Gudday people, I just want to say that in the day when surfboard design was progressing and not standing still, that the shapers came to a conclusion about surfboards…what makes a good board or a bad one…and the answer is that the the centre of the weight HAS to be 6 inches in front of centre for the board to trim right…so therefore all you out there who are writing off old boards, should think twice…cas like everything else…while you write it off now, you will probably be riding one real soon, when the evolution comes around…the mainstream market…people who ride thrusters…its people like you who provide inspiration for innovators…we look at thruster riders and it gives us inspiration to see how fucked they ride. You HAVE to pump them to make them go…thats not right, a surfboard should trim while you simply stand there…thats the essence of surfing, being at one with the waves and not having to put energy into it…just be at one with it. SO all you people out there…i give it ten years and you will be riding a board with the centre of the weight up front…not on the tail…you wont be busting huge moves off the back foot…you will be saying 'aww man, i was riding one of these things the whole time all those kooks were flapping around on those wafer thin thrusters…'Think before you open ya mouth people. Thrusters suck. A Hodad http://www.hodaddy.com.au
What the hell are you talking about?
what he is saying is that a forward of centre widepoint single fin surfboard is superior to the modern shortboard thruster. i love them in big a frame barrelling waves, but like all surfboards they do have limitations as well.
Just today in the lineup I was talking to a fellow thruster rider and we were just in awe at how difficult and challenging it must be for a surfer to take off on a perferctly rippable wave and just stand there trimming for 400 yards way out in front of the pocket. Trimming is the way to go, hodaddy is absolutely right.
yeah i agree, watching shaun thomson trim at backdoor way out in front of the pocket looks awefully unrewarding. Why not rip the wave to pieces?? why just stand there?..surfing is an extension of your personality…and most thruster riders are on the right board to get out there and tear the wave apart…showing their aggresion, and need for fellow surfers to notice their radical style that looks just the same as the guy next to them…///???..not for a moment experiecing the true glide…not for a moment listening to the wave and getting into the zone of the perfect trim…in the pipe…no, surfing is about YOU and your radical moves, not about the wave…and finding the right board for the wave. nah, i am going surfing…(picks up his 6’2 x 2 1/4 x 18 1/4) and heads to the beach…none of this, lets check the surf and see what board is best for the conditions…and oh my god, heaven forbid if its a mal wave…then i am no chance of busting fins out so far my mates can see me. surfing is an extension of your personality…it comes through in your style…or lack of…think about this for a moment, when you bust your fins out…how does it make you feel? ok, now think about this…maybe, just maybe some surfers get a better high out of hanging on the nose than they do out of busting fins…or spraying people with their rad cutback…and its not a maybe, its true…some peoples personality doesnt require reinforcement from peers… a hodad http://www.hodaddy.com.au
i agree, all boards have limitations…right on. those singles go unreal in perfect bigger waves…they are ordinary when its small…twinnies a re great in small waves. stay cool http://www.hodaddy.com.au
I agree, I find that depending on size and shape’s of waves, I am better off riding my short wide, or long thin surf ski’s. Generally, when it’s big, steep, and extremely crowded, I like to sit 10m further out from the pack where I can get onto waves earlier than even the 12’ mal riders, and then play slalom through the pack as I scream out of control towards the beach. Goat boats… where it’s at kiddies.
Hodad, There is a new sight being built. It’s an online surfshop and info. solosurfer.com is the name of the sight. It’s about being out there. Will be many single fins. It’s not close to being finished. I don’t agree with wide point forward, but I do think singles ride better than thruster when put with a wider tail, proper bottoms and rails. I like wide point center to slightly behind center. I like that single on your sight.
Thrusters and singles, two different things, on the former you ride the board, the latter you ride the wave…thrusters have unquestionably put controls on modern surfing while at the same time opening new areas…frankly they have made competitive surfing easier for all economic interests because you either look good or look bad…witness intermediate surfers on thrusters vs. somebody like Sunny Garcia on video…ancient surf wisdom about “mind machines” and the fact you are riding them well only in your mind when you could be on something else and having a better time. Both valid.
i surf 5 years with a thruster shape (6´3´´x 18 1/4´´ x 2 1/4´´ flat bottom, a lot of rocker, hook tail, etc)but with a single fin and a stabilizer behind that. and that board ride better than a similar trhuster in almost all conditions…it´s really loose and fast than a thruster.
I’m a middle aged soul seventies surfer. I prefer the seventies style and most of my boards reflect my preference. But, its just my preference. The kids rip on their thrusters. They do things regularly that we only fantacized about. The average kid in Santa Cruz or any other beach town would have been regarded as a surfing savant if you transplanted him back to the seventies. Kind of like Bertleman. I wander what he would have done on a modern thruster in 74 or 75?
