I’ve been wondering if shapers ever take into account a surfer’s foot size when templating a board? I mean think about it- take two surfers, both the same height and weight but one has a size 12 foot and the other a size 9. Wouldn’t that change the dynamics of weighting? Just wondering.
And just wondering if there is such thing as a foot transplant? See my right foot? That lump is the result of thirty plus years of surfing. I look forward to winter when I can wear booties. Is there any remedy?
Man, I have one of those same things, same foot–it’s from wrenching my toe right the hell out of its socket one night
skateboarding
You ever do any of that?
Nope. NEVER considered the riders’ shoe size. A meaningless concern, IMO.
At last ! Someone who feels my pain!
Also the result of 30 plus years of surfing.Only gets annoying if I surf everyday for a while.
You’re regular foot too ?I think it’s a result of rolling the weight forward for that oh-so-elegant bent knee tube stance we learnt in the '70,s.
The cure would be worse than the disease I reckon.
Yes, I have heard of shapers taking foot size into
consideration when designing their boards.
There was an article in an Australian magazine,
must have been Tracks or Surfing World I guess
about 30 years ago, There was a shaper for Terry Fitzgeralds
Hot Buttered Surfboards by the name of Frank Williams
talking about designing his personal boards.
Frank apparently had relatively short feet and used to design
his boards to be narrow in the tail. I believe he felt that he didn’t
have the leverage he wanted with a wider tail.
Interesting footnote to this, and to give Frank his due. Back in
1980 whilst surfing at North Narrabeen one day, Simon Anderson
was impressed by Franks surfing and was checking out his board
back in the car park. The board was a twin fin with a smaller
third fin and…well, I think we all remember how the rest of
the story goes.
Paul Boardman
PS I would also like to sign up for a foot transplant.
Somewhere in a magazine is a quote from Bob McTavish about designing the entire board around a surfer’s foot size.
I’ll see if I can round it up.
I have a surfer friend who had a lump like that on his foot surgically removed. His had gotten to where he really couldn’t wear shoes anymore.
Nothing you can’t fix with a good saw, eh?
Only other option I can think of is to learn to switchfoot, or go goofy foot. (I have the same thing, it’s only on the back foot…)
I have small feet and my experience over nearly 40 years surfing is that foot size does have a substantial effect. A good surfer can compensate and ride most anything but big feet have much more leverage and can crank a wider tail around more easily. At least this is certain: other variables equal I generally surf better on a narrower tail than my big-flappy-footed friends would think useful. But wado I know?
Brian Hilbers of Fineline Surfboards talks a little bit about the surfer’s foot size in his segment of the Mollusk Shaper Series.
If you go to page 5 of the News Archives you can view the clip. There’s some killer stubbie GeeBee surfing in it as well.
Oh and based on my experience wrestling in high school (that’w not razzlin’ to you WWF fans) size makes maybe even more difference than weight in terms of leverage. Body height as well as foot size.