Thanks mate. I think i’ll go with that style board over the nugget shape, more under chest area = more easier to paddle, and i’ll be able to get forward on it, not up to the nose, but i’ll still be able to get forward to get me through the dead sections.
Cheers for the dims mate
bladiebla
check out my build thread with steven seagal in the subject.
Mid length boards are great, especially in wind chop.
i have a 6.6, 6.9, 7,0, once made a 7.6. so not everybody dislikes them
i think they are especially great for beginners or for lazy bastards
Wouter
Solo,
Is that a Steve Forstall design? Love those boards!
Does anyone sell them on the West coast?
Lazy Bastard, Next I’ll be a fricking sissy? I wish, but don’t wish …That everyone could spend some time on the North Shore. All it takes is a bit of surfing at a few breaks to find out that 6’0"- 6’8" surf boards are worthless for the common man. Not everybody surf like Kelly Slater. But on a shortboard, everybody gets pitched the same.
Go to some place like Jockos when it’s breaking 6-8ft Hawaiian with the rip pulling down the beach toward Holtons, sit inside with you 6’0". Try to stay in the line up. Next thing you know your out of position, and a set is coming…go cry to yo mama, you getting dredged and there nothing you can do about it.
A board with more volume will get you out of trouble fast. You float better, you move faster, you get to the channel faster.
Little people, little waves, little boards…It’s all good. Big people, big waves, big boards…It’s all good. But it’s nothing even close to being lazy, it’s being smart.
7’6-8’6" boards are the swiss army knife of surfboards, If you can’t get them to surf right, your just not making them right? The benefit is that you can go from a 8ft board to a 9ft+ gun, and feel at home. How many guys can go from a 6ft board to a 9’6" gun and feel at home?
Dear frickin’ sissy:
Oh, you are SO wrong, midlength boards suck, I was out today on one and hardly got ANY waves and I didn’t have ANY fun because I just kept running over shoulder hopping longboards and having to swerve around guys on 6’2’s while they were duckdiving…
Don’t anybody listen to Mr. R. Head, he’s a Known Troublemaker anyway. (just look at that avatar if you don’t believe me)
Strange - it seems that fish are ok, shortboards are cool - longboards too…
BUT
nobody wants a mid - length board …“it doesn’t fit the wave”, “too long and too short - a bad comprimise”…
So - Is this right? Can surfboards only be 5’ 5" to 7’ and then 9’ to 11" - is there a no man’s land ?
OR
Do you have evidence/opinions/theory to the contrary?
hiya silvery !!
one of my favourite articles ever was written by dave parmenter on this very subject
from memory it was in an [american] longboarding mag [? c. mid 1990s ? ]
it had some really nice board photos , and surfing photos , and yes …some good design advice too, of course !
i’ll see if i can locate it for you , if you like ?
‘entity’ here also remembers it …
cheers !
ben
[the main thrust of his article , from memory, was …making nice modern rocker , rails and bottom contours on some ‘older’ [60’s / 70’s] type outlines …and trying different fin setups [you can imagine why that appealed to me , yes ?!]
My new name is Sissyhead.
Solo,
Is that a Steve Forstall design? Love those boards!
Does anyone sell them on the West coast?
Stall yes. Shipping is not that bad. But right now…no shops on the west coast. Working on it. Here is a mid length balsa by another Master.
The cross section of those who don’t like mid length boards is probably peppered with surfers who try to ride the mid lengths like a potato chip. The same ones who get on a longboard and ride with the “Poo man” stance and stick their arse (ass) out trying to rail turn them.
Jump up and lock their feet in one place and then try to ride it as they would their shorter boards. No moving around to find the sweet spot or getting up towards the nose to get the best trim in a tube or stepping back on to the tail to whip the board around.
I’d say the crew who’ve grown up riding single fins will appreciate the body english necessary to ride them well and with style.
I agree with resinhead, they are the best all around boards and everybody should at least try one. The problem that longboarders have with them is that you have to pump the shorter lengths, and shortboarders don’t like to partially walk them, and that’s why you hear the negatives. There is also the “different” factor at spots where people all want to look the same. Critical aspects of boards in this range are the fins as previously mentioned, but more importantly in my opinion the thickness. This wasn’t a big factor with PU, but with the higher floation of EPS, you can get the same paddling speed and go thinner/reduced outline volume to make a high performance mid-length. If you go thicker, it can paddle like a 10 footer. With thickness variations, the rail design needs to adapt also (cut-aways, etc). Since most of these board use center fins in the 6" range, “V” in the tail is needed on the longer ones, and a tighter custer with the side fins works better. Not design laws, just my observations in the local water around here.
Go to some place like Jockos when it’s breaking 6-8ft Hawaiian with the rip pulling down the beach toward Holtons, sit inside with you 6’0". Try to stay in the line up. Next thing you know your out of position, and a set is coming…go cry to yo mama, you getting dredged and there nothing you can do about it.
The whole post made perfect sense to me but this in particular bought back a ton of great memories riding 7"6’ to 8"6" boards in Hawaiian surf. Had a beautiful 8’2" Rawson that went insane at Jockos. Amazing how those skills and equipment choices translate. Cheers for that Resin.
Steve
Resinhead,
my post was leaving out information, i surf windswell mainly and beach breaks.
For sure hawaiians need something different.
not to say you are a sissyhead.
wouter
I hope you bring one of the sissy speed eggs to AB3…
No worries Wouter, I actually knew what you were getting at…just stiring the pot a bit, if you will.
I also find it necessary to surf a much shorter board…for me 7’4", at a place like Rocky’s Lefts, or Blacks… Waves that just jack up and throw, don’t need the paddle speed to catch up to the wave. But so many of the reef & points I surf in San Diego here back off with the tide.
great
dont want to sound like roy…
tell me, what stick do you use for that particular pot?
wawa
an update to what i had in the one board quiver post. i went from a 6’2 Bonzer shortboard to this 7’2 Pavel Speeddialer. I needed the extra foam for full winter gear and getting out of shape. this is my first board ever in this size range. i admit that i just needed to be honest with myself in what would work best for me and i’m glad i finally came around. this ride rocks! glides when it’s small and feels like a foot shorter when the waves pick up. fish pumping speed with rail burying potential. alot of vee out the tail on this one. so much fun and keeping me in the water alot longer.
Being only 5’ 6" tall, the only boards I never liked were in the 7’ 6" to 7’ 10" range. They were too big, but also too small. I like my north shore boards up to 7’4". I haven’t surfed 6’-8’ hawaiian north shore for a while now, so my semigun is 7’2" or 7’3" don’t remember. I used to ride a 6’ 10" in that size country in the late 70’s and early 80’s, mostly between Alii and Uppers.
Remember when you could park on the ocean side of the road at Laniakea and Chuns? We used to go over to the natural springs by Jockos to wash off. I remember when only Jock and few of his friends surfed out there. Everyone prefered Laniakea, Chuns, Pidleys, or leftovers. On those epic days, you would be taking off near Jockos and riding that incredibly long right at Laniakea. The barrel would be breaking in a square shape, huge thick tubes, and there would be a wave for every guy out. Or you could be out at Chun’s and the wave would be an Aframe. The right was Chun’s and the left was pidleys. That was an unreal wave, especially if you rode it all the way to the inside.
Whats up with Leftovers? My buddy says it’s the spot most likely to be eaten by a shark? But last week everytime we drove by it was absolutely epic looking, only 3 or 4 guys out…well maybe 6 at the most. I was screaming at my buddy to stop the truck, but he kept on driving…He kept saying sharks, sharks, sharks.
I swear it looked so clean an perfect, I didn’t care about the sharks. oh well. You guys are blessed with the best waves on the Earth. I feel so very lucky everytime I get a chance to surf on your island. Thanks.
And that natural spring thing…That would make sense why the first 20 feet of paddle out there is so fricking cold?!
-Jay