Archives for January 22, 2014

On Friday January 24th at 7pm (Mountain time) CLYW are going to be releasing Palli’s brand new signature throw, the Puffin 2, at CLYW.ca. Chris dropped a HUGE amount of backstory to this design, and it’s definitely worth the read…quoted below!

As Palli started to add more complex tricks and longer more challenging combos to his freestyles he felt that he needed an update to his original design. So we listened! What Palli had on his wish list was:

• Keep the diameter and width the same
• Make the catch zone of the profile steeper to allow for horizontal tricks
• Make it spin longer
• Make it more stable
• Remove the nipple to make it easier to do finger tricks
• Keep the outer rims the same
• Reduce the side wall for easier horizontal tricks

So once we were ready Charles and I got on Skype with Palli and got to work on the design. We started off with the original CAD model of the Puffin, since we knew Palli wanted to keep the same diameter and width while keeping the outer rims the same. So first on the list was remove the bump on the catch zone and reduce the side wall. We kept playing with the angles and curves to see what type of surface would blend well between the two points. Eventually we got to a really nice flowing organic shape and would allow us to still distribute the rim weight in the inner hub. The profile looked too smooth though and needed something to break it up, and a subtle edge in the profile near the outer rim fixed that. Once we were happy with the catch zone we moved onto the inner hub.

To get the Puffin 2 to be more stable and spin longer, we had to remove the double rings. The double rings really made the original unique, but it really hurt us on maximizing rim weight with a mid sized throw, they seem to work a lot better for full sized throws like the Chief. Plus the double rings also add a level of complexity to machining. Eventually after some playing around we got to a really nice sort of wing like shape on the inner hub that made us think of Puffin wing tips. Then we made our way to the nipple and shrunk it down. Palli wanted to make it as short as possible, but still keep it there. In order to do this we had to switch to the same short axle system that we use on the Canvas/Arctic Circle.

The whole process was quite iterative, where I would make changes in CAD while Palli was watching and he would ‘Yay or Nay’ it. It was a lot of fun being able to work on this together and have Charles there to see how the whole design process works. The end result we felt was a much better representation of ‘a Puffin’. It’s definitely way more bird like, it fits Palli’s tricks better and Palli was involved in the whole process. An interesting fact about the 2014 lineup was that all 4 of the new models were designed over the course of 3 days and only 1 of the 4 had to go to a 2nd prototype (the Bonfire). This was definitely a first for CLYW.

CLYW Puffin 2 Specs:

Diameter: 2.100″ (53.3mm)
Width: 1.752″ (44.5mm)
Weight: 65.4g
Response: Snow Tires
Bearing: CTX Bearing by Central Bearing Co.
Made in Canada