I tend to surf more off my front foot. Because of this I really enjoy riding single fins and fish. What design aspects in a performance shortboard lend to a front foot surfer? I’m asking this because before I get a new high performance shortboard I want to know what types of bottom contours etc. would compliment my style.
Thanks
I pondered the same thing some time ago.
I found that a forward single that maxes out just ahead of your front foot and fades to flat about mid-stance is the ticket. It goes unreal and if you like to pump the board for speed, then this is your answer. Taj Burrow has this on some test boards (someone out there can concurr/refute this).
What really put the icing on the cake was to run double concaves through the fins that fade out to flat at the tailblock. The idea was to have the doubles start to increase as that front single fades out about mid-stance. Imagine that you are trying to keep the water volume roughly constant as the water travels down the board.
Lastly, some tail kick should coincide with the fade-out of the doubles going off the tail.
Hope this helps
And don’t forget thin tail rails for easier burying at speed, some trim speed when forwards, and hard tail rails.
I like the responses so far.
First of all, if you like going fast and if your surfing avg waves, keep your rocker smooth and relaxed - if not you’ll hate the pressure drag created by extra rocker, particularly extra tail rocker or flips. Im talking Rocket Fish type rocker. Second, if you can surf a shortie with a little more equal weight distribution, which should be easy to do, there are two key things i like:
put the end of the entry rocker right in the middle of your stance - usually 10-12 inches behind center (very flattened area anyway)
a single concave that starts about 2/3 up or higher, but maxes out between your feet and fades to flat at the center fin.
Other ‘speed’ things i like is extra width and crispy bottom edges. Oh yeah, fin configuration is super critical.
Seems like an interesting question as the majority of what can be deemed “high performance” short boards in todays market are built for rear-footed thruster babies…
It’s a jiggle-jiggle, hook it left and then right and end with a big snap kind of surfing the thruster and twinnee designs have forced upon us.
Front footing would be more retro/classic 2+1 parmenter widowmaker or stubb-vector or pavel quad fish style of performance surfing.
As a child of the 60’-70’s I’m a very heavy forward footer and have never really figured out the thruster dance with the boards meat in the back style that is what performance surfing is all about today. The classic drive to the bottom with the big bottom turn and the full rail carve return back to the hook is pretty much considered old school. Still works well here in Hawaii and with our High performance longboards. That also maybe your call as a heavy front footer.
A retro style (width forward) outline i,e, thickness and wide point forward;flst to single con to double con to flat tail bottom and a relatively low entry and tail rocker design, is your bet like everyone else said. But today’s performance surfing is pretty much done off the backfoot.
Of course there’s the one foot on the nose and one foot on the tail surfers like Taj B.
Thanks for the info guys. The two boards I ride that could be deemed high performance not including a 6’6’’ mini gun are a 6’1 stinger fish and a 6’3’’ sqaush. Both boards have a relaxed entry rocker w/ single to double concave. I’m pretty sure the 6’3’’ has a single to inset concave. (I’m not real clear what that is) The one aspect I problably would change is having the widepoints on both boards moved forward. When I had the boards made I didn’t tell the shaper that I surf off the front foot. I never really thought about it until riding designs by Rich Pavel and Manny Caro. After riding boards made by both I realized how much I surf off my front foot.