Santa Cruz had a true surfing savant in the 1970s- early 80s… Kevin Reed, a rare individual, many years ahead of his time. http://www.richardschmidt.com/wss19.html 
Dale, Ever see Chris O Rourke? Whew! In 79 I saw a guy doing carving 360’s at NewBreak. I don’t know what his name was. Friendly, too, if yah know what I mean. My dad took me to San Miguel for my 15 b-day. 74? Two gringos with long bleach-blond hair speaking Spanish riding fishes and ripping top to bottom turns. Some of the best surfing I’ve seen.Savants?
On word for you guys. Montaj. Go out, buy it and watch it. That is the “future” of surfing. I guarantee that all those little punk kids that you see busting airs out all over the place… thats the video that they are watching. Along with anything else with Taj Burrow, Mick Fanning, or the other “New Schoolers.” The kids are the future, not a bunch of old guys like us that are stoked on our single fin trim machines. Hehe Yeah we’re (I am including myself) gunna be stoked riding our single fins, Lis fishes, MR twins, big old logs… but guess what, thats all been done before… it’s not futuristic, but that dosn’t make it not cool. Thats whats so great about surfing… it dosn’t matter what you ride… it’s all about having fun. But the true “future” lies in the kids… those little sh*ts on the toothpicks that bust 3 foot airs on every wave.
Carl, Yup!
There are single fins that will do what the kids are doing (as ugly as it is) the surfing public has simply been brainwashed into thinking the little toothpicks work better. They only work better if you are an elite surfer under 25 and under 175 pounds.
Reverb, I’ve done a lot of experimenting in the past with in-line fins, including same-board fin swaps. The in-line comes out ahead every time, except for tailslide, but has yet to be fully discovered.
“The kids are the future, not a bunch of old guys like us that are stoked on our single fin trim machines” Well, you know…it’s the kids and the old guys working together that are the future. Give a 15 year old ripper a blank and a planer and you’re going to get landfill. The kids are the ones who will take it to the future, rightfully so, but they are doing it on the shoulders of those who’ve come before. To ignore that, or worse, and the future will wind up faceplanting. Refusal to acknowledge this, especially for financial gain, is what has created the angst about the surf media and surfing industrial complex. Why is it a 50 year old man who has run a surf shop for 20 years is portrayed as clueless when it comes to merchandising to children? He may not know current fashion, but he’ll know if a certain brand of board shorts rips out at the crotch or the stiching chafes at the leg. The term “credibility” when bandied about by teenage consumers is not worth contemplating. 10,000 flies can’t be wrong. Maybe the revolution won’t have anything at all to do with surfboards or riding waves - maybe it will have to do with consciousness expanded to realize “as I am now, you once were; as you are now, I one day will be.”
Atom Tan is onto it There are single fins that will do what the kids are doing (as ugly as it is) the surfing public has simply been brainwashed into thinking the little toothpicks work better. They only work better if you are an elite surfer under 25 and under 175 pounds. While the kids maybe the future of surfing with their huge airs and what not, i think one thing has been forgotten…and that is that style is gone…all these kids, they all look the same, they are all rising a competitive style of surfing…if you took one of these kids and transplanted him into a society where there was no society…where he was the only soul alive on this planet and he wandered down to his local break that was reeling for 400metres and no one out…not a sould alive on the earth…would he want to take his board out and bust massive airs?? THE ANSWER IS NO HE WOULDNT BECAUSE THERE WOULD BE NOONE TO SEE HIM!!! And that gets back to the root, that many surfers are surfing for the crowd, surfing to score points (either in the comp or amoung their mates). NOW IF THE FICTIONAL REALITY I OUTLINE WAS IN PLACE, ONLY THEN WOULD THE SURFER WANT TO AND GET OFF ON THE PERFECT TRIM. AND THE ONLY BOARDS THAT TRIM PERFECTLY HAVE THE WEIGHT UP THE NOSE. I am interested to hear some hardcore people say that even if there wasnt another human on this planet they would prefer to go surfing on their toothpick and bust air rather than get the perfect trim in the pipe. bring it on. A hodad http://www.hodaddy.com.au
i understand where you’re coming form HODADDY. i have been riding single fins for about a year now and have come to realise that surfing is all about feeling the wave and watching the contours, being able to adjust yourself on the board to ride the wave better. i watch kids and cats on thrusters throwing up huge airs and spray and wish i could do that. i can’t is the plain truth of it. so i am content for the moment riding my bigger boards and sauntering up to the nose to keep the board in the perfect position. its all about speed and buoyany. i get on a thruster and sink everytime, no matter how big it is! just surf for yourself, not for anyone else!