12' Sunday Glider
Thomas Campbell rode this board and called it The Fever. Once you catch the fever... there ain't no cure.
K-Man, Keith Hamlyn above, gliding on a Sunday model. Photo by Uri Chen.
I have really spent a lot of time on 12 plus surfboards. This is going to sound silly, but I see the 12 footer as the very short end of the spectrum of longboards. Longboards are from 12 to 20 feet long. This is where my shapes are different from others. The hydrodynamics come from a different paradigm. I pull the centre of volume back from the midpoint because I want the sweet spot to be further back to tighten the turning radius. My corky gliders focus on small waves and running through long green walls. I make the tail thicker to come out of tight turns with speed (the thinner the tail, the longer the turning radius — the thicker the tail, the tighter the radius and the more bounce out with speed).
I was very excited about my hollow paulownia 12 footers from 2002 to 2009, but then put them aside. As the popularity of surfing has grown and people have found their way to breaks that would have been left to the off-beat surfers, the heavy wood board becomes a liability. The Corky 12 footer is half the weight and has soft rails. It is a much safer board for everybody in the water. This is a very fun and safe way to enjoy the glide.
