Bourton "Hybrid Small Wave" Shapes - THE BIG BAT
THE BIG BAT
With a year and a half of experimenting with quads in all sorts of conditions I have come to believe they have relevance in all conditions and have a huge variety of applications. The absence of a centre fin seems to be what horrifies most since despite a small interlude with twin fins during the MR era we have been born and raised with a centre fin stuck some where on our board. Nonetheless, the market after being led by those who ride Ferrari's for way too long, is now frothing for something easy to ride yet highly manoeuvrable and are ready to ignore fashion to find it.
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The Big Bat is another one of my many four fin applications and this one in particular is aimed at those that need a paddler and a performer. The actual board shape is modelled off the great success of the High Performance Retro which championed going shorter by being smart with planshape, rocker and lateral bottom shapes. The actual reason for this new design is for one the success of all the quads and most of all is the complexity of manufacturing the HPR with the flyers and fluted wings etc. which is perhaps a little too labour intensive . The price did not substantiate the time that was being spent on them however theywill still be in production but the price is going up.
On the other hand devoid of wings and flutes the BB is easier to manufacture right from the shaping end right through to the finish sanding with perhaps the only complication being the inclusion of an extra fin.
More importantly from a performance point of view the BB is even more exciting to ride than the HPR if you the punter can get your head around riding a quad. The tricks employed to loosen up the HPR are not necessary since they are looser with the absence of a centre fin but more importantly even with their length and wider nose area they are instantly on rail and on their way down the line before the HPR gets to the bottom. The rocker and lateral bottom shapes are designed for maximum speed so adding a quad fin to the shape is like throwing a match into a 44 of rocket fuel. The BB is faster than the HPR by a country mile.
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The inclusion of the diamond bat tail is a breakthrough in short arc and central control design. The diamond shortens the rail line allowing the board to turn a fraction earlier and the elongated pin of the bat gives a centre finless board something central to gauge from rail to rail. Having ridden swallows foryears I think the point on the rail has always been a great levering device and with the diamond bat that point is still there doing the same thing but is kept in check by thecentral pin which I think is the best choice for a quad.
As in most of my quad designs the clusters are compact to make them east west looser and to open the sweet spot and as a result I would not hesitate in using larger fins in both front and back in order to lever a nose heavy design on impulse. So for those who want the best of both (paddle and looseness) I would advise you to give this design a second look.
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