Club Obi Wan

Hey,

My ten foot Joe Strain has a fall that's over two feet long.Should I shorten it a little,would this affect the performance?.It's seems to me that it makes it difficult to get a good crack from it with the fall being as long as it is.Not sure what to do here.

Best regards,
INDIANA_7

No need to shorten the fall, my friend. I highly respect the length of the fall that Joe puts on his whips. However the opposite tends to happen. The fall eventually starts to breakdown and cracks off in small pieces during normal whip cracking. Eventually it will get too small to provide that safety margin of protecting the braided portion of the thong. My preference is to swap it out when it gets to be around 20" in length.

Hope that helps.

-Sergei

Hey Sergei,

Thanks for the info.I guess I'll just leave it the way it is.I just thought that by shortening the fall it would help to get a better crack out of it.But now I know.Thanks again.

Best regards,
INDIANA_7

Also, taper is just as important to the fall as it is to the thong. If you've got a long fall that isn't tapered then the energy from the thong will cease to accelerat towards the end resulting in a what I like to call a "dry" crack. (Why do I call it this? I don't know. It just seemed to be a fitting description of a less than sharp crack.) Anyway, if you've got a really long fall that maybe doesn't taper the last few inches then I would definitely suggest trimming it back a bit. Especially if you have a white hide fall. White hide tends to really stretch compared to latigo. A new 24" white fall can easily stretch to 30+" over time. The stretch can screw up the taper and shape of the fall so it will need to be trimmed periodically. I've trimmed a fall back to 20" and a month or two later had it right back at twenty-four. Eventually the shape of a white fall will be completely disfigured and will need replacement even if it is still a good length.

I've found that a fall length ranging from 18" to 26" works best for me. I use different sizes and weights depending on the whip but the lengths tend to be the same. I just don't get very good cracks with falls longer than 26" and anything shorter than 15" should probably be replaced. I also enjoy better accuracy using this fall range. These guidelines may have a lot to do with my personal cracking style so a longer fall may work better for someone else. But from experience and experimentation I stick with this range.

-Kyle

Lenght of the fall is very important to balance the whip!
Peter Jack (The Whipman) from New Zealand knows all about balancing.
I´m sure he will tell you what you should do with your fall.
Contact him before you do anything!

www.thewhipman.co.nz

Thanks guys,all the info here is greatly appreciated.


Best regards,
INDIANA_7