I am curious to know what the difference is between 2 similar boards, but with widepoints at opposite ends, like say one was egg shaped, and had a wide point in front of centre, and one that had a wide point behind centre??. What would be the difference in board manouverability, and wave catching ability ??. Im asking in regards to boards around the 7-8 foot mark.
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I am curious to know what the difference is between 2 similar boards, but with widepoints at opposite ends, like say one was egg shaped, and had a wide point in front of centre, and one that had a wide point behind centre??. What would be the difference in board manouverability, and wave catching ability ??. Im asking in regards to boards around the 7-8 foot mark.
WP back boards are boards that tend to be surfed off the tail thus having the area moved back the where you stand…conversely WP forward you stand and drive further forward on the board. Look at some films from the 70s and youll see that.
Also, WPoint back gives the board a much wider tail, better in softy, smaller waves.
WPoint forwards gives you a narrower tail to surf on, and I’d guess it’s better for bigger, faster surf.
Another viewpoint, agreeing with and adding to the above…
Widepoint forward compliments front-foot surfers, while widepoint back is better for back-foot surfers.
I like widepoint forward myself, ala classic fish and Mark Richards’ style twins. This is my preference because I love driving hard off my front foot and rail for speed. I came originally from snowboarding, and that’s the style I bring to my surfing. My main surfing buddy, however, is the opposite. He rides chip thrusters with centered or rear widepoints, and rides heavy on the back foot. He came to surfing from skating, so he tends to work his board off the tail more like a skateboard. Also, for whatever reason, he puts trac pads on everything, I use them on nothing.
These are generalizations, of course, but thought they might help contribute to the discussion.
With a name like Beerfan how could I resist…
What would be the difference in board manouverability, and wave catching ability ??.
Without regard to the board’s length and other things like rocker and fin setup, wider point back will be more manouverable off the tail. BUT, cant just look at one feature and make predictions about performance. Generally, wp forward makes a drivier board that projects well, wp back makes it more pivoty between the legs in a std tail based stance.
So in a nutshell, if i had two boards and my only choice was to move the wp fore and aft, I’d ask myself what I would want the board to do wrt projection vs pivot…longer turns or shorter turns…horizontal vs vertical surfing.
I’d also say that a 7 footer is a better candidate for moving the wp back…between 7 and 8 is a very grey area and there are tons of wp forward designs in that range…I’d stick to a proven design.
If it were my board, I’d go dead center for a nice balanced feel…I think the Rusty '69 (still available?) is a nice clean balanced design.
HTH!
Cheers