Dale Solomonson Finless Shaped by Carl Olsen

Ok, so she's 9' long by 23" wide, I didn't scale the dimensions from the diagram exactly, I just scaled her up by eye and went with what worked with my eye and my templates cosmetically. I wanted her to have a sleek and sexy look... I already had an idea of how all the lines pull together from shaping my other (3) finless boards. -Carl

A couple more of Delaneys photos. Thanks man. -Carl

Back to finless designs. I am posting pictures of the other three finless boards that I built. The first one would be the dark blue one in the first picture, the second would be the brick red in the first picture, and the third one would be the red and white one in the second picture. I will try my best to articulate some of the things that I have learned from these boards, and the evolution and theory behind the designs.
Board number one: This was the basic OK, let's make finless board and see what happens board. When I made this board, I was absolutely convinced that there was no way in hell that it would work. I thought it would be side-slip city. Many people look at that board and see two channels, but what I was thinking was basically a really long base keel fin down the center of the board, and two more smaller ones on the rail lines. On top of that, I was also thinking along the lines of Roy's earlier comments- big keel fins. If you look closely, I even went as far as to slightly "tow" the outside keels in. So basically the board was a big center keel, and two small keels. The rail line in the tail was reversed, this was for two reasons. One being the fact that I was thinking alot about that concept in general at that time in my life, and the other was that I thought that I was going to be ass sliding all over the place on that board. So, I thought "hey, well If I'm gunna be sliding all over the place, why not treat it like a snowboard and see if the "reverse" curve gives me a little bite in the tail?"
So, after riding it a BUNCH (yes... I was kind of stuck on it for a while) I discovered a couple interesting things. #1 was that it did everything backwards of what I thought would happen. Like for instance, on a steep wall it would hang in and work the best, and on a mushy flatter wave, it would slide all over the place. It actually rode really well on a steep wave, but it was really slow... I could never go any faster than the speed of the curl. It was, sort of a take off, hold on, and try to stay right in the perfect place on the wave sort of deal. The one thing that bothered me about the board was that it dragggged! I thought when I made it- it would be fast. Maybe slide all over the place... yes, but if I could get it to go in a straight line- I was thinking speed machine!. I was wrong. Like I said above, it would only match the speed of the wave.
Board number two: I was riding board number one alot, when one day on my way through the door of the factory, board in hand, I was hijacked by Mike Croteau and Will Jobson. (both are legends... what they were both doing there at the same time is a whole 'nother story, involving large lizards, big custom trucks, loud music and R.V. Campers) Anyway, they just about tore that board out of my hands and gave me a stern lesson in fluid dynamics. See what I wasn't on to at that point was the concept that water wasn't just flowing off the board parallel to the stringer line. Some of it was doing that... but alot of it was trying to escape from under the board (hence wrapping over the rails... and over the keels. So what was happening was water was turbulating in the square crevices in the "channels" (not good according to Mike and Will) and also attempting to wrap over the side keels resulting in lots of drag... basically the middle keel was holding me in and the side ones where dragging like crazy, holding me in but not very efficiently. (...I'm trying my best to explain here) So, if you look at board number two, you'll see that I made the keels more blended together, so that the channels in between were rounded. If you look at the board thinking along the lines of water flowing not only parallel to the stringer, but also out from under the board over the side keels and around the rails, you will see the transition from board one to board two. I also increased the tail width of the board because I was mainly riding them in small waves- more surface area. I also ditched the reverse curve, because it was causing the nose to dig in when ever I would try to turn at all. Board two was affectionately referred to as "the brick" ...because of it's red-brown color... and that you fell alot when you rode it. But it worked about 10x better than the first one, it was fast, held in well and it was fun to ride. The only problem with it was that it tracked like crazy... keep in mind that all three "keels" were parallel to the stringer... track city. I actually quit making finless boards for a while after this board... it worked really well and it was alot of fun. Yikes... This is turning into quite a post... I hope those of you that make it this far gain something from it! Well anyway, one day I was daydreaming, waiting for a set to come through at the point... I was probably sitting on my long board or something... when this bodyboarder comes out of no where... standing up... does a couple of pumps and then does a little air. I couldn't fing believe it. I went home that night and started learning everything I could about bodyboards and their rail configurations. That led to board 3, the one in the second picture. So the idea here was to create suction along the rail line, you can see in the picture how much I was aware of the water flow over the keels to the point of the middle of the board becoming a single channel with a raised bump to roll on for control, and you can imagine water flowing over the "keel" lines, and becoming un-attached, creating a vacuum along the rail line- holding the rider into the wave face. Note something else I did, no more parallel to the stringer keels! I was past the concept of keels at this point, and was thinking more along the lines of high and low pressure control, this being the key element in designing finless boards in my mind. This board works really well- It rarely slides out, you can generate a bit of speed on it, and you can sort of turn on it... I've done some of the neatest surfing of life on it. Very cool, it also has a concave deck, for added control. I can't convey the way this board works in words... it feels like you are sliding, but your not. The two closest experiences to riding this board have been, an old Campbell bonzer with the deepest concaves I ever saw, and the GG spoon I built... both of them because of the feeling of interaction with the water flow being the main reasons. Noseriding a long steep wall has the feeling in a way too. ... the things that I learned from board three were, thinking along the lines of keels, is thinking along the lines of fins. No good. Focus pressure on the rail lines- good. If you notice on board three, the rocker radically flipped towards the end... think noseriders... it was a little too much of a good thing... it helped keep the tail down when I moved up on the board, but I think it was a little too much. You can also see how I evolved away from straight lines... no good, they equal tracking. The vacuum rails are a good concept, but I think I went a little overkill on board three, I thought after riding it for a while that I could probably fill them in, and be just as happy. So it all comes together, in building dales board. I wanted a longer board for smaller condions, and also so my friends would enjoy it more- they will only ride my "weirdo" boards when it is small... to play around on. I wanted the rail line to be a cross between the rail lines of board 2 and 3, I wanted to completley ditch the keel that became a bump in the middle of the board. I wanted to keep the concave down the center, with a sligtly flipped profile out the tail, and I wanted lots of curve in the board to help keep it from tracking. Blaaa! Thats enough for tonight... I am sure that my words will be twisted around by the morning... Oh well, I hope someone gets what I was trying to convey! -Carl