The Displacement Hull, instead of planing up on top of the water like a regular flat or concave bottom contour, it plows through and parting the water.
Yes; The faster you go, the higher the speed, a displacement hull’s tail will sink down lower due to the “hole” created in the water as you move forward on the board.
So, how do you ride it? It is a bit tricky, but once you get the hand of the adjustment, it is really rewarding. Instead of leaning back on the tail, you surf off the front foot burying the rail and letting it go.
Although new displacement hull designs will perform in a varied range of waves, they can also offer a great day of surfing in smaller surf. Why? Because surfing through the water takes less effort and energy than planning on top of the water.
Be Ready to Feel Like Surfing Through The Water
Tristan Mausse is the ♥️ of Fantastic Acid
Tristan Mausse is a surfer and shaper that focuses his efforts in hand shaping Displacement Hulls, and only Displacement Hulls, inspired on the 70’s hulls. His designs are born out of self experimentations with the liquid element, its harmony and dynamics of the waves in Biarritz, France, where he actually lives and surfs mostly everyday.
He fell in love and was irremediably caught up with Hulls while working as a ding repairer as a teenager with a Greg Liddle to fix. In his own words, with his second time around, he was “hulled by a Californian shaper Andreini”, and there was no going back from there: years and years of science, theory, Greg Liddle, Kirk Putnam, Klaus Jones, Marc Andreini, Robin Kegel, Georges Greenough, Carl Lamaitre … He still is inspired by them.
Ended up in Bali shaping his own hulls and surfing them; applying what he learnt year by year, being this last part key for the glassing brand FANTASTIC ACID to be born. Now it has more than 10 years.
· Antistatic Hull ·
The King for Hollow and Powerful Waves
In Tristan Mausse’s words: "Antistatic Hull, antinomic design of the Paralleler Hull, was designed to tackle powerful "tube" waves. With a pronounced pintail, very advanced wide point, a fast outline and very stretched curves.”
This design is naturally surfed far above the wide point, and despite this extreme position on the nose, the surfer retains drive.
PINTAIL | The pronounced pintail allows to retain more control and handle speed easier that with a wide tail since it reduces the volume area on the rear third.
While on the face, the pintail has the advantage of being under the total influence of the wave: less width and minimum surface will enable the ‘sinking’ and stabilizing, allowing the board to follow and maintain its direction with better control.
POINTY NOSE W/ LESS SURFACE AREA | Not having part of the front rail inserting itself in the water and engaging in an unwanted curve, reduces catch on late take off’s.
RAILS | The rails are slightly lower and boxier than on a classic hull.
FINS | Flex fin with a wide base and a depth of 9'25 inches is the best suited for this hull. The position varies depending on the size and power of the wave being surfed but, generally, the trailer edge of the fin is 12 inches from the tail.
· Rounded Hull ·
Good for everyday, The Rounded Hull is the classic design of hull with wide point,
pushed one foot above the centre of the board, that you will want to have in your quiver.
TAIL | The tail tightens and stretches in the last foot, allowing to maintain the width and, therefore, floatation on the rear foot placements.
While having a narrower tail for better grip and versatility in turns.
BOTTOM | The most classic of hull bottom shapes, with a pronounced belly vee over the entire front two-thirds of the board, transitioning to a flat bottom in the rear third and behind the fin.
The taut and almost flat tail rocker increases speed, due to the more present gliding surface. The nose rocker is much more pronounced.
· Parlementia Hull ·
This surfboard was made specially for Parlementia’s wave, characterized by being fat and slow; a wave with amplitude, so this hull is made for big take off and long bottom turn.
This Hull Gun for Parlamentia speaks for itself and Tristan Mausse describes his creation like this:
I have stretched the outline, and made it narrower, 21 3/4 wide, the wide point is located on the middle of the surfboard, it's also the point where the belly vee on the bottom softly stop and change to a flat bottom shape, the belly vee is then pretty deep on the front part of the surfboard. With 3 3/4 thick the low rails are soft and thick, but softly tappered to get a pinchee entry. The rocker is a bit more pronounced on the nose and the tail get a little kick, but the middle part of the surfboard's rocker get flat and moderated for a maximum glide. the Wedge stringer is supposed to give more weight on the nose and help to "fall" in the wave easily, and to keep the nose stable.
The final objective of this hull is to “keep that deep bottom connection to the surface with the belly and to keep the special smooth feeling of a hull on that big wide wave.”
The Secret is Behind the Details
THE FIN | We will let Tristan Mausse to tell the story of the fin himself:
The fin is a test and I designed it with the help of my good friend Jean Penninck during a late night at the factory, for that special board we got inspired between the Tom Blake's skeg or the Pat Curren's gun fins but with a touch of "Greenough" and a bit of Wayne Lynch's keel fin. The 6 1/2 inches deep will hold enough that super narrow tail and drag less water on the take off, but we add a super wide base to lock the board during the turns. The first 2 inches of the fin is flex but quickly become wide so might stay away from vibrations. The front part of the fin is thick and round. Heavy glass job of course.
This is wicked