whats the best longboard you’ve ever ridden?
Performance longboarding- 9’,17"nose,22"width,2 3/4"thick,13 1/2"rounded pin,2+1 fin set up, hard rail’s aft & double concave thru the tail. Traditional smaller wave / nose riding: Con “Ugly” or Nuuevwa/Bing nose rider.
A 1989 Walden full concave bottom w/ vee 9’0" with stinger wings and lots of rocker, hard down rails, small trifins, 4 oz glassjob. This board would be laughed at now but back then Walden was really on to something. Vertical turns, hard shortboard cutbacks, helicopters at will. Hanging ten was tough and only a nano-second, but I saw Steve Walden pull a hang ten into a double helicopter 360 into a beautiful drop knee cutback at Lower Trestles and I instantly became a longboard owner! Very exciting surfing those late eighties-early nineties sessions from Isreal Paskowitz, Jeff Kramer, Dale Dobson. Isreal was riding 14.5" noses! Those days are long gone…longboarding seems to be stagnating and the next popular surfboard phase I’m betting is boring midsize eggy shapes for the older longboard crowd. OH WELL…
Performance longboard it’s a tie – Freeline & Haut Traditional longboard – Hap Jacobs Goin’ surfin’ on Hybrid today so I guess surfhungry’s close to being right cause if it wasn’t going so hard offshore I’d probably take the egg out cause it flys, but has too much nose for today. Mahalo, Rich
Surprisingly a 9’0" single fin longboard I shaped for my daughter two years ago is probably the best longboard Ive ridden. It has enough elements of both schools, modern and traditional, that makes it a blast to ride. Enough glide for small mush, subtle nose concave for tip time and low hard rails and a panel vee in the bottom for a bit of a carve. I tried duplicating it on my next board with good results, but not as good as my daughters board.
Well, friends, I’m going to hedge here: Progressive: it’s a toss up between my 9’9" Hap Jacobs 422 tri-fin or 9’6" Mc Tavish Fireball. Traditional: my 10’0" Tyler 305 model, hands down one badass board Cheers, John
9’4 Class A by Rich “Toby” Pavel. 19 nose, 23 mid, 16.5 tail, square tail, single fin, and glassed all in 8oz volan. and i have not found a better longboard before or after. -steve
Steve- Rich Pavel personally shaped that stick? He also turns out bitchen Fish.
he sure did. he personally shapes all my boards. i have the fish… awesome, i have the bonzer… even more awesome, and last night we made a new longboard model that is going to be killer. steve
Steve, Did you read The Surfers Journals interview with Derek Hynd, where he makes reference to Rich? Theres a great deal of provacative insight in Dereks comments! The following excerpt is from “Bottling The Moment”, by Andrew Kidman, TSJ, Vol.11, No.1: “… I’m just doing my thing getting back to the egg, just common sense. No need for longboarding, the reverse applies. I was doing a book on surf history in the late ‘80s and one of the Q’s was the best surfer the respective subject ever saw. Fitz told me about Bunker being the fastest surfer he ever saw, on a 5’ 4’’ Fish. I wanted to find out why. There’s a progressive reason to explore the ‘70s and give the finger to fashion. What sort of equipment are you riding at the moment? 5’ 5” vee concave wing swallow, Rich Pavel shape. The type of thing that Liddle would have gone mad on way back. 8’ 6" vee concave gun, lowered shocker rocker and 4" thick?an all round friend in any weather, runs at speed, and a great leg strengthener. I found an old sailboard blank in the back of Dale Egan’s garage and had a bit of fun…kind of Parrish meets Outer Island. 6’ 0" Rick Hamon Rusty 84 model, 3" thick and ugly, but fast and punchy on the backhand and forgiving. What aspects do you enjoy about the surfing you do? Just the trim line, to weight and unweight, to just let the board trim on its own without any applied weight…" —
I took my 9’10" volan glassed “Hap” single-fin pin-tail out in 3 to 5 foot surf last night. The sections were plenty fast and it was a little crowded but it didn’t make any difference. Damn, Jacobs makes a great traditional longboard! No Worries, Rich
Any longboard made by Rennie Yater. Incredible glass jobs, simple but elegant templates, and great performing boards.
I have a 9’1 triple stringer Brewer/Chapman shaped by Owl, single glassed-in fin, “Pipeliner”-type shape. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Everyone who has ridden it loves the thing, wonderful foil, turns great, paddles great. Something to really be admired, studied, and ridden.
Keith, send photo’s of Owl 3-Stringer, got Mr. Chapman phone number?
OLD: 8’8" Weber Performer. WAVESET hatchet fin. Fast and loose as hell. Nose rides are unreal. If it wasn’t made for a girl, it must have been one of the last of the bunch, due to the length. NEW: 9’2" Spectrum Shriver single fin. Had it made with a nice peak nose, 60/40 rails. 9" Takyama retro fin makes it fly. MIX OF OLD & NEW: Gene Cooper’s Mello Yellow. Good cruiser. Great glass and resin job. Fun Thread.