Surfing Waves

Guys, I've been riding a 7'10" mini-mal now for the best part of a decade. Progress has been fairly slow, for all kinds of reasons, but I'm now looking to get a new board and can't decide whether to move up to a performance longboard, or get myself a big fish/big guy shortboard. I'm 48, weigh 220lb and I'm not the fastest to my feet, thanks to a couple of old injuries. Pretty much all my surfing is done at our local points, so looking for something that will be relatively easy to paddle and fairly stable, but also give me a few more options in terms of manoeuvrability along the faces. Couple of friends of my standard and vintage swear by the 7S Superfish, but also have a mate riding a McTavish longboard and he reckons I need to go long, rather than wide. I dunno. What do you reckon?

What exactly do you want to be able to do better or differently than what you are doing on your current board? If it is relative paddle ease and increased maneuverability there are hybrid options that will carry similar or more volume levels at shorter lengths (FireWire and Lost two companies off the top of my head)...

I love my longboard but the things that you mentioned that you wanted to gain in performance are not going to be helped by going longer....

...Unless...

You want to progress your skills beyond your current level, want paddle ease because of age and weight so you can have longer sessions, and would like a bigger, more stable board to learn or improve on fundamentals which ironically will translate to higher performance that can be applied across the quiver.

What does your friend see in you that would make him reccomend you going longer? Have you asked him?

Thanks for the reply, Big H, much appreciated.

I'm after a couple of things, really. My current board, whilst custom made and quick enough, is a bitch to turn for some reason. Oddly, it can also be super unstable when I'm popping up. I suspect it maybe has a little too much volume under my chest, making it corky when sitting/taking off, but it flies (albeit in a straight line) when I do manage to get to my feet. Kind of feel I need more width for a less unpredictable take off, but I'm also wanting something that'll allow me to carve out a few turns along the way. Given my age and weight, I do still need something relatively easy to paddle.

The friend with the longboard thinks I'm too old and stiff to be considering going shorter and figures I'd have more fun riding mellower waves on a decent log and nailing a load more take offs than I do at present. Pretty much the same point about fundamentals that you've made. Right now, and despite the amount of time I've spent in the water, my wave count is still pretty low.

I am a big fan of custom made boards. If you can talk to a shaper get him to make a board that helps with your problems. Otherwise why not both big and wide? I love my oldmanoutofshapeoverweight boards. I have 3 funguns 9'6, 8', and a 7'6". I would say whatever board you get, you need to work at your general surf fitness and popups. It may well be the only reason you aren't progressing is that you aren't surfing often enough. How often do you surf?

Good idea about talking to a shaper. Makes more sense than trying to buy something off the shelf to tick all these boxes. Also quite like the idea of going bigger and wider. Probably not getting enough water time too though. Lucky if I'm getting out once a fortnight at the moment, but autumn getting underway and then it'll be winter and that'll help a bit. How wide are your fun guns?

My newest board is a 7'6" fungun and it is 24 inches wide (the other fun boards are about 23 and 23.5 wide) Really I wanted a shorter narrower board but my shaper thought different and made me this 7'6" board which doesn't paddle quite as well as my 8 foot although it has about the same flotation. I have given up on the idea of going narrower and am now working on learning how to deal with width. I am 6'2"and nearly 62 years old and weigh about 205 to 210 pounds. He made me originally the 8 foot board after I had been surfing a 9'6" longboard for about 3 years. I had some problems switching to that board so I ordered another board for bigger waves a 9'6" fun gun. But by the time that board came out I was used to the 8 footer. However the 9'6" board is so much easier to paddle. But I had gotten used to the 8 footer and now I love it but wanted to get something slightly different so now I have the 7'6". The 7'6" board had nearly no transition problems just missing a few waves that I would have caught with the longer board. I hardly ever get the 9'6" out but if it gets more than double overhead here I will.

DaveF wrote:I'm 48, weigh 220lb and I'm not the fastest to my feet, thanks to a couple of old injuries.

Sorry to be brutal, but that to me pretty much rules out a shortboard. If you're slow to your feet – and don't anticipate getting any faster – then a shortboard will just be a world of frustration.

As everything on a shortboard needs to be done so much faster, I'd only recommend going down in size if you were already fast enough on your bigger board.

Go long.

What's your fin set up ? You can change the way the board initiates into turns. But if you're trying to turn from the middle of the board and not over the fins, getting a smaller more maneuverable board won't matter.

Put it this way - whats most important.

Do you want to maximise your time on the wave at all times, in which case go longer and get a longboard. This will put you into most waves, give you time to pop up and all the rest. LBs are still heaps of fun, you aren't losing out by doing this. If you are surfing a point, then a LB is almost the best board to have anyway

Or do you want to try a shorter board because you want to try one during your surfing life, even if that results in some missed waves and a few spills etc?. In which case a shorter board is unlikely to be any easier when you are 50, so .... do it now. I call my shortest board my 'momento mori' board - I had to buy it, because if I waited until I was totally ready, I would have been too old (admittedly its 6ft10 so hardly a shortboard, but it is a 'big shortboard' shape...). A transition down a foot or so isn't all that hard, so long as you get a forgiving board.

If you wanted shorter, I would suggest just getting a slightly shorter mini mal/funboard eg around 7ft2 or 7ft - you will notice the difference but it should still be ok with your standard and injuries etc. Even something like a Torq 7ft2 (or 6ft10 if you wanted to push it) - pretty cheap (relatively) but will be fun. Plenty of other options

If you wanted there are lots of slightly (to quite a lot) more performance orientated mid lengths - sorry I'm going to name a few possibly Australian only boards, but that's what I know - basically for you to get some idea. Have a look at something like a hayden paddle pop; a grant miller waterskate, outer island mondo. These are actually fairly similar in some respects to the 7S boards, or even a firewire Addvance. The only down side is that if you are surfing nice slow point waves, often these higher performance boards need a bit of a push, faster wave. But lots of points have the faster wave. They are harder to paddle so you may need a bit of out of water fitness effort.

The world is your oyster - just make sure, if you go shorter, that you retain thickness and a fair bit of width.

Guys, this is all enormously helpful, thanks. Very much appreciate the advice. I think, reading your comments, that going longer (and quite possibly a little wider) is the way ahead for sure. I think, in a sort of rage against the dying of the light kind of way, I envisaged myself going shorter and carving out a load more turns. Fundamentally though, I'm still a fairly xxxxx surfer and need to boost my wave count. A longboard would appear to hold the key to greater consistency and more fun. Thanks again.

I had (have) a 7'4" shortboard shaped board, miles better for steep drops than a mini-mal . You should get something like that for big days with offshore winds and keep the mini-mal for smaller days.