Surfing Waves

i want a board that can handle head high+ punchy/ hollow beachbreak waves. I weigh 135 and am 5 10. any suggestions for dimensions or shapes?

If you can handle headhigh hollow beachbreaks then you probably dont need us to tell you what board you should ride.

thats the problem, ive never surfed anything larger than head high and it was mushy. i was told that my current board, 5'9" fish would'nt work very well in hollow larger waves

That´s the spirit Mr. DBBB.

superfish wrote:thats the problem, ive never surfed anything larger than head high and it was mushy. i was told that my current board, 5'9" fish would'nt work very well in hollow larger waves

yeah, fish wont work, it just doesnt have enough rocker.

Performance shortboards would be the best ones to tackle these kind of big waves

superfish wrote: i was told that my current board, 5'9" fish would'nt work very well in hollow larger waves

It wont.
You'll need a thruster, with proper rocker and rails. If you're riding a 5'9 fish at the moment, then you'd be looking at a 6'2 shortboard and probably not that thin/narrow at the moment so around 19" x 2.5".
And a pintail for that size wave.

Someone much better than me - either at surfing or shaping - will come on now and contradict everything Ive just said

superfish wrote:thats the problem, ive never surfed anything larger than head high and it was mushy. i was told that my current board, 5'9" fish would'nt work very well in hollow larger waves

5'9 fish for hollow head high beach break

Fishes are a bad choice of board for anything that resembles a hollow wave. A shortboard design is a better choice

k thanks for the help

How does more rocker help you surf hollow waves?

later take offs as its easyer to keep the nose out of the water, same when riding the wave on steep take offs

Thibb wrote:How does more rocker help you surf hollow waves?

A steep or hollow wave wont have a flat section like a fat crumbly wave, so you're always surfing on a curve, and the easiest way to think of it is that the rocker helps the board fit that curve.

A flat board with no rocker will dig the nose in

drowningbitbybit wrote:

superfish wrote: i was told that my current board, 5'9" fish would'nt work very well in hollow larger waves

It wont.
You'll need a thruster, with proper rocker and rails. If you're riding a 5'9 fish at the moment, then you'd be looking at a 6'2 shortboard and probably not that thin/narrow at the moment so around 19" x 2.5".
And a pintail for that size wave.

Someone much better than me - either at surfing or shaping - will come on now and contradict everything Ive just said

I think thats pretty spot on. The only change I would make (based on weight 135), would be to go 18 1/2 or 18 1/4. The narrow is better for the speed and if your on a small fish, the lack of board volume should be nothing new. You just don't want to much surface area, that will make the board slower on the wave. In the past I liked a squash or square tail up till about 8-10 feet. Pin from there. Alot of it is surfing style dependant when it comes to the tail.

With your height and weight, I'd go roundabouts 5'10 x 18 x 2 1/8 single concave poly shortboard thruster with full boxy rails and your choice of tail, but it depends a lot on how it's shaped and what works for you personally, we can only really just stab in the dark in reply to your question.

I'm a little heavier than you at 5'10 145 lbs, and a 5'11 x 17 7/8 x 2 1/8 is my magic stick at the moment (the rightmost one in my avatar pic) and I'm a very average surfer. I previously was on a 6'4 (the leftmost one) but it feels a bit like a barge now. I'm finding potato chip boards to be addictive, it's hard to go back to bigger ones.

wouldn't a thumb or other rounded tail give better hold than a square or squash tail? just a thought, because i rate myself as an intermediate so im guessing more hold would be better for me