Surfing Waves

I need to buy a car. I have two long boards. Does anyone have a sedan that puts their board on roof racks? Is it do-able to transport two boards on a small car or do you need a longer car, like a hatchback? Thanks in advance

People have roof racks for longboards on every sort of car, from Mini Cooper S to Volkswagen beetles, fiat bambino s just have an overhang on each end. Your local traffic laws may have some requirements.
Hatchbacks you cannot fully lift the back when boards are on.

In Hawaii if the board doesn't hang more than a foot past the end of the car then no need for anything but if it is longer than that then you are supposed to put a red flag on it however if it above the height of most vehicles hoods then cops seem to ignore them.

Note that if you have a 4-door, you don't necessarily need to get a hard rack.

Note that if you don't have a 4-door you don't necessarily need to get a hard rack

Speaking of 4-door sedans, don't be the kook that puts the straps through the window opening , gets everything nice and tight after 15 minutes , THEN realizes he can't open the doors to get in the car.

I'd never thought of this possibility, but now that I have, it's amazing I haven't done it at least once.

although its more costly, if you are using the rack regularly, then a hard rack is much easier and quicker in terms of getting the board on and off.

I don't know if this is still true but used to be some of the hard racks flew off the top of cars. Soft racks at least the ones I have used are designed to pull tighter the faster you go whereas the hard racks are clamped on. I do know it is good to look at the roof of your car and the rack and try to figure if it will fit well. Some racks both hard and soft are made to carry 2 sets of boards but if they only have one place to put boards you can stack them (biggest on the bottom). I used to put a towel between the boards to give some padding and add some friction between the board so they don't slide much.

How long are your boards? You can put 9 footer inside of most of the sedans. I put my boards on the racks only if I have more than one passenger.

Hyundai Accent, two 9' longboards, 70 miles per hour, and these straps:

https://www.amazon.com/Block-Wrap-Rax-Deluxe-Double-Soft/dp/B001A4DMUK/

I've had these straps for almost 3 years no issues

waikikikichan wrote:Speaking of 4-door sedans, don't be the kook that puts the straps through the window opening , gets everything nice and tight after 15 minutes , THEN realizes he can't open the doors to get in the car.

Speaking of 4-door sedans, don't be the kook that puts the surfboard through the window opening.

Another thing I'm glad to see is wrong, since if I'd thought of it, I might have done it.

I've actually gotten a 9' longboard in my '98 Beetle, with the hatchback closed. It probably wasn't safe, since I couldn't see the passenger side mirror, but it was safer than sticking it crossways through windows.

As for hard racks flying off cars, my old used Thules have stayed on fine for ten years.

I haven't bought surf racks in maybe 30 years so.....I am pretty sure it is all different these days. I went and found this on the internet. These soft racks are totally different from the ones I used and probably still have in the dark reaches of my garage shed somewhere. But they still use a towel between the boards

BoMan wrote:

waikikikichan wrote:Speaking of 4-door sedans, don't be the kook that puts the straps through the window opening , gets everything nice and tight after 15 minutes , THEN realizes he can't open the doors to get in the car.

Speaking of 4-door sedans, don't be the kook that puts the surfboard through the window opening.

I had a friend who used to carry his board like that till he snapped it into three pieces one day doing a stunt driving between two trees while forgetting that his board was there.

The soft rack in the video is like the one I bought for the rental last month. Worked like a charm.

I used the straps without the pads a couple of weeks ago to tie a third board onto my hard racks, and that became kind of a geometry challenge, since you have two straps of different lengths sewn together, but I eventually got something together that was functional.

oldmansurfer wrote:I don't know if this is still true but used to be some of the hard racks flew off the top of cars.

I used to regularly carry 5 kayaks on the top of my car doing 80-90mph and never had one come off and they were never expensive roof racks.

I think some sedans have a rear seat that folds so you can have continuous space from the trunk to the cabin of the car. Ive seen a 4 door civic carrying a 9' board inside but not sure about 2 boards. If I were car shopping though, I'd just get a hatchback.

Millsy82 wrote:

oldmansurfer wrote:I don't know if this is still true but used to be some of the hard racks flew off the top of cars.

I used to regularly carry 5 kayaks on the top of my car doing 80-90mph and never had one come off and they were never expensive roof racks.

Kayaks weigh a lot more than surfboards and aren't as aerodynamically shaped as surfboards so the amount of speed needed to get enough lift to pull the rack off is probably quite high. I saw a set of board sail off the top of a car and they flew quite a distance after lifting off. Definitely you want to put the nose of the board forward and faced down (board upside down) so the force of air going across the nose pushes the boards down into the car roof.

Does everybody with "nose forward" transportation? I was told by a former mayor of Malibu and Eastwood's double that it should be "tail forward and fins up". And always did it this way.