***The Official Mid-Length Thread***

chilly1

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This Aussie middy looks pretty sic!

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" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 

bluengreen

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Oct 22, 2018
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7'7 Vaquero update. Fourth time out, this time in clean 1-2 foot longboard conditions. Moved the fin up close to the top of the box et voila! Board came alive. I was able to crank some cutbacks of the tail-stomping variety. Surprised by the maneuverability in such soft surf. Board also let me speed past crumbly sections I would never have made on a fish and trim through really weak reforms. Could be a log replacement in anything but micro surf, but I know it will come alive in fast chest high point surf. Definitely not a cruiser/ funboard. It is super sensitive and requires a dynamic, "involved" approach

In good point surf with a skilled operator, might go something like this:
 
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Northern_Shores

Miki Dora status
Mar 30, 2009
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7'7 Vaquero update. Fourth time out, this time in clean 1-2 foot longboard conditions. Moved the fin up close to the top of the box et voila! Board came alive. I was able to crank some cutbacks of the tail-stomping variety. Surprised by the maneuverability in such soft surf. Board also let me speed past crumbly sections I would never have made on a fish and trim through really weak reforms. Could be a log replacement in anything but micro surf, but I know it will come alive in fast chest high point surf. Definitely not a cruiser/ funboard. It is super sensitive and requires a dynamic, "involved" approach

In good point surf with a skilled operator, might go something like this:
That guy was wrangling that thing worse than me on the golden door. You gotta have no eyes and no functioning brain to consider that a well surfing board. Holds no rail, just jazzhands pantomime with a surfboard as the stage. For a shitshow homeshape that's ok, but to present it as some sort of viable product to the public is just offensive.

Here is a better approach to the midlength surfboard
 
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billypilgrim

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That guy was wrangling that board worse than me on the golden door. You gotta have no eyes and no functioning brain to consider that a well surfing board. Holds no rail, just jazzhands pantomime with a surfboard as the stage. For a shitshow homeshape that's ok, but to present it as some sort of viable product to the public is just offensive.

Here is a better approach to the midlength surfboard
Sarlo + Malibu = Match made in heaven

But that is just a big guy tri.
 

One-Off

Tom Curren status
Jul 28, 2005
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That guy was wrangling that thing worse than me on the golden door. You gotta have no eyes and no functioning brain to consider that a well surfing board. Holds no rail, just jazzhands pantomime with a surfboard as the stage. For a shitshow homeshape that's ok, but to present it as some sort of viable product to the public is just offensive.

Here is a better approach to the midlength surfboard
First video looked more like a long board and was a longboard surfing style. I got no problem with it. Sarlo rips and is top dog at First Point... but ...I better not say anything in case he lurks here....
 

jory

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I’ll say it for you since I live several thousand miles away........

He’s an aging shortboarder riding a shortboard sized for his current age and physique in a shortboard style.......

He is ripping obviously but it’s like I posted few pages ago, it’s not the same as the surfing Devon howard or cj nelson are aiming to do on their “Midlengths”

The guy on the mana continually misses the point as well from my perspective
 
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Retropete

Phil Edwards status
Jan 20, 2006
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That guy was wrangling that thing worse than me on the golden door. You gotta have no eyes and no functioning brain to consider that a well surfing board. Holds no rail, just jazzhands pantomime with a surfboard as the stage. For a shitshow homeshape that's ok, but to present it as some sort of viable product to the public is just offensive.

Here is a better approach to the midlength surfboard
He just looks old and slow. I should know. I resemble that remark. :drowning:
It's like watching Occy these days. He does the moves but its like the video was on slow mo.
 

Northern_Shores

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He just looks old and slow. I should know. I resemble that remark. :drowning:
It's like watching Occy these days. He does the moves but its like the video was on slow mo.
He is 65.
I have never understood the whole deal with midlengths. The boards are trash and they even require a bit of surf to get going. There must be other designs out there that would do a better job of being a 7' surfboard. A manouverable board that goes quick in small surf. Greg Webber has a few.

And don't get me started on the people who ride them :roflmao:Just the worst bunch of hipster clowns.

1680680775602.png
 
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jory

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its all about "the feels(tm)"

You don't get it, that's fine, others do.

What do yo want your better designed 7' plus board to do? It's never going to draw the lines of a shorter board because it isn't so the argument goes "ride something shorter" or draw longer (straighter) more trim based, smoother lines without pumping for speed and maybe get a different feel from the same wave.

Judging them through a shortboard lens always makes them look like poorly performing shortboards ( especially the fatboy flyer thruster types ) but that isn't the point of them ( well the original eggy / alternative ones anyway). Its not your thing and thats fine but it doesn't invalidate them as a fun way to ride waves.
 

Northern_Shores

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What do yo want your better designed 7' plus board to do
Hold a rail and not require vigorous jazz-handing to keep it going.


Can't find the video of some elderly gentleman surfing it. Gonna search some more.



Oh wait, I know of a better designed 7' board...

The Mini-malibu from 1998....
Only problem is that building a lifestyle around them won't get you that Mollusk cool :roflmao:
 

Retropete

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Jan 20, 2006
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He is 65. (56)
I have never understood the whole deal with midlengths. The boards are trash and they even require a bit of surf to get going. There must be other designs out there that would do a better job of being a 7' surfboard. A manouverable board that goes quick in small surf. Greg Webber has a few.

And don't get me started on the people who ride them :roflmao:Just the worst bunch of hipster clowns.

View attachment 151801
Bit of dyslexia there? Fixed his age for you.
My 2 board small wave boards are a low rockered 7' stubby shape with a tonne of planing area (key to easy going speed generation in weak waves) and a fish nosed/wide diamond tailed, tri plane bottom 6'6" that I have a blast riding in small, crappy, junky, peaky waves. Both nothing like anything on the shortboard-minimal spectrum of planshapes.
 
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mundus

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Feb 26, 2018
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Hold a rail and not require vigorous jazz-handing to keep it going.


Can't find the video of some elderly gentleman surfing it. Gonna search some more.



Oh wait, I know of a better designed 7' board...

The Mini-malibu from 1998....
Only problem is that building a lifestyle around them won't get you that Mollusk cool :roflmao:
Do you like Torryn Martins or Rastas midlength surfing? The clip of Torryn surfing big JBay looked better to my eye than the pro level shortboarders in similar conditions.
 
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jory

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Hold a rail and not require vigorous jazz-handing to keep it going.
Like this you mean?


Seems like the surfing in the vid Maz posted is pretty similar lines no?

To be fair, I’m with you on the Gato video. I’m not convinced they are super functional surfboards unles you want to look like you’re fighting the board but clinging onto a thruster shortboard jaundiced world view is not the only game in town, especially as people age out of 6’1’s. Not everyone always dreamed of being Kelly slater either......

I do get that not everyone sees this. I have a friend who flat out doesn’t get traditional longboarding for similar reasons....



For others reading, here’s something that draws similar smooth lines to a vaquero with the hull weirdness dialled down...


 

Northern_Shores

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jory

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P.s I am totally with you that the term “midlength” & the current hoopla is marketing / hipster bulls**t and I also agree that many of the thruster labels are using it to rebrand their minimals for sales..... but like I said that’s kinda missing the point of some of these other branches of the board design tree.....
 
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