing for most chumps.
what i poorly alluded to was that the law of diminishing returns has surely hit the swiss army knife of surfboards.
the implications of this for production are interesting to ponder.
eg. taking it to the extreme, what if the "best/most reliable" everyday thruster hpsb design for most punters is essentially decided upon for various regions/wave styles?
will we see a race to the bottom - ie a few manufacturing houses producing essentially the same allrounder?

No, because marketing.

 

[stringcheese]

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they make you wonder, don’t they? that first person was all over the place. With that shotgun approach they need a board thats all sweet spot. Then the ward coffey…was it too wide for them? I’ve never had one with that spacing

 

[Goofy_Footed]

The thing that pisses me off most about “dents” is getting the wax in and out of them.

 

[Duffy LaCoronilla]

The thing that pisses me off most about “dents” is getting the wax in and out of them.

The thing with deck dents is that it tells me the board will get bottom dents even easier. I see those varials and just shutter to think that a good floater landing will put a divot right there in the concave and turn a single to double to vee into a single to divot to double and a half to flat to vee.

 

[sh3]

The thing with deck dents is that it tells me the board will get bottom dents even easier. I see those varials and just shutter to think that a good floater landing will put a divot right there in the concave and turn a single to double to vee into a single to divot to double and a half to flat to vee.

You act like you've never heard of a Phazer bottom board.

 

[One-Off]

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Are those yours? Kind of like stringcheese said, the bottom two I can't understand. I could not regularly ride that far behind the center/wide point. On all my boards, no matter the length, my front foot is right about center and my back foot about two feet behind. Because of this, when I design my boards (for myself) I know where the curves, volume and fins are in relation to my feet. I also know my back foot will be close to the insdie (frontside) rail.

My wood builds have very minimal foot denting. My knee does put a more subtle, diffuse dent under the knee (when using 1.5lb eps, not so much using 2lb).

 

[Duffy LaCoronilla]

Are those yours?

No. Just craigslist searched “varial”.

 

[Retropete]

the big players often offer "new" designs that promises to be faster, more maneuverable and easier to access "high performance". I have fallen for this idea of ongoing progression of the modern thruster shortboard at times. it wasn't until i took a step back that i realised how little the modern thruster has left in terms of development. the main difference these days is the length to volume ratio as more people want the same but a couple of inches shorter. bottom contours, outline and fin placement seem to be pretty similar - but i am only a punter.
what made me think about this is a recent purchase of a standard hpsb (DHD 3DV). as it was yellowing on the rack and must have been there for a year or more, it came at a good price. the design must be at least three or four years old. but it surfs as well as can be expected for this style of board (and the operators ability). it is however about 2" longer than a newer design for the given volume. i don't know about you, but i am not seeing a momentous shift in design anytime soon for the swiss army knife of surfboards.

"Nobody has created anything new in the surfboard world in the last 40 years except for Burch."

 

[Waterlogged05]

I do kinda miss the trial by fire method of when you had to decide to get on a shortboard and suck for awhile.

Builds character. This also turns away a lot of people who don't want to put in the work, but now you can start with a puddle jumper and work your way up. While this is good for getting people more waves, I do think it can make people surf a bit less stylishly because they may have not been forced to learn fundamentals without being punished by the Sick Blade.

The inverse to that is a lot of people like myself who started in the early 2000s would benefit from time off of a thruster and learning to relax a little.

An aussie dude at a surf camp when I was a kid made me ride a single fin and a twin for a few days to smooth out my Brazzo style.

I kinda feel bad for beginners now with the fin choices lol, I just remember it being Small medium large thruster, quads for for nathan fletcher only and your dad's weird friend

rant over

 

[Duffy LaCoronilla]

I do kinda miss the trial by fire method of when you had to decide to get on a shortboard and suck for awhile.

Builds character. This also turns away a lot of people who don't want to put in the work, but now you can start with a puddle jumper and work your way up. While this is good for getting people more waves, I do think it can make people surf a bit less stylishly because they may have not been forced to learn fundamentals without being punished by the Sick Blade.

The inverse to that is a lot of people like myself who started in the early 2000s would benefit from time off of a thruster and learning to relax a little.

An aussie dude at a surf camp when I was a kid made me ride a single fin and a twin for a few days to smooth out my Brazzo style.

I kinda feel bad for beginners now with the fin choices lol, I just remember it being Small medium large thruster, quads for for nathan fletcher only and your dad's weird friend

rant over

I started in 1980 on a 5’8 fish. Same size I ride now. I was about 4 /12 feet tall back then though.