Surfing Waves

Just intetested - why are longboards good for small waves? You would have thought big boards would be for big waves?

you need to be going faster to catch small waves and longboards go much faster than shortboards. they also have more momentum.

the more surface area the easier a wave will pick the board up. The longer the board the more paddle - there are other dynamics but thats the gerneral concesus

So, if your local spot has small to medium size waves then a longboard is quite a good idea?

yes but not always as that depends on your riding prefrences i have no probs riding 2ft-16ft+ on my collection of shortboards granted in 2ft ankle slappers a longboard would work better

Longer, thicker board = More buoyancy

More buoyancy = Easier to catch small waves

More of the wave pushes on more of the surface area of the more buoyant board, and this means it will get pushed more by a small wave than a smaller board.

My 11' board is so buoyant that if I botch a duck-dive, sometimes I end up catching the wave - BACKWARDS - while paddling AGAINST it.

How do you duckdive an 11' board?

justloafing wrote:How do you duckdive an 11' board?

ive seen it done i doubt its very effective in bigger waves though

justloafing wrote:How do you duckdive an 11' board?

skill and weight......but all the skill in the world won't get er dun unless u weight 230+

justloafing wrote:How do you duckdive an 11' board?

You use your mass - but it doesn't get that deep. Maybe 2 feet. But thats a lot better than getting washed along with the wave on the surface. And yeah - in big waves you got to flip over/toss the board.

LOLRuss wrote:
My 11' board is so buoyant that if I botch a duck-dive, sometimes I end up catching the wave - BACKWARDS - while paddling AGAINST it.

LOL, pop-up and ride the wave next time.

did just that on a longboard a few weeks ago.... was paddling back out after a wave, got caught inside and hit by a biggish wave.
felt like it was going to toss me, then just before the board got to that critical point where you are upside down the nose swung round and i was heading for the beach... decided i might aswell stand up. then did exacly the same thing on the way back out for the next wave. got sense the third time and turtled! lol
that count as a fakie take off?!

greypump wrote:Just intetested - why are longboards good for small waves? You would have thought big boards would be for big waves?

One word glide.

greypump wrote:You would have thought big boards would be for big waves?

this does apply once over a certin size of wave but think more of fish to guns rather than longboards you do get 10' big wave boards but these bear little reblence to longboards