I’ve added a single fin egg to my quiver and I’m loving it. It has been a departure from my fishy shortboard and has required a change in my approach to wave riding. I’ve found that instead of pumping for speed like on my fish/shortboard, I can bottom turn up to the upper portion of the wave and with a little shuffle forward I can build speed pretty quickly just trimming. Also It makes me more focused on staying in the pocket.
As I move back to my shortboard when the waves get a little better, I have been kind of doing the same motions- instead of pumping rapidly to build speed I’m building speed by taking a high line and maybe doing a little s turn or two, but mostly shuffling my weight forward and letting the wave build the speed for me before doing another turn. It feels like I’m building speed pretty well. The question is this-Is it a bad habit NOT to pump a shortboard? Am I just being lazy? My shortboard is pretty wide and has a quad set-up if that makes a difference. If any of you have any input on this or generating speed in general I would like to hear!
You are talking old vs. new. When I was introduced to surfing, TRIM was the name of the game ( and still is for me). Welcome to the egg world, where it’s bury the rail, climb, and fly! This is the older (in my opinion) smoother cleaner style to GO WITH the wave instead of turning out of it. The pumping and quick snappy turns and “gouging” is a newer different way. It’s a matter of taste. Two different disciplines. If you get a hold of a real well made Hull a la G. Liddle, you will find these boards have “gears” that you can access when you need them. One way isn’t any better than the other. It’s what turns you on. Do want to do tricks for the judges, or do you just want to have the most fun you can? You’ve got to surf just for fun and everything else will work itself out later. “Laziness” has nothing to do with it.
I love the old single fin style of surfing where you use the whole board to go faster to slower. Turn off the tail then step forward as you come up to the top, short glancing turn off the top then drop into the face and glide out, step back for a nice hard roundhouse cut back then do it all again. Every now and then you get one those waves where you just stay out there on the front half of the board and fly down the line trying to get through the little sections and make it all the way through. I rather do that than make a huge turn off the top and not make it through to the next section.
I like to think that you only need as much speed as the wave demands, but if you can’t get it you have a problem. I weight and unweight (pump) my single fin boards as much as I do any other board. You can only get so much speed from standing on the nose and planing, then you need to start working the board after that. I also find that you need to control the speed and that’s where all the cutting back or stepping back comes in. Do you remember when people would step back really hard and throw the nose up in the air to stall? That’s something I still do even on small boards, or just stand back on the tail while you’re right there in the hook of the wave when it’s only waist high with the whole front of your board pretty much out of the water. I often do the Mickey Dora thing of rocking my boards from side to side while up on the nose to get it to go through the slower parts of a wave. Just do what feels right and feels good that’s what I do.
When you get back on a multi-fin board remember you can turn in section where you would have just sat in trim before. I learned on singles and when I graduated to thrusters and quads, i would often out sections where I could have done a snap, and stayed with the wave rather than running for the shoulder. If you are flying down the line and you don’t need to pump that is fine, just remember that you are capable of doing turns if you so choose.
When you get back on a multi-fin board remember you can turn in section where you would have just sat in trim before. I learned on singles and when I graduated to thrusters and quads, i would often out sections where I could have done a snap, and stayed with the wave rather than running for the shoulder. If you are flying down the line and you don't need to pump that is fine, just remember that you are capable of doing turns if you so choose.
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Oh that's right, you can't turn on single fins!!. :) Hehe just kidding
One thing I feel about my edge finned quads is: It reminds me of riding a single - in that it doesn’t have a drag angle like a tri, nor the “need” for as much “pumping.” So, the down the line off the front foot/middle is smoother in a wider range of angles of attack than my tris.
yes, for me, the quad set up combined with a lower rocker and a wider outline makes a lot more sense than the standard thruster. I would guess it’s probably a more user friendly set up for most intermediate California surfers.
I guess I am still KIND of pumping for speed on the quad, just not the same way I was before. Instead of agressivly moving the board’s nose in a side to side tic-tac kind of mannor, Im staying high on the wave and doing mini bottom turns, letting the rail disengage and croutching a little & starting to slide down, then doing a little bottom turn and climbing a little & repeating. It feels more relaxed, but it’s hard for me to do it really quick.
I know this is basic stuff. I guess like everyone is saying, just do what feels right. I tend to be a perfectionist, I guess it