I hope you all appreciate how humbling this is to admit. My ego is shrinking. Maybe collateral shrinkage as well.
Can a 55 year old find happiness on a 6-6 by 19 inches?
I swim 5,000 to 8,000 yards a week on a masters team, with a bunch of sprints thrown in for an extra edge. I repeat 100’s on 1:20. Not bad. I weigh 165 and stand 5-9. ish. All the pieces of the equation are there (with the possible exception that I am not 19 anymore), but I am simply not catching waves on short boards. Like I think I used to. I think I forgot how. Kids all around me are surfing tiny chips on any given day. Big kids on 6-4’s and 6-2’s. How is this possible?
What is going on here? I don’t want to give up duck diving. And I don’t want to retire to a long board, exclusively. ( I love LB’s, don’t get me wrong.)
Should I cave in and just build bigger boards for myself? Are there some shortboard design considerations I should incorporate for better paddling? Wider tail? Less rocker? Is there some timing thing I may have lost. Should I go to Beach Boy Billy’s surf school for remedial lessons?
Any others out there dealing with this, too?