Surfing Waves

Hey there,

so I am currently travelling & surfing with my first "own" board -- a 6'2" Firewire Potatonator (FST), which was the first
short-ish board after having normally rented a 7'2" Takayama Egg. The reason I went for the Potatonator is that
I am travelling a lot this year, and needed a board that (a) works in many conditions and (b) is less than 2m (6'8")
to avoid being subject to insane airline fees.

I am 193cm tall (a tiny bit short of 6'4") and 95kg heavy (209 lbs), and of reasonable fitness.

The Potatonator works well for me in anything up to 4-6ft faces, although it is admittedly on the short side -- e.g.
I need to be relatively critical on the wave.

Each time I took the board out in 6ft+, I don't manage to paddle in properly -- e.g. I end up being stuck on top of
the wave, with no way to make the drop. Today was particularly annoying (the waves were 7ft+ here in Taiwan,
and the 6'2" Potatonator and me were a rather comical sight).

Sooo ... I am thinking about another board, for days where it gets slightly bigger. I am definitely thinking about 4 inches
more in length (6'6" perhaps?), and I am still debating with myself if I should try a little bit lower volume (perhaps dropping
from 44.1 liters right now to something between 40 and 42 liters) or whether I'd be sabotaging myself with less volume.

I was thinking: Perhaps a 6'8" Hellfire (going down in volume a little bit, but 6" more length), or a 6'6" Dominator (going up in volume a tiny bit, and also in size), or a 6'5" El Fuego?

I quite like the buoyancy of the FST board, but I am open to everything and any suggestion

Cheers,
and thanks a lot in advance,
Thomas

If you get a board for bigger waves, get one with more rocker first and foremost (esp compared to the potatonator)....Dominator and El Fuego are more or less similar templates and they are both too flat (I have a dominator, doesn't like steep big and fast I found out today). If it were a choice, I'd go longer, more rockered and narrower vs shorter, flatter and fatter to whatever degree you are comfortable with. Rip Curl here has demo firewire boards that can be rented/tested for a nominal amount....they have HS, Lost and the Tomo boards as well. Maybe there is something like that around your way.

tdullien wrote:I was thinking: Perhaps a 6'8" Hellfire (going down in volume a little bit, but 6" more length), or a 6'6" Dominator (going up in volume a tiny bit, and also in size), or a 6'5" El Fuego?

Hi Thomas,

I use a Dominator 606 FST just fine in bigger waves until 1.5 OH, fat waves not the hollow waves. It's not so much the size but the shape of the waves that calls for more rockered boards. For bigger and hollow waves I think the Hashtag is a good choice, and a great addition to the Potatonator. If ur looking to replace the PO and go for a 1 board quiver then maybe the Unibrow would be a good choice.

If ur stuck in the top of the wave it's most probably cos u need to paddle faster in bigger waves especially when they are more curved and there's a lot of water being sucked upwards. More volume would help creating more paddle speed in that case. Better timing and positioning in a more critical part of the wave is a better solution off course.

Yes....I should have mentioned hollow.....low tide and all....fast hollow and jacking @ Padma....on take off wave got right under the tail and I couldn't sink it fast enough - the same thing that I liked in the smaller / fatter waves the other day.... today it felt like i was stepping on a bar of soap....different than the Studer I used in similar conditions yesterday. After getting up it was OK but felt skatey and not secure....not getting much bite.

So good I had to say it twice......double post.

Hey all,

one more question: I think it's not only the volume that creates more paddle speed, but also length/width ratio? At least for ship hulls, the length/width is often much more determining of speed than other factors, so keeping volume constant and lengthening the board should also help in catching bigger waves better, right? (That is part of my thought process behind going to 6'6").

Cheers,
Thomas

You aren't paddling fast enough for hull length to be a major factor in speed.

What you are after is known as a 'step up board' ie for bigger waves. Usually longer but often narrower, certainly narrower than a potatonator, more rocker. Anyway, Google 'step up boards' and have a read

There are lots of things that affect how fast you can paddle which is probably different than hull speed or how fast the board will go. I think length helps as well as flotation and bottom contour.

I'd say flotation and length are the main factors with rocker in a third but that's only based on first hand paddling feels with no kind of measuring device other than the wind in my hair......

Hey there,

is it really a step-up board if we're talking about 6' wave faces? I thought "step up" meant "almost double-overhead"?
But yeah, something longer & narrower than the Potatonator is needed.

I guess my big question is now:
1) It should be longer & narrower, but what about volume? Less, more, same?

Cheers,
Thomas

tdullien wrote:is it really a step-up board if we're talking about 6' wave faces? I thought "step up" meant "almost double-overhead"

Meh, definitions...
One person's big-wave surfing is another person's flat

It's a step-up board in the sense of needing the length and rocker to get into the wave, so it's a step up compared to what you normally ride.

tdullien wrote:1) It should be longer & narrower, but what about volume? Less, more, same?

The same. If you're struggling to get into the bigger waves now, don't cripple yourself with less volume.

tdullien wrote:Hey there,

is it really a step-up board if we're talking about 6' wave faces? I thought "step up" meant "almost double-overhead"?

Yeah, I mis read that as 6ft Australian/Hawaiian, which is more or less double overhead

The potatonator is, as you know, designed for smaller surf - wide, thick and shortish. So there is a fair bit of volume packed into a small area, with a fat tail. All good. But gets a bit too much for bigger waves.

For 6ft faces, you can surf almost everything (other than boards with the specific small wave/grovellor features). The general consensus, as DBB said, is that you just take the volume of your current board (44L) and find a longer board with similar volume and slightly more rocker. Don't go down in volume, just around the same. A 6ft face is literally the bread and butter of almost everything but the grovellor or fish style board (fish generally have flat rockers), so there are plenty of boards around. Anything from 6ft2 to 9ft6.

So what length - well, up to you. Given your current board I would probably suggest maybe a 6ft6 give or take a few inches, 6ft8 would be fine as well (and you can go longer if you want). 44L give or take. A bit of rocker. If you are looking at Firewire then the 6ft6 dominator, for example. But every maker will have a board that suits.