Goodbye, Shortboards - A Personal Manifesto

[damop666]

Just sub for alt high performance boars.

They retain the glide while allowing you to surf as hp as you want.

This. Or just get a HPSB that’s actually the right size for you.

The amount of 40+ year old, 80kg+ (180lb) guys trying to ride sub 25 liter 5’8’s down here is astounding. Not many of them catch waves!

 

[Aruka]

Last winter I was camped out at a point break in Baja for a few weeks and the two best surfers who I shared the lineup were a couple firefighters from San Diego. One was 49, the other 52. The older guy was a slender fellow and he rode a 6'8 round tail twinny. He surfed it beautifully. Long, swooping cutbacks, deep bottom turns. Flowing, seamless carves on the open face. The 49 year old was a stockier dude and was riding a tiny Xanadu thruster. He was strait up shredding. Fins out the back on his snaps, full rail gouges and buckets of spray on every turn.

It really stoked me out to see guys that age still surfing so well. I hung out with them drinking beers and talking story a couple times. We talked boards and the younger guy said he had some alt boards but he kind of struggled to figure them out and just wanted to hit the lip so "that weird sh1t", as he put it, wasn't really his thing. The older guy said he'd been the same way and then a buddy of his shaped him a channel bottom twin and he just clicked with it right away and now had a whole quiver of them.

It's funny because I love alt boards, mostly twins of varying persuasion, but whenever the waves get juicy and at all consequential I just want to be on a thruster because they are so familiar and predictable for me.

I'm not sure what the point of this was. I guess just that nearing 40 is still pretty young and just ride whatever makes you happy.

 

[aldo]

I think it was Kersy who said that the only people who should be riding potato chip type HPSBs are pro surfers and those under 20.
Alternative shapes with a little more float are a lot more fun 95% of the time. Hybrids, fish, mid lengths and logs give the average Joe/Jane a lot more enjoyment in their surfing.

 

[Swallow Tail]

This. Or just get a HPSB that’s actually the right size for you.

The amount of 40+ year old, 80kg+ (180lb) guys trying to ride sub 25 liter 5’8’s down here is astounding. Not many of them catch waves!

I wish more would do that around here!

 

[sdsrfr]

I rode my Fred Rubble at blacks during the last swell and was quickly reminded why I still own it.

All I can conclusively say is - surfboards is fun.

 

[teeroi]

I was talking to Bert. He manages Surfboard Outlet, which carries a lot of different labels, Sharpeye, CI, Bing, and local shapers Vercelli, Arakawa, HIC, Kashiwai among others.Bert mentioned Britt Merricks interview that alt boars aren’t going to replace a hpsb if you want to surf high performance. I told him it looks like a race to the middle. The newbies on longboars are trying to dial in smaller boars to achieve more performance. While the older life-long surfers are giving up performance for paddling and wave catching ease. Middle/medium performance.

 

[Woke AF]

Will the eventual Slater's retirement announcement conincide with a Slater Designs midlength?
Why waste a $later money oppertunity-

 

[oeste858]

I was talking to Bert. He manages Surfboard Outlet, which carries a lot of different labels, Sharpeye, CI, Bing, and local shapers Vercelli, Arakawa, HIC, Kashiwai among others.Bert mentioned Britt Merricks interview that alt boars aren’t going to replace a hpsb if you want to surf high performance. I told him it looks like a race to the middle. The newbies on longboars are trying to dial in smaller boars to achieve more performance. While the older life-long surfers are giving up performance for paddling and wave catching ease. Middle/medium performance.

LOL. Ive been referring to my own surfing ability the last couple years since 40 as Medium Performance.
Like @Aruka said, I like all kinds of alt stuff until it gets overhead/good... then I don’t need the compromise, I want that roundpin thruster.

 

[GromsDad]

The trick is to find a shaper who can upsize shortboards to work for you as you age.

 

[Swallow Tail]

To me, everyone-including elite, genetically gifted pros- look worse on anemic boards. I like flow, and wave riding; not double, triple bottom turns, shitty wiggling, hopping n other assorted ugliness between “major maneuvers” etc- not my cuppa. Everyone’s surfing looks so much better to me on more pedestrian equipment. But diff strokes for different folks!

That being said, I’d be ecstatic if everyone was riding glass slippers. More waves for me!!

 

[freeride76]

yeah, an uncomfortable truth is that low volume can also be a crutch for declining performance.

Guys who undersize to think they are shredding because they don't have the technique or strength to do proper turns.

 

[bluengreen]

Pacey, Kerr, Burch, Rasta, Martyn, Bryce Young ... Who here is surfing better than them on their Fred Rubbles?

 

[bluengreen]

zv./adfkl;''''''''''''331

 

[Swallow Tail]

yeah, an uncomfortable truth is that low volume can also be a crutch for declining performance.

Guys who undersize to think they are shredding because they don't have the technique or strength to do proper turns.

so much garbage, Flicky, underpowered n ugly surfing = maxi shreds for the rippa bro bois on the hobbitz boars.

 

[freeride76]

yep

 

[ajmojave]

The trick is to find a shaper who can upsize shortboards to work for you as you age.

GG is great at this

 

[Havoc]

Last winter I was camped out at a point break in Baja for a few weeks and the two best surfers who I shared the lineup were a couple firefighters from San Diego. One was 49, the other 52. The older guy was a slender fellow and he rode a 6'8 round tail twinny. He surfed it beautifully. Long, swooping cutbacks, deep bottom turns. Flowing, seamless carves on the open face. The 49 year old was a stockier dude and was riding a tiny Xanadu thruster. He was strait up shredding. Fins out the back on his snaps, full rail gouges and buckets of spray on every turn.

It really stoked me out to see guys that age still surfing so well. I hung out with them drinking beers and talking story a couple times. We talked boards and the younger guy said he had some alt boards but he kind of struggled to figure them out and just wanted to hit the lip so "that weird sh1t", as he put it, wasn't really his thing. The older guy said he'd been the same way and then a buddy of his shaped him a channel bottom twin and he just clicked with it right away and now had a whole quiver of them.

It's funny because I love alt boards, mostly twins of varying persuasion, but whenever the waves get juicy and at all consequential I just want to be on a thruster because they are so familiar and predictable for me.

I'm not sure what the point of this was. I guess just that nearing 40 is still pretty young and just ride whatever makes you happy.

who made his channel bottom twins?

 

[Aruka]

who made his channel bottom twins?

bill minard

 

[Senor Sopa]

bill minard

Minard is the man for mid-lengths too. Been making them since the 70's. Never stopped.

 

[Sharkbiscuit]

Pacey, Kerr, Burch, Knost, Martyn, Bryce Young ... Who here is surfing better than them on their Fred Rubbles?

Pacey and Kerr rip. I have no idea who Bryce Young is.

I think everyone who has ever stood up on a Fred Rubble is surfing better than Alex Knost (when he's on his longer stuff). But I think cruising is wave misuse unless it's shin high point surf, and I don't care how hard it is to approach the lip at 10 degree angle of attack, toss your hands and your head, and then descend the face 10 degrees below flat, on some Nixon-era hideous winged swallow single fin.

IMHO you give Martyn a 6'4"-6'6" relaxed rocker thruster and he'd be surfing better instantly.

Style is hands-down the least important and most overrated aspect of surfing. If you're this worried about style and how you look, take a look at your sun-damaged grill in a mirror sometime, move to Milan, stop eating, and dress like the locals.
There. You're stylish now.