Surfing Waves

Hello all,

I'm primarily shortboard surfer, as the conditions where I live (Central California) dictate that kind of equipment choice. A lot of duck diving in this part of the world.

However, I recently purchased a 6'8" egg with a 2+1 set up with the intent of surfing it on smaller days, to smooth out my style a bit, hopefully. I just had a few questions about that particular configuration.

Does one drive it off the tail like on a thruster?

Can one pump for speed on it?

What can I expect, performance wise, by adjusting the center fin back and forth?

Thanks for any and all input.

Heya buddy, I'll be honest I ain't got a clue but I do know you'll be the best man to answer that once you get it out into the water!!

What were you riding before that and what kind of surfing do you do right now?

Can't answer all your qustions but pump for speed should not be a problem. If you move the center fin forward the board will become more loose if you move it back it tracks more and slips less.

Good choice of board - all shortboarders should have a higher volume board in their quiver!

asilomarsurfer wrote:Does one drive it off the tail like on a thruster?

Can one pump for speed on it?

Can't say much about the fin configuration (not my strong point), but as for the egginess vs a shortboard, you'll probably find that you drive more from the centre of the board (i.e. weighted front foot, and back foot in front of fins).

At 6'8, you'll probably still need/be able to pump for speed like a shortboard, but (depending on board volume) on a small clean day you should be able to do a slower up and down S-curve, rather than pumping madly up and down.
If you're driving along the face, you may not have your foot above the fins, so it'll be a bit more rail-to-rail than you're used to.

"I recently purchased a 6'8" egg to smooth out my style a bit". "Can one pump for speed on it?" - bit of contradiction.

By being "smooth", usually you're less herky jerky and flow back and forth using the whole face of the wave. Pumping for most shortboarders, involves kinda of a skateboard "Tick Tack" where the nose/board bounces up and down, side to side. That utilizes driving the tail, while being smooth relies more on transitioning from rail to rail.

If you want to pump, try ride it as a a Twin-Stabi. larger sides with tiny center. If you want to be smooth, learn to lean on a single fin. let it pack up energy. Learn timing to hold and release that energy.

watch this smooth rider on a 6'6" single fin

If you want to do a youtube you have to include only the number code and copy it between the youtube code from the top of the advanced reply options in this case it would be what follows the v= part of what you copied. Otherwise what you would do is go to the share button at the bottom of the youtube (it has a sideways v next to it) then when you click it a shorter code is created and highlighted to copy it it you smiply push control and C buttons at the same time and it copies what you have highlighted. Then you come to the thread you want to place it in and hit the post reply button (not the quick reply button) or if you hit the quick reply by accident as I do from time to time the hit the Full editor button at the bottom of that. Type whatever you want then click on the youtube button at the top and then press control and P at the same time. This will paste the code between the youtube codes then you place the cursor at the front of the numerical code for the youtube which is the code after the last backslash or often it is the same as the code that follows v= if you just copy the code for the youtube without hitting the share the hit the backspace button till it removes the rest of the code. Sometimes and I am not sure why the code won't work if you don't hit the share button and copy from there. so in your case the number is j9UKYHU03KQ. Anyway someone will come along and fix it for you

All great advice, thanks for the responses! @ Jester, mostly a standard high-performance thruster, 6'2" around 34 liters. I mostly surf steep beachies.

@drowningbitbybit: Front footed trimming - I'll try and keep that in mind. Who knows, maybe with the benefit of the extra volume I can try popping up switch stance!

Yeah, waikikichan, a bit of a contradiction in terms! I will try to surf it as a single fin without any sidebites first.

Is it just me, or does Joel Tudor look a little stiff in that video?

For a bit of fun, try typing in "Joel Tudor is an a**hole" in google.