Surfing Waves

Hi! I'm 6'4", 235lbs and am about to get my first new longboard after surfing for about 2 years. I live in SF, near Ocean Beach, but I take trips to Santa Cruz a lot for the cleaner waves. I want to be able to eventually surf the bombs at OB, and I'd like to get a board that can handle that as well as the cleaner SC waves. I've narrowed it down to two boards, but am not sure which to pull the trigger on.

Any of you guys have advice as to which I should get?

Board 1: <dead link>

Board 2: <dead link>

I see that the second has a pintail, which I'm guessing will be better for steeper waves and for cutting sharper turns (which I cannot yet really do). Is that correct? Your help is appreciated!! So stoked...

Thanks.

With your ambition to ride OB I'd look at the the pintail but either will do nicely both are good all round boards. So it's on your own preference.
Me, I like the pintail

Go for the first board, no contest.

On an unrelated note I have always found that noseriders surf like dogs.

I'm also looking at a Stewart right now and don't know a lot about board specs.

The first one has "pinched rails" and the second one has "softer rails"

I don't understand the difference.

Also, the first one claims "deep nose concave" and the second claims "90% nose rider"

Shouldn't that mean that they both are noseriders with big concave on the nose? And how does the nose concave affect how it surfs?

I would also wonder how they both paddle. Isn't that a function of how much nose rocker there is with the greater the rocker, the easier to paddle but the harder to surf? Or am I confusing rocker with concave?

Have a read of this

http://www.thomaspatricksurfboards.com/ ... esign.html

In terms of rocker, the less nose rocker the easier to paddle. Not necessarily harder to surf (indeed, flatter rocker is probably more stable) but a flat rocker is probably harder to turn and/or not suited to certain waves.

Nose riders are, in general, good for nose riding but not optimised for general surfing. If you are beginner level (more or less) then probably go more for a standard LB shape

The nose concave gives two things as I understand it, an air pocket under the nose and a greater distribution of weight to the back of the board.
The concave does not replace rocker, rocker is a difficulty for nose riding as you increase rocker moving forward on the board begins to disengage the tail and fin/s, the tail will slide out or break free causing pearling.
So flatter rocker maintains the wave lock on the tail and provides a more stable platform to stand on when forward.
Rocker also shortens the length of board in the water which means the board has less glide and is harder to paddle as the effective length is less.

Turn requires a different technique and positioning on the board and does get the same shortness of arc of a short board, you can increase turning ability by increasing tail rocker but again you have the problem of lifting the tail and disengaging the fin/s when you go forward.

Walking the board by cross step is a way of moving forward that keeps the tail engaged and maintaining the stability as much as possible.
You can nose ride without the concave, the rails may need tweaking but the older school noseriders had egg rails or 50/50 rails but you had to have your longboard turn skills up.
Watch a lot of old surfmovies watch how the guys turn and set up noserides in various ways.
In particular watch Phil Edwards, Dewie Webber and Miki Dora then realise that even then longboards could be turn well, modern longboards are just that more advanced now, just don't try to turn them with shortboard techniques

Ditching the noseriding fetish solves a multitude of problems design wise.

Or, you can do what I did a few days ago and buy a 10' Walden Magic Model in really good condition used for 375$ American and be TOTALLY FREAKING STOKED!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glad at home away from the foam!