58INTERVIEWBOUKE BECKER
Any plans to diversify further? Such as into
slalom or foil specific boards for instance?
Yes. I have regularly had customers asking for slalom or
freeride boards but usually I turned them down as I was not
sure how good the shape will be but now I had some
customers say to go for it and even if it would turn out 95%,
that would still be fine as there is a lot of difference between
brands anyway. Some brand gear is good in chop, others
better in flat water so I have been learning from lots of
discussions with customers and worked out some shapes
which so far seem to have come out very satisfactory.
Do you have any views on windfoiling? Is it the
next big thing, as some suggest?
Not tried it myself yet but I´d say it will/does enhance light
wind flat water sailing quite a bit.
Is this area of the sport where the biggest gains
in design are to be made as some shapers are
promoting?
For sure this is a whole new thing and there still will be a
quite a lot of improvements to be expected. It seems foils
now are already much more user-friendly. I am not sure how
far it will go or if at some point it will start to become boring
once the novelty has worn off. Also foiling has some
limitations for the windrange, it is not possible to reduced the
wetted area so above a certain windspeed, normal boards
will become faster again. I think that where there are waves
to jump or ride, foiling does not have much appeal.
Also the flex tail is such a thing that brings benefits
both for early planing and for wave riding. It is a
mechanical solution to have a self adapting rocker line.
What do you see as the biggest challenge as a
shaper/designer?
As a shaper you are always looking for the Holy Grail. A board
that planes like a formula board, is fast and controllable like
a speed board and turns like a surfboard. This is off course
not possible but you are still looking to find things that have
more advantages and disadvantages. Our trifin with pre-
twisted and towed in side fins is such a thing. There are the
usual benefits all multi-fins bring: improved control and
manoeuvrability but without the drag and straight lining effect
that most multifins still have. This is easy to tell by the size
of the side fins offered. We have been optimising our fins
with interns studying hydrodynamics through the use of
computer fluid dynamics, special and very expensive
computer programs, which they had the use of for their
studies. Without the increased drag and straight lining effect
we can play a lot more with fin sizes and have a much more
adaptable system. You can use three equal sized fins and be
able to turn better than a quad due to less leverage for the
same fin area, plus more predictability due to having a
centre fin, more drive in a turn and less drag. But even with a
bigger centre fin and smaller side fins the benefits are
noticeable: easier to sail for the same fin area of a single
uk
WIND
SURFING