Orchid Outriggers were built to have fun in, and this is our idea of having FUN!

I know what you're thinking looking at this outrigger "surfing" foto. You're thinking something along the lines of:

"O-Bradda, t's crazy, old, haole, boys got lot to learn bout canoe surfing, must be some kina wise-guys. Nice hulei, Pau, suckaa!"

For those of you who don't speak pidgeon, that would translate to:

"Oh-brother, these crazy, old, white dudes, it seems have much to learn about the ancient sport of outrigger canoe surfing. Good luck! Nice 360, Game over,
Sucker!"

Well, you're right. But it must be pointed out that the plight of the passengers (and at this point in their adventure, I assure you that their status had degraded to that solely of passengers. Intrepid, albeit helpless, passengers) in the above pictured outrigger, was not of their doing. Unbeknown to them, the canoes designer had made one little mistake. Thus the moment they stroked into the wave, their fate was sealed, and in seconds they were enjoying a brisk dip in 52 degree the Pacific Ocean on "spin cycle." Invigorating when you dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. Once again the immutable laws of hydrodynamics, and how they apply to planeing surfaces, stood firm.

Although the Orchid Outrigger appears to be a mild-mannered, run-of-the-mill, two-seat outrigger, it's under-body (bottom) is a giant longboard. As Howard Dean would say . . . . YEEEEEE-HAAWW (oops, we got a little carried away). I know it seems silly, but we just couldn't resist . . . we're surfers. Man, its got about fourteen feet of planeing surface, gentle rocker curve, just a little kick in the nose . . . SWEE-E-E-E-T! (oh, sorry). Anyway, it catches waves real easy, and when it starts to plane, well, it accelerates like a Mahi-Mahi after a flying fish. That's when all the trouble starts. We built the ama with an elliptical cross section, a round bottom (WRONG - duh), no planeing surface, it can't keep-up with the hull (duh again). The result was an uncontrollable yawing to PORT, the ama subsequently being sucked up the wave's face, followed by the canoe and occupants receiving a thorough and comprehensive thrashing (duh for the third time).

        
          
Paddling Out                                              Swimming In        

The bold, the brave, the hypothermic.
Tom Crosser & Dan Samson

Note: Surfer brothers-in-law make most excellent test pilots (read: guinea pigs). When given the impromptu opportunity to test the Orchid Outriggers' surfing performance, they weighed the consequences and committed themselves to a bold course of action. Never mind the water temp was 52 degrees and they were in shorts and t-shirts. Never mind the wave was breaking over a particularly nasty stone reef. And never mind that their wives and families were watching the entire spectacle from the beach. With the only instructions being "don't worry, be happy" and no admonitions like "don't break it," they were free to heed that inner voice that all surfers hear - "go for it!" And "go for it" they did  - stylish take-off and turn, followed by an equally stylish "flying ama" and a 360. Sadly, the style points ended here as the canoe, ama, and paddlers/passengers disappeared from view, only to reappear in a somewhat tattered condition, washing ashore in a loose formation. Style points gave way to "atta-boys!" as the paddlers/passengers, now swimmers, treated the spectators to some great "rock dancing" while they guided the canoe and ama (now separate entities), over the exposed reef and to the beach. Once on the beach they were inducted as the founding members, into the Broken iako Club.

We had surfed the canoe in small waves before and noted this tendency for the craft to turn in the direction of the ama, but after Dan and Tom's most excellent surf adventure it was obvious something had to change or we were going to be building bunches of iakos and doing lots of swimming. (With all due respect to Jack O'Neil, surf leashes didn't seem like a good solution to the swimming part of the problem.)

So it was back to the drawing board. The objective was to design an ama bottom with the ability to plane and keep up with the speed of the canoes' hull, allowing the canoe to be steered while riding a wave. Now, the "drawing board" in our case was any flat surface back at the shop covered in dust. I first observed this technique of designing in the dust when I was a boy at Joe Quiggs surfboard/catamaran shop on 31st Street in Newport Beach. This technique was expedient and efficient, besides being environmentally sound. No paper, no pencils, no erasers, and the dust you create serves a secondary function. And, as long as you're working hard, you have lots of dust in which to draw more plans.

The original ama design was dubbed the "birding" ama; the "surfing" ama was born. The original bottom design was deepened and given a very shallow "V" shaped planeing surface. This planeing surface was then cut-away or stepped at a point about mid-way down the ama's length. Hopefully with this design the ama would plane, get up on the step, and free-up in terms of hydrodynamic drag.

Early tests in small surf seem to indicate success. The canoe now responds to steering inputs while riding waves. We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the winter surf season and the opportunity to put theory into practice. In the future we might consider offering these surf adventures to the public. To that end, our legal staff is developing a release form that incorporates a "last will and testament" and-or "suicide letter."