board for small fast hollow waves

[Dennis94]

Hi,

I'm looking for a board for fast hollow waves. I live in the netherlands/holland, so the waves are small(0,5-1,5m on average) with a low wave period (around 6 seconds). I currently have a 5'6" rusty T-dwart of 29,3 liters( width 20" or so). the board is fat and fast, but i cant surf it in the hollow waves. before this board i surfed a 6'2" Nigel Semmens board, which was a little to big for me as well as a 6'4" Pro Limit high performance board which is also way to big for surfing in holland for a small guy.

I need a board which paddles easy for fast hollow waves and which pulls in the barrel automatically at the take off.

I have tried the Al Merrick Bunny Chow 5'8" , which is a step in the right direction. but maybe someone knows the perfect board for fast hollow small to medium size waves.

i'm 21, good condition. intermediate surfer. around 1,70 meters and 65-70 Kg.

I hope someone can give me good advice. thanks in advance

[dtc]

Well, every board manufacturer claims its board does all that and if any of them were accurate, everyone would buy that board. Esp one that automatically put you in the barrel (with its engine?)

I think you just have to try different boards and see what works for you. I know that is no help but you seem to have fairly specific needs.

I guess if you take the 'everyone would buy it' as being an accurate representation of a boards ability, the best selling board for the last few years has been the hypto krypto. Which claims to do what you want.

[drowningbitbybit]

fast hollow waves. I live in the netherlands/holland, so the waves are small(0,5-1,5m on average) with a low wave period (around 6 seconds)

That's not a hollow wave. If you go by surfboard descriptions by the manufacturer or shaper ("...built for hollow waves"), you'll end up with the wrong board.

[Big H]

Not fast either....not by standards over here.

[jaffa1949]

This is a small fast wave semi hollow too, but not barreling.
Does the Dutch wave look like this?

The period for this day was 12 seconds so a little power on the bank.
Power relative to size determines hollow and special bottom contours really make the wave.
Kirra, Superbank cxan do it small, J bay, medium and up, Pipe, a genuine specialist wave.
Measure hollow against that

[Big H]

You could ride anything from a foamie to a mini simmons on that wave. There is a beach break near my house; routinely is a nicely shaped hollow wave that is very consistent.....no, not Padang Padang....it's Jimbaran beach, and the wave never almost never higher than waist high...but it is hollow.

I would think anyone who has the skills to drop, stall and pull into a barrel esp. on a small breaking wave would know a little something about boards and what they liked and didn't like. Weird question....beside the point really...........there are a lot of fishy hybrids with round thumb or pinny shaped tails that would probably fit what you're looking for including the aforementioned hypto krypto. Look at the Lost... series for inspiration; they have way too many choices for small wave boards for larger sized guys....maybe you'll see something you like and can either get or get something similar from a local shaper or competing brand.

[Dennis94]

This is one of the barrels we have, with lower tide the barrels are much harder to take. you can almost see the sand during the take of. they call me "kamikaze" because i paddle for those barrels, but wipe out almost all of them.:p

[Dennis94]

This is the dutch longboarding champion riding one of those waves. he can take off way earlier than i can because of the high performance longboard. I think maybe any kind of high performance board might help me. because my current board is to wide and to thick for it. all the volume is in the nose, so I have to push super hard at the takeoff and the board takes off super late when its barreling.

[Big H]

That's a wave.....since I don't want to upsell a particular brand, take a look at Luke Studer's website (Bali shaper...figure you won't buy from him so he's a safe example to use with no retail leanings attached....you're going to have to go out and choose something on your own still, but can use these examples to shape your choice)....he's got a board called the F4 which is the Bali standard shape made for waves like that....something like that ought to work or his newer board called the bullet....if it were me I'd be getting a surftech or at minimum a heavy glassed PU board....that wave looks snapalicous.....

http://www.studersurfboards.com/surfboard/f4/
http://www.studersurfboards.com/surfboard/bullet/

[Big H]

This is the dutch longboarding champion riding one of those waves. he can take off way earlier than i can because of the high performance longboard.

......and because he's the Dutch long boarding champion....

[Dennis94]

haha yes i looks snapalicious, but I only snapped one board in 9 years:)

[Big H]

Here's a non website polished pic of a studer f4 from the local buy and sell posted today....good basic all arounder hollow wave board.

[Dennis94]

@Big H

Those are some nice boards for my local break, I think Nigel Semmens has some boards which are kind of the same. Our surfshop has a lot of his boards.

Thanks a lot all of you for the help already!

[waikikikichan]

Try this experiment, since you're having a problem with wide nose boards.
1) Go to the kitchen cabinet and grab a spoon
2) Place it down on a flat surface but up against a wall or tissue box to simulate going down the line.
3) With the handle at the back and wide part at the front, what is happening ? The wide nose / trash can "nose" point away from the face. You can't pull the nose in towards the wave. The more deeper you put the tail in, the more the nose wants to run out.
4) Now flip the wide part to the back and the handle to the front. You can now point the "nose" in and out.

I notice a lot of customers got frustrated with wide nose narrow tail tear drop boards ( like the Donald Takayama Scorpion ) because the nose caught or couldn't control on the steep stuff. But then you get the total opposite like the McCoy Lazer Zap ,that's making a come back recently , and they work fine and can really move around.

[jaffa1949]

Hi,

I'm looking for a board for fast hollow waves. , but i cant surf it in the hollow waves. before this board i surfed a 6'2" Nigel Semmens board, which was a little to big for me as well as a 6'4" Pro Limit high performance board which is also way to big for surfing in holland for a small guy.

I need a board which paddles easy for fast hollow waves and which pulls in the barrel automatically at the take off.

There is the issue no board automatically pulls into the barrel, you have to have the skills to get it there and ride, the pro limit high performance board couldn't get you there because you can't do it!
But I have to admit those are high speed hollow waves.
Back to the board (nope skills), if a longboarder can get in , it is about skill!

[oldmansurfer]

Interesting couple of boards there Waikikichan. One is a short longboard with a narrow tail and the other is a wide tailed shortboard. I wouldn't pick either one for hollow waves but for small fast hollow waves the Lazer Zap would most likely be the board. I think wide tails are great in the size surf that was pictured above. However if I were a younger in shape guy I would go with a more evenly distributed volume board with a narrower tail if I was only going to be riding small fast hollow waves. If there was more variety, probably the wide tailed board is great. Because I am not a younger in shape guy I use a board that you could remove the glass and cut the board down to make the Lazer Zap with. or maybe even a Scorpion

[drowningbitbybit]

This is the dutch longboarding champion riding one of those waves.

Okay, let's turn that around... that's not a 6-second period wave!

[drowningbitbybit]

...And also, for small fast waves, I like a short-ish board that has some volume up front (but not too much - see what Waikikikichan said above), a fair bit of rocker front and back, and a swallow tail on a thruster set-up.

...but a lot of that is just personal preference.

[HyeSurfer]

I like a wide tail narrow nose like this.

[Dennis94]

I think I have made my decision.

Going for a 5'8" Nigel Semmens with pointy nose, swallow tail, 5 fin set up single to double concave and moderate rocker. 18 (1/4 of 3/4) by 2 1/4 with 26.44 L. It has kind of the standard shortboard outline.

Also raising the size of my fins, I stayed to long on small size, now going for medium FCS II fins. Specialized for hollow waves and tight turns or an all rounder performance fin.

Thank you guys a lot for all the help and insights, I've never been on this forum before, but I will definitely come back:D

If the board is not what I need, that's also a good answer, than I know even better what I should look for.

Aloha,
dennis