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Stinger shape

PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2014 11:27 am
by bajoman
Anyone ever surf a retro stinger shape (like Da'Sting on markrichardssurfboards.com)? Single fin, small swallow tail, lots of volume upfront and of course the sting tail. How do they perform, what waves are they good for, what waves will they work/ not work for etc...
I've always loved the look of the shape (and the way Larry Bertlemann used to surf them) and I have a line on a 6'8 but I'm not sure if I should pick it up. I usually single fin longboard 9' (but not really traditional-style), and I'm looking for a more transport-friendly substitute...
What do you think of the sting?

Re: Stinger shape

PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2014 5:40 pm
by oldmansurfer
Those boards worked well for da Bertlemann and could be fine for you. I surfed a stinger long ago for a couple hours and liked my own board better although that stinger wasn't made by Ben Aipa. There was a different style of surfing back then and Da Sting was great for that. If you want to surf like Bertlemann then it should be fine (not that you could actually surf like him, he was awesome.) I actually got my first glimpse of Da Sting and Bertlemann surfing one day. This funny looking board floated up to me and I knew it was a stinger although I had never seen one and while I was examining it Bertlemann bodysurfed up to me. I was like "Hey you're......" and he was all smiles and said "yeah" Then he told me all about the sting and Ben Aipa.