Growing

by **scuba steve** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 9:23 am

Hey guys, I'm looking into getting a decnt shortboard, most likely a santa cruz model, but my only worry is about growing. I'm currently just under 6' but have been growing like mad for about a year.
Should I compensate for this when getting a shortboard, because I don't want to get a 6'1 and in two years' time be 6'2/3 because this board is taking me ages to save up for and the money may go to waste.

Is the best idea to go for a 6'2/3 shortboard?

by **drowningbitbybit** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 11:13 am

I reckon you get the small board now... and by the time you've grown some more then you'll have improved enough to be happy on it anyway.

by **CheeZee** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 1:02 pm

lol..and there was me ready to give a plug for my lil'business :lol:

by **surferdude_scarborough** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 1:09 pm

i reckon ge the little one now as well. smaller boardss give you a bigger reason to stay fit. because if you dont you stop being able to surf them.

by **miamisurfer** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:25 pm

I would go for the bigger board. If you learn new tricks on that then they will be so easy with a smaller board.

by **surfsc77** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 8:30 pm

i would not get a santa cruz

by **essex sucks** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 9:03 pm

i would go for the smaller one too

by **miamisurfer** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 10:05 pm

I agree with surfsc77, I wouldn't get a Santa Cruz, I don't really like their designs.

by **scuba steve** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 9:52 am

What's wrong with Santa Cruz surfboards?
Anyway I think I'll go with a shorter board, maybe 6'0/6'1 and hopefully I'll be alright if I grow.

by **Sillysausage** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 7:08 pm

santa cruz are good, one of the best epoxy makes out, its just dependant on how much you wana spend on a board really

by **surfsc77** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 7:19 pm

im not gonna tell you to get a smaller or bigger board, thats up to you. every santa cruz ive ever seen used had a bunch of weird holes in it, and while ive only seen maybe 10 or so of them used they all had the same kind of hole. also they seem too light and flemsy, sort of more like a skimboard than a surfboard. not to mention id not a huge fan of pop outs. having said all that ive never ridden one, but just from the designs i dont think id like it.

by **scuba steve** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 8:05 pm

surfsc77 wrote:im not gonna tell you to get a smaller or bigger board, thats up to you. every santa cruz ive ever seen used had a bunch of weird holes in it, and while ive only seen maybe 10 or so of them used they all had the same kind of hole. also they seem too light and flemsy, sort of more like a skimboard than a surfboard. not to mention id not a huge fan of pop outs. having said all that ive never ridden one, but just from the designs i dont think id like it.

Check out this link : http://www.surfedout.com/surfproducts.a ... uctID=1750

This was what I was going to go for, no wierd holes, tufflight technology (the strongest setup on the market) and definately not a pop out, maybe you're thinking of a different Santa Cruz.

Anyway I've decided to go for a 6'2 Channel Island K-Board, second hand kinda a half way point and not too expensive

by **surfsc77** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 11:26 pm

ive heard a lot of great things about kboards, i want to try one.
different people have different definitions for the word popout, but i call a popout any board mass produced (mostly overseas) by machines and sold here. tuflites fit this definition as do all surftechs, because they are made in the same Cobra factory as NSP.

Mckevlins surf shop has a online blog and there probably one of the biggest haters of pop outs. heres a list they produced of all pop out companys. http://bp3.blogger.com/_hPACOtZKKko/RkS ... boards.jpg

by **scuba steve** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 8:55 am

Wow, that dude's full of hate.

by **drowningbitbybit** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 9:07 am

surfsc77 wrote: i call a popout any board mass produced (mostly overseas) by machines and sold here.

Feel free to join the 21st century any time you like :roll:

by **Sillysausage** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 9:59 am

lol, i can't see Santa Cruz being a pop out, surely, they're one of the most well known makes in the world, ridden by some of the best surfers, so surely they can't be pop outs?

by **drowningbitbybit** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 10:05 am

Sillysausage wrote:so surely they can't be pop outs?

Ooh, contentious issue :wink:

The line between custom and pop-out is getting more and more blurred with a thousand variations between 'hand shaped' at one end, and 'pressed from a mould' at the other.
But, yeah, so many of the big shapers are moving over to machine-shaped (and finished by hand) that to write-off any board that isnt purely hand-shaped is ridiculous.

And, yes, I know - 'support your local shaper' but seeing as Scuba Steve lives in London, thats not very relevant....

by **eastcoastsurfshop** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 5:04 pm

This may help un blur some of the lines between the types of board: -

SURFTECH & TUFLITE

Tuflite is the actual board by Surftech. It's name explains it best: it's a board that is tuff and light. The building process begins with a the creation of a plug (the form that is used to make a mold for each board), which is recreated from an original shape provided by the shaper. Then:-

1. An EPS blank is blown in the high tolerance mold.
2. A PVC sheet is heated and molded to fit around the EPS blank, void of any seams.
3. The PVC shell is pressed and laminated to the EPS blank with a layer of fiberglass resin.
4. Fin boxes and leash plug are installed and then the blank is sealed.
5. The bottom, rails and deck are all hard laminated then vacuum sealed for curing. This creates the smooth, seamless look and feel of the final product.
6. A very thin sand coat is applied to the board. Then it is sanded, painted and polished.

Lots of famous shapers have tufflite boards like Al Merick & Rusty. The plug is basically taken from one of their hand shaped blanks, laser scanned & created. This is then the mold for 1000's of boards exactly the same.

Pretty much all of these come out of factories in the far east.

It's woth noting that some guys are moving away from the Tuflite name & going it alone. Santa Cruz is one of these, they no longer associate themselves with Tuflite or Surftech.

CUSTOM EPS

EPS is usually open-celled foam which means that it resembles a Styrofoam drinking cup. This means that a blank is literally made up of billions of little beads that are pre-expanded to a particular size, then compressed and fused by steam into block or shape at a specific density. Open-celled refers to the fact that there is space between each bead and, in the past, that has been a big downer for surfers because as soon as a an EPS board was dinged, the foam soaked up water double quick. But now EPS can be engineered to densities similar to polyurethane foam, yet much stronger, and fused to be virtually waterproof.

Basically, these blanks are shaped the same (both by hand and machine) as the traditional polyurethane blanks by Clark and glassed with epoxy. The ending result is a production process that is nearly identical to that of traditional blanks, yet one that yields a lighter, tougher, more lively alternative custom shape.

There are lots of these coming out of the factories in the far east at the moment.

It's also worth noting that both these processes are far removed from the pop out process used to make certain plastic boards.

In one of the earlier threads a guy said "i call a popout any board mass produced (mostly overseas) by machines and sold here"

It's worth noting (again) that a lot of custom PU boards also come out of factories in the far east, such as Bilbo (a very old Newquay name!).

Everything is reflected in the price you are willing to pay & what & how you want to ride really!

With the boards we sell in the shop we find that theres pretty much a market for ewvery type of board! We do a lot of custom boards from British shapers, we also do the custom boards from the far east and of course we do the tufflites as although we do steer well clear of certain "plastic" boards!!!

It's a whole melting pot of different technologies, traditional and new, just gotta decide what for you

Hope this helps!

Mark
ECS

by **surfsc77** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 9:31 pm

scuba steve wrote:Wow, that dude's full of hate.

he's worried about continuing the tradition that his family has carried on for generations, youd be hateful too. popouts are not part of that tradition.

and DBBB im not stupid, i know most big board companys do not hand shape every single board. but theres a difference, the companies that do R&D and are actual surfers themselves, and some popout companies who dont surf and just want to make a profit (hello costco). thats all im against.

by **surferdude_scarborough** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 9:45 pm

pretty comprehensive post there Mark. answered a few things i wasnt too clear on. good work.

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