Surfing Waves

A friend of mine has this giant longboard dims = 9'6x23x3 he was complaining that longboard is wobbly anyway me and my borther tandem surfed the thing which was pretty amusing have the vid somewhere will post later. But anyway i descided to take it for a spin solo as my buddy was complaining about the board now im not a longboarder but found the board to be crazy wobbly now im a total lightweight at 140lb and 6ft there just doesnt seem to be any reason why the board is soooo unstable. it paddles real good but after take off the board feels like a jackhammer. Im assuming it has something to do with the fins. Its a tri fin with two small sidebites and a larger center. I messed around with the center fin in different configs but to no avail.

Anythoughts? maybe a bigger center fin or bigger sidebites i dunno as longboarding aint my thing but if im having real trouble riding the dam thing i think my mate who is basically a beginer is not gonna have much luck either and he has complained about the same things.

Sliding the center fin all the way back is the only thing I can think of doing, or adding bigger side bites. Sounds like its just a funky board though. Have a crazy vee in the tail or really soft rails by chance?

i will try adding bigger side bites but im not gonna hold my breath although the board is from a main board maker something is horribly wrong. Im not a longboarder but im not a complete monkey on the things so i dunno asside from experimenting a bit if all else fails i tell the dude to just sell it and get a custom or something.

Might be worth while to drop it off at my shaper and see wtf he thinks is going on with it

Yeah definitely. Who shaped it?

lost (mayhem)

Weird. Heard some off things about their glassing but not about shaping.

If you are not a regular long boarder - some do feel wobbly - you can see the wobblyness on loads of non pro footage.

I have a locally shaped 9'6" x 23" and it too felt wobbly at first. Didn't notice it much after a while though.
BUT riding my narrow gun - that ain't wobbly, but it’s a biatch to turn!

I don't weigh much so that maybe the reason for my wobbles, though down the line and moving the board around it ain’t that noticeable.

Perhaps the rails are too round and the board just dont bite into the wave ?

Also consider the star fin by Cheyne Horan - that might help to hold it stable ........

http://www.cheynehoran.com.au/starfin.html

Hope it works out okay.

Oh one last tip - let a longboarder ride it to get a more experienced opinion too - perhaps all is well.

thanks for the info im open to checking anything out as its kinda of mystery at the moment LOL

I was actually thinking that you should take off the sidebites.

How big are the waves you are surfing on? If they are small then it would be different advice than if they big. I keep thinking that you are on a longboard surfing small peelers, so the sidebites would cause the board to bite into the wave causing weird up and down slides.

It sounds like it might be a performance geared longboard. If it has down turned rails in the back 2/3's of the board and a thin tail and nose with a ton of rocker, that might be the nature of the beast.
How big is the center fin? If its around eight inches and shaped like a shortboard fin, maybe try dropping the side bites and putting in a bigger longboard fin. Fins aint cheap though, so im not necessarily saying run out and buy one.. Wobbly boards may just mean more maneuverability, which can be good.