My girlfriend wants to buy an egg (or I may shape one for her). Only problem: I have no experience with eggs and don’t know what advice to give her for dimensions or if an egg will even work for her. She’s been surfing off and on for about a year, and is doing fairly well, I think because of her extensive experience snowboarding. The only board she’s ever ridden is an 8’x22"x3" Bessel funboard. She catches waves well on it, but says its too big for her to turn well (she’s 5’5" 125 lbs) and a guy at a surfboard shop was trying to talk her into buying one of their eggs. I’d never looked at eggs closely until then, and saw the rocker was an almost continuous arc from nose to tail, not really like a longboard, although thats what its outline resembled. So my question is: is an egg a good board for someone who’s just getting past the beginner’s stage of surfing? And if so, what dimensions do you think would be right for her size and experience?
I ride 3 of different sized, in addition to 8’ gun and reg tri fin…
I’d think a 6’10 x 21, kinda flattish rocker overall except for lots of tail kick, around 2.65 thick, a little pointier nose and tail for easier turning and wave catching in offshore winter surf, and at that size, still floaty and easy for her 125 lbs. …
Tri boxes, so switching feel is easy.
Tri boxes, so switching feel is easy.
I’m thinking a wide egg for my wife.
Standard egg (as I understand it) has soft 50/50 rails all the way around. Do soft 50/50 rails work with a 3 fin setup or is it best as a single?
Is an egg good as a learn to surf board? I’m thinking 8’x24" to give her the stability that she likes from my 10’6"x24" but lighter and easier to handle in the water. (eps/balsa/composite)
b.t.w. it does seem that boards designed for woman/light surfers do have more tail rocker like LeeDD sugested. That is my plan too.
Howz bout a snake insted???Herb
Satori-
My friend Diane kind of got into surfing a couple years ago, and she was trying to go smaller from an 8’2". Her boyfriend bought her a Donald Takayams Egg, which I believe was a 7’6". It was good for her to figure out how to work a wave, rather than just ride it. She really progressed in catching waves, and surfing top to bottom. I guess an egg would be good because it has many longboard properties. Where your feet are aren’t so important compared to a smaller thruster, and you can lean rail to rail to make it turn. I don’t know. Diane got a lot better on it, and it was apparent over time. However, she eventually went back to a bigger board. So I guess to answer your question, why not? It looks like you’ll be footing the bill…
I weigh 150 and wouldn’t want to have anything to do with a 24" wide surfboard!
I think something at 21.5" max for most women. That way they can carry it under their arm themselves, and paddle it correctly (i.e. it won’t be too wide for them to get their whole arm in the water).
I built the 6’8" egg from Surfboard Design and Construction for my girlfriend, who had been riding a 7’6" hybrid. She loves it, it has a 2+1 setup and she relly seems to like it as a single as it paddles and catches waves very easy, yet remains loose if it gets bigger the bites go in. Check out that template it’s 21.5" wide barely fits under her arm (she’s 5’ and 100lbs).
Good luck
Thanks for the info, sounds kind of like what I thought. I think an egg is going to be too much of a performance shape for her, I’m going to try to talk her into an 8’ mini-mal.
???
She already rides an 8’ funboard/mal/egg.
She says it’s too big and clumsy.
So you suggest making a 8’ funboard/mal/egg.
Am I missing something here?
Actually, I rode her board the other day for the first time. In a word, it sucked. Its shaped like a really big “big-boy thruster”. Its rocker demands that it catch waves late, but its too long to kick with your legs, and too wide to get a good shortboard stroke. I could see it being ok for a really big guy, say 250+. She was able to get some glide, just because she’s so light for the board. The overall volume and weight of the board is close to a longboard of similar length, but she can’t really walk to the back to turn like a longboard, she’d have to do the body-swivel action to turn like a shortboard, and of course she can’t walk the nose. At 125 lbs, she can’t turn the board very well, which is why she was telling me she wanted an egg, because she thought it would be more maneuverable. After riding her board I think she would do better with a mini-mal. I’m thinking about 8’, so she’s not too far off from what she’s used to. After she’s mastered that I can shape her an egg if she still wants one.
Oh, I thought mals, funboards, and eggs where just different symantics for exactly the same thing.
The eggs she was looking at were basically longboard shapes, but with a continuous rocker that contained very little flat area, as well as more and nearly identical nose and tail rocker. I know what you mean about eggs, funboards, and small longboards being nearly the same thing, but the eggs we looked at were a little different, due to the rocker. Maybe it was just the ones at the shop, and not all eggs in general.