Board Advice for Shortboard Transition

[surf patrol]

Hey all,
Sorry to make another board recommendation thread, but it's my turn to ask . I want to begin the transition to a shorter board, but definitely could use some suggestions. Here's the situation...
First off I'm a little over 6' 3" and 192ish pounds so I'm bigger than the average dude. I've been surfing fairly consistently (2 times a week average) for about a year and a half, although there was a 4 month chunk in the middle where I was living away from the beach and so didn't surf. I started on a 9' 6" longboard, pretty quickly transitioned to a 7' 4" and have been riding both boards since, focusing more on the shorter board lately. I don't know if you would call the 7 footer a standard "funboard," but same idea. I actually had it shaped for me, told the guy I wanted something to more or less learn on but that could progress with me and ride a variety of waves. Dimensions are 7'4" x 21" x 2 7/8" rounded pintail, not too much rocker to make it easier to paddle, can be ridden single fin or thruster. Just want to give you all an idea of what I've already got. I've enjoyed the board, can only really compare it to my longboard though. I can be a bit inconsistent, but when I'm fresh in the session and feeling good I'm catching the wave, popping up fine, maybe getting a decent bottom turn and then riding down the line rather blandly. Lately I'm trying to improve my bottom turn, pumping/maintaining speed, and just overall riding the wave better with turns and what not.

So here's my predicament. I'm getting very frustrated in bigger (chest high or bigger) surf lately, and my scapegoat is the board haha. I don't want to blame the board for my lack of ability, but in all seriousness the biggest problem I have with it is it's a freakin tank trying to duck dive, especially when my duckdiving ability is not the best, but its hard practicing duck diving on a board with so much volume IMO. When I'm fresh I can surprise myself at times with a solid duckdive, other times I do enough just to get by but am not efficient at it. Muscling that thing under is work, and tires you quickly. I've definitely seen myself tire way quicker because I'm getting worked by bigger surf rather than just getting a few duckdives in and getting out back. Don't get me wrong, I get out, but I know that the extra fighting tires me out a lot quicker in a session which equals less waves caught which equals less waves ridden which equals not a lot of improvement. You guys get the picture.

So I didn't think I would look at getting a shorter board as quickly because in my mind I haven't "mastered" my 7'4", but I feel like it's holding me back in the bigger stuff. I have also wondered if the minimal rocker hurts me when the waves get steeper and pitchier. I don't think I know enough to judge, and like I said I don't want to blame the equipment instead of my lack of ability. Regardless the sheer difficulty in duckdiving it justifies to me another board for when the surf gets bigger. So I say all that to ask you all what do you think I should look for? I've thought something in the upper 6 foot range maybe since I'm a tall guy and I don't want too drastic a change and a long learning curve? I get a bit discouraged when hearing all the talk about the difficulty of going shorter board wise, any advice there? Thanks for reading and for the help guys

[dtc]

As you will know, duck diving involves pushing the volume of the board underwater and is not 'directly' related to board length (it is indirectly, in that a longer board will have greater volume; but a short fat board can have as much volume as a long thinner board).

So you just need to find out the volume of your board and get one with less volume...if you dont know the volume then its not as easy as it sounds. Plugging your dimensions into google shows that similar sized boards are between 45l to a bit over 50l volume. Now your board might be thicker all the way through or have a wider nose etc etc than these boards so the volume could be different.

In any event - lets say your board, if a fun board shape, is somewhere between 50 - 55l in volume. Thus to help you duck dive but without sacrificing too much else, you are probably wanting something around 45l (45l might not seem much of a reduction, but that is a 10% reduction from 50l and 20% from 55l). Just moving from a rounded to a narrower nose will change volume even if nothing else changes - and will also make it easier to duck dive - but will decrease stability and paddling.

45l boards can range from 5'6 to over 7ft and lots of boards in between. So I think you are on the right track with your view of getting something in the high 6ft range. However, keep in mind that just because a board is (say) 6ft10, it may not be of lower volume than your current board (your current board is actually fairly narrow); or conversely it may be too big a decrease in volume for your paddling skills. So there is a bit of research to do. The standard board dimensions will be important, but (for example) does the thickness extend right to the end or are the nose and tail quite thin, is the board rounded or have parallel rails etc - all of which affect volume.

Anyway, my view is buy the board that seems right given your criteria. If you discover its too difficult for you at your current stage of skill, then its the board you move to in 6 or 12 months. You arent going to be wasting your money.

Of course, you can just turtle roll when you get tired!

As to rocker - 'my shaper' is firmly of the belief that tail rocker is more important for steep waves than nose rocker (tail rocker allows you keep the nose out of the water when paddling for the wave, after that the rocker isnt much of an issue as you are genrally going along the wave to some extent, rather than straight down). I don't know enough about it - but a bit of nose rocker at least provides a psychological beneft. Most boards under 7ft appear to have a bit of rocker anyway, its just the longer boards that are flat.

[across07]

Yeah good point dtc about paying attention to things like the thickness of tail and nose and how that will affect the volume. I was only thinking in terms of board dimensions which offers some guidance for volume, but not entirely.

[dtc]

Helpfully a number of companies (GSI and firewire, for example) include volume in their board description nowdays. Not totally as useful a figure as some make out (in my opinion) but perfect for your purposes.

I was serious about the turtle roll - longboarders obviously dont duck dive and manage to deal with bigger surf. You can duck dive until you start feeling tired and then turtle roll. But just get a new board, you know you want it!

[IB_Surfer]

So, to give you advice as to duckdive ability: I'm 5'9 and 205lbs. My shortboards are much smaller after years of surfing, but the first board I could duckdive comfortably is a board I still have and use for bigger days, a 6'8 x 20 x 2 5/8 step up. Here is a pic of what I got, but I got it in a thumb tail

http://www.sharpeyesurfboards.com/surfb ... s/big-guy/

My 6'2 is much easier to duckdive, but I remember when I went form a 7'6 board to this one I was ssooo stoked. I still don't find it easy on big pounding days, but on a good head high day it duckdives just fine.

I kept the board all these years, still use it once in a while but mostly when the surf is big and mushy

[across07]

Cool man, I was thinking maybe something in that 6'8" range was what I'd look around for. Good to hear you were able to duck dive it comfortably and you're only a few pounds more than me. For now I doubt I'll be surfing anything more than head high to one foot overhead so a board along the lines of what you described should be good

[across07]

Got a follow up question for you all. I've been keeping an eye around for boards and found this http://norfolk.craigslist.org/spo/3667856863.html He lists the dimensions. I could probably get the board for $100, looks in fair condition, hard to tell from pictures alone. Based on what I wrote above, do you all think it would be a solid transition board? I know that given time and effort I could make a lot of things "work," but I don't want to have a long period of re-learning and frustration. Any insight would be appreciated. I'm leaning towards it now because the way I look at it if it doesn't pan out it was only $100 and I could probably turn around and sell it for the same or slightly less.