My last two years getting dw boards of dale chapman

I walked in to pay for the ground breaking dc 8'10 demo board that I insisted I had to have. I think one was made before hand that was demo ed in Sydney by casso and was sold on the trip back home. About that time casso ordered his near legendry 8'8 which is still one of the top 5 short sups made by dc.

I don't know about the early dc 16's and how they came about or about the foot peddle business, I do know the peddles designed it on a cnc program.two sides of the story im told. anyway everones making them now.

I did get to see a couple of the early dc 12'6 made. About that time they were working on a new board- a 17' er that was based of a dick van straalin prone board where they cut two foot wells out and Kelly margetts paddled it. dick was and and up until recently was someone dale bounced ideas of and got advice. That prone board was nick named the mutant and still sits in a rack in the factory as I write.

I ended up getting Kelly margetts dc 16 and that was my start. I was there for the launch of a new era in dw boards for dale. Lahui kai kicked of too with the same prone board inspired designs too. It's always been a friendly rivalry between the two gold coast based race board makers even too this very day- tues,thrus and fri mornings.

I was lucky enough to be have a go on the 'wetting' of that first new shaped board that had a displacement nose into single concave with chines. It was a very big board. Dale set off to make the next one very quickly. The orange 17 er that cmc and i have owned and is now down south somewhere.

Two green coloured boards followed, but the concave was ditched for a flat bottom with only doubles out the back.

We had a crew on a snapper to Burleigh run one day and when we finished travis suggested to try turning the nose down and having a parting line for the water to sheet of fthe nose when it did go under. He is very experienced with lots of different racing craft

Pretty funny first up- no one knew how to do it. dave was having trouble trying to get it working on the program.

Dale started working out the down turned nosed and david was sorting out the dihedral. The America's cup racing sailboats had the down turn so we looked at the pictures and I also found a picture of a Vermont board that had a massive dihedral. They were some help for sure- mainly that the direction was on the right track.

About that time alain had a French connection who wanted designs, mike got his 14'er(somehow that board weighed 10 kgs) and I order a French 14'er that was glassed top first to straighten the rocker.
The board became known as the red rocket- I think it's being paddled in Sydney tomorrow by andy.
The user friendly 14' mango came out not too far after.

After a 15'er which I was able to get the crew to widen the tail and pull the centre back a bit,I had the first big 17' with the full dihedral, down turned nose etc. it took me a good while to get the board centre dropped back a bit and tail widened- they weren't keen, but it was easier to use for sure. While the board was sick in good conditions I wasn't too fussed about going cross wind or swell. My next board was the all new dc 16 where the dihedral was made smaller, the rocker flatter and the bottom flattened. Really good board this one

Attention was turned to knocking the 17' and 14' down to the new push for 12'6 race boards. Those 'early' new school boards were very fast but a bit hard to use. The green snot is still quick and casso got a pretty dam fast one too.
About that time danny got back from the bop and reckoned what the go was a very stable board. Dale came up with a board at 29' wide, blew the tail out wider again and came up with a deck double concave design after having trouble with the program to get the sunken deck any deeper. This was all after we put foot wells in the red rocket, however no where deep as the mutant all that time ago. The bonus of the double was the added strength another 'rib ' in the deck gave the board. Travis went on to claim a famous second place to danny ching in the bop on the very first proto type that was made.

Since then it be a game of 5% ers with the 12'6 s as it is with every dw board shaper.
In this style of board a fair bit is up to how good the paddler is. Just refinements like handling, surfing, easier paddling at top speed etc are main things that are looked at
Things like rockers, rails, tail widths,volumes, displacements- long, or very short into flat. Big down turned noses, no so big etc
Sure, they can make them really narrow and fast, but who's going to stay on them and if you do stay on, it's a lot of wasted energy. I think the performance and speed the top bop or surf race boards are getting is amazing.

I have never seen a directly copied design in those two years. To be honest dale has been too busy developing his own and a few of us around the traps ideas. Alain has been awesome with some in depth new wave thinking- a very smart cookie. We also have some heated arguments sometimes, but nothing too rad- we all want the same thing- the best board possible. It's just been a fast hectic full on two years or so, but that's been the way it's been right across the sup thing worldwide
Obviously he sees what others are doing , but he's just not interested.

dale is a good bloke and has amazing hand shaping skills that i as a carpentry/ builder myself just shake my head at wonder- how does he do it.
cheers

ps i'm a reasonable paddler, certainly nowhere near top level., but i do love paddling boards and have spent way too much money on boards

I forgot to mention Ian from star boards I trialed the sup lifeguard board at Sunshine beach when the noosa when the festivle was on 4 ft surf why they didnt move the festivle is beyond me,anyway .The board handled extremly well you can sup it ,paddle on your knees or lye down on it its 12 ft long 27wide with a few mor straps Im hoping SLSA will be trailing the board soon so we get on the beaches that were importred boards are good the right price point and fit a specific market

and your right re dales skills as a craftman he is an artist.

I just bought a 2nd hand Dc17 off Andrew on the goldie which neds a new nose job ,After cutting the bottom problem out I can see the lay is well made,

Im the rep for Hayden Surf craft and was a pro lifeguard for 17 years around OZ and OS

Geez very similar user name to that of OG SUP, just as well I double checked before my abuse kicked in. Haha

odsurf you are so lucky. i love scotts so much, big massive long right hander on the point . really good sup wave me thinks. geez didnt have clubbies there when i was a kid. thanks for making me smile. Oh i like my sup,it floats and if i move my paddle really fast , i go fast. wicked i think

Thanks for posting this, Lacey. You are pretty accurate in your recollection of this history. All of us who have been there on this journey have certainly enjoyed the trip. We are certainly lucky to have both Dale and Micks crews pushing each other so hard in this whole evolution right here on the Goldie.

For me its always been a pleasure to bounce ideas off Dale. He shapes 90% of my surf toys (SB1, SB3, SB5, SB7, Big wave guns, finless baords, drifters, wave SUPs and DW SUPs) and is always prepared to have a go at any idea we may have - no matter what anyone else thinks. On top of that everything that he has made me has worked and worked well.

Right now we are doing a whole lot of design work and testing on finless short boards and drifters. Dale is always keen to have a go in the water on all of the craft that he makes. We are both learning through trial and error what makes finless boards and drifters work - out there in the surf.

When I suggested that we have a go at paddling from Byron to Burleigh around 2 years ago he did not hesitate to say yes. He made the boards that we thought would work in those conditions and they both performed excellently. Having a shaper/designer getting out there and doing a 70km downwinder shows what kind of character he is.

Thanks for everything, Dale. Keep on pushing those limits. We are certainly lucky to have your talents here in Oz.

Met Dale when he came over for the doctor. Top bloke not real PC . Legend on the piss

I was lucky to get a DC16 which has improved my DW paddling heaps. Won the last race I entered the Mandurah Duel. I was lucky some big names missing but beat a couple of guys for the first time. Definitely due to the board, stays on runners longer picks them up easier and I fall off heaps less.

The DC16 I got was an older model looking forward to getting a custom next year. Thanks for doing the R&D Mark

62mac said...

laceys lane said...

doggie said...

I thought you would have a stockpile lacey

haha. i let in you on a secret, i've had other dw boards- c4, naish, secret agent,fanatic and a non brand.

i don't mind a bit of fun
cheers

You are a total whore Lacey

just don't tell everybody