Author: Tom
Date: 2/24/2011 2:56 pm PDT
|
Hi Grant,
Sorry it took me so long to respond to your message; I've been away for a few weeks.
As you know from reading Bing's book, the name Katamacave comes from a merging of catamaran and concave, to describe the bottom rail edge and concave in the tail section of the board. This was a $10 extra on the 1964-65 price list.
In the last 10 years, we've seen 7 Bing Katamacaves. So, they're out there, but somewhat rare. Most of them are over 10 ft. long (10-6 is the most common size) and appear to have a slightly narrower tail than the standard stock Bings of that period. In addition, at least one is labelled as a "semi-gun" in Bing's old order book. Given all this, it sounds like the Katamacave boards may have been designed specifically for riding larger waves. However, I don't know if it was designed or marketed for this purpose.
The Katamacave bottom was Bing's design, though other surfboard manufactures were also making boards with a concave section(s) near the fin at this time, called "slot bottoms." Maybe the idea was that the extra rail edge would help the board hold-in better on larger or stepper waves, while the concave was supposed to make the board go faster (venturi effect). Concave bottoms in surfboards had been around for many years prior to Bing's Katamacave shape, including the early 1950s Simmons' boards that Bing first rode as a teenager.
Tom |
|
