Spot on.Let’s face it, there are really two type of “mid lengths”
There’s the original idea of them being alternative designs that drew different lines on waves, you know like hulls, eggs, long fish etc. These can be interesting and fun as long as you embrace the lines they are intended to draw and you don’t try and shortboard surf them like Dane Reynolds in that original Stab acid test thingy. Kinda like embracing the fact that a 5’6 twin keel fish ain’t gonna launch air reverses like a 5’8 thruster shortboard.
And then there’s stuff like that Chilli which is essentially a rebranded mini-mal or “chunky” shortboard. It’s mostly a crutch for older or fatter surfers or intermediates who wish they could shortboard and as such will always make the surfing on them look like the poor imitation of good shortboard surfing that they are.
( see mick fanning above etc)
Convince me I’m wrong?
I’m in the camp that does not want to surf like a shortboar if I’m on a bigger boar. Every turn should be soul-arched with jazz hands!