So i am thinking of shaping one of these for a buddy. it will be 3rd board first two were ok. he is 6’2 240 and intermediate surfer that mostly surfs longboards and eggs but wants to get into a shortboard. mostly 2-5 foot beach breaks. does anyone have dimensions and rail thoughts, maybe even glassing and how heavy so he does smash the deck. thanks guys
Unfortunately the seller was offered more than the asking price for the board so he’s putting me on hold to see if the other buyer follows through. Geoff’s boards are hard to come by in the states.
I’ve got a nice “real” Nugget (non-Surftech) at 6’8" but you can thank US Airways for breaking one of the fins right off on THE WAY to Hawaii - at least they could have waited for me to be heading back.
I surf with a late 40's "ripper". He's about the same weight as you, and normally rides a 5'10'' x narrow x thin potato chip ( very very well ). He also rips on longboards. He has a 7' nugget as an all rounder. He says it shrinks and he has no probs throwing it around. The 7'er is popular around me area.
A 7 ft. Nugget (surftek) just came available near me on Long Island. I don’t really get on with 9ft. longboards. I’m 5’4" 140 lbs., but I’m 58. Borrowed a 9ft. McTavish the other day in beach break 3 ft. slop surf. Caught everything, but I really missed the speed of a smaller board. I have a 6’2" MR singlefin coming as my shortboard. Thinking of getting the Nugget as a longboard. Not a surftek fan but the original boards are not to be found on the East Coast. Any input appreciated.
Minimum size would be 6'-6" long, 12 1/2" nose, 15 1/2" tail, 21" wide point, 2 3/4" thick under chest when paddeling, 1 1/2" thick at fins.
I might even go 6’10" and don’t be afraid to keep the volume around 3". Keep away from boxy rails while keeping volume, but don’t get them too knifey like some shortboards.
I have a board with a kevlar deck patch, it’s an epoxy board. I’m about the same size as your friend, and I have been known to crush decks, and I havn’t even put a dent in the kevlar epoxy lay up. 2.5oz kevlar I believe.
One other thing to consider to keep it versitile would be adding a 5 fin box system, so depending on the wave conditions you can bounce back and forth between a quad or thruster.
nice… thanks for the info. anyone got pics of big guy boards and maybe a rail pic. Do you guys think 5" nose rocker and 2.25 tail is too much? what about concave… anyone got any ideas?
Everything is scaled up including rockers.
I'm 210 pounds. My hollow wave barrel rider has 6 " nose rocker. I've one with 2 1/2 " tail rocker for controlled maneuverability, 2" tail for projected turns, and down the line speed.
For fun waves, (Think Malibu) I've got a 21 1/2" wide quad with 5" nose and 3" tail rocker. It needs to keep in the pocket, but carves really well.
6 10 is a gun man. i see lots of bigger guys and old guys riding big guy type shortboards and mini guns.it doesnt do there surfing anygood, because they all surf to far back on the tail due to the length.so your feet, relative to the rocker makes you unable to switch weight forward for rail drive.
Its sad watching these guys stalling the board and trying to surf top to bottom and blowing out all the speed. bigger boards like 8 foot have inertia and drive from more rail so they compensate for bad teqnique
shortboards dont work like that. they require rider input
basically it goes like this if the wave has power you can ride a bigger board even if you teqnique is average. becasue the power of the wave does the work. if you want to surf fast and powerfully in smaller waves you need the shortest board possible. im 6 foot 3 and as an example i was surfing a 5 8 by 21 thruster in shoulder high wave yesterday and it was perfect. i go to 5 11 up to 6 3 as the power and size increase
if you really big and heavy but not tall you really should be looking at designs that have plenty of width and pulled tails like BERT BURGERS maic carpet designs. up to 23 wide. and you can leave lots of volume in them under the chestand out to the rails. my 5 8 by 21 floats me nearly as good as my 6 6 by 20. the 6 6 i surf off the tail. the 5 8 i surf off the rail on the front foot. SO in small surf im all over it on the smaller board.
currently available board design for big guys sux. so everyone surfs fish which work to a degree. but still not as good as short modern high volume thrusters. but a fish will work better then a 6 10
the 6 6 to 7 foot range boards are no mans land. the only performance surfing you will do on these boards are in heavy powerful barreling waves. and watch the surfers riding these waves. they dont do a whole lot of turning. the board is designed for the barrel. its kinda pathetic watching old guys trying to surf these boards in shoulder high point breaks
yes this is what i was looking for… if you have any pics of boards that you have in mind that would be great. thanks for all the feedback
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, however the 6’10" I had shaped for me was to be versitile as possible. I’ve had it in mushy beach break, and head high + and it works like a charm. Probably the best board I’ve ever owned. It’s got plenty of width and volume, and because i’m 6’2" 240lbs I have no trouble at all throwing it around. Being a volunteer firefighter I stay in the best possible shape I can, and work out 4 days a week at least, and that keeps bigger. This board has been a lot of fun, and I can’t really say I’d change a thing. I have 5 fin boxes so I can change up the fins to make the board feel and respond the way i like to whatever the conditions may be.
6’10"length 21.75"wide
I like what you said, silly!
I feel a bit the same way. Everything I surfed between 6’6" and 9’ just sucked.
I’m 6’3" and 183lbs (83kg). I recently surfed a 6’0" of a friend and was surprised how well it went! I longboard a lot these days. Changing betweend long and short make me feel like I make more progress. So I like both but not the in betweens!
I’ve never thought about it like you did but it makes perfectly sense to me.
sick board og
Very nice board mate. Any other dims?? like tail and nose, and position of the widepoint??.
I like midlength boards, and while i used to love my fish, the width makes it harder to turn, so im looking/dreaming of something very similar to that board. Maybe not that wide, but 21'' or so. A long rail line feels great to bury and drive off.
so it seems we got two schools of thought. if i was to go the shorter way as silly likes should i get a fish/retro blank? how about for the 6’10 to 7’ style should i get a long fish, gun, fun/hybrid?
I’m one off the Silly school and enjoying every ride on my superturtle! 5’9"x22"x2 3/4". It’s my little skateboard! From anckle high to few feet overhead.
Only condition to the waves: steepness. (6’6"x190#)
Silly doesn't look outside the square.
If you don't ride what he rides, it doesn't work!!
Everybody is different.
Cheers
Please explain, what do you ride , how ,why??? Please tell what works too!!!
Please, I want to learn more, let my next board be different and new again!
. i think suggesting a big guy to ride under 6 foot is a bit out of the square actually
your not making any sense!
anyway back to the subject ( hotdog surfing small waves on shortboards)
knees bent, legs apart, feet forward, back knee drop
your feet spread and centre of gravity is relative to your boards rocker and rail line
a short lightwieght pro surfer has a low center of gravity and needs a lot less volume for float
but the FACT is , wen up and riding,that his feet a pretty much the same distance apart as the big 200 pound dude
so the pros feet spread and weight distribution,has a relationship to the rail line and rocker.
the idea is to keep that relationship in your own surfing. but you need more float ( and you will need to be more flexible and strong in the legs to lower your center of gravity)
how do you get float whilst maintaining the relationship between feet spread/weight distribution and relative rocker and rail line
you go
A. thicker
B. wider
going longer does not add very much volume. 6 inches would be lucky to add half a liter
it makes the board catch waves better. but this is hardly an issue in small waves. and the drawbacks of having less curve in the railline ( makes board tracky) take aways the short sharp turns in the pocket .
going thicker is good but you dont need to make it a boat . all you need to do is carry the volume up to the nose and out to the rail.
thin tails are nice for response and bite
the only common boards that offers these performance attributes are fish and nuggets and a few other such as short eggs etc. this is why fish is so popular, because they are easy to rip on even if they have no rocker and shitty fin setups like keels
take a fish
pull the tail,put in a squash, shape in some rocker, move the widepoint back to center or just forward of center. and stick three fins on it and give it a modern rail (albeit somewhat thicker, the more powerful you surf the thicker your rail can be)
thats my opinion. or join the legions of old guys stalling off the tail and getting caught behind the whitewater or ride a mal