Surfing Waves

Ok so I am 5'8 at 175-180 lbs, I have my 8'7' NSP and love it, but i also have my 6'6 yancy quadfin fish hybrid!

Now my question is when it calm or surf thats 2-3ft I float great on my 6'6 but days when I actually need it on days were I need to duck dive and get past the beach break were its easyer to get a short board out to, my 6'6 seems to sink, like if I go a a lill further foward on the board the nose sinks and rear comes up, if i go just a tad back from that point the rear goes down and the front comes to far up. am i to big for this board, keep in mind on calmer days I can float fine on it! the bard dimentions are
6'6" by 21 and 1/2 by 2 and3/8 I ask cause I couldnt use my short board during gustav and would really like to use it for IKe tomarrow!!

I don't think wave size should make a difference on how your board floats....If your board floats on smaller days it should float the same on bigger days. I could be wrong, but i think your positioning could be the problem.

stuzzy07 wrote:I don't think wave size should make a difference on how your board floats....If your board floats on smaller days it should float the same on bigger days. I could be wrong, but i think your positioning could be the problem.

yep

on bigger days you tend to have less time to recover after duck diving and find it harder to keep the best paddling position on your board. Dont worry just shift your body position back so the nose of your board is just above the surface of the water.

im 6'4 180lbs and surf a 6'4 x 18 3/4 x 2 3/8 shorty...and by no means do i sink the board, i could easily go smaller but dont need to.

the board floats the same in big or small surf, you're just probably having problems paddling the board since you need to paddle harder in bigger surf. Just remember to have the board balanced so as to glide the best, too far worward or back you will push water and slow.

All of the above replies make sense about it being difficult to keep the correct body position in larger surf. However, I have also noticed that in heavy surf, if you are paddling in/near the impact zone your board will be slightly less buoyant. The way I figure it, after a wave slams down in the impact zone you get that white frothyness as the wave has forced air down into the water, churned it up and now the tiny air bubbles are rising back to the surface. This makes the water less dense as it is now a mix of air/water and thus you are a little less buoyant.

It will also affect the force you can produce from each paddle as paddling through a less dense material will produce less forward motion. Think extreme cases, paddling through water vs. just air. The air provides no resistance to your hand giving you nothing to push off of.

The bigger and harder its slamming, the more air will get forced down and the longer it will take to rise back to the surface. It is only a small change, but it seems huge when Im "spinning my wheels" trying to get behind the next wave. Its possible that the density/salinity of the ocean water in your area makes this change more noticeable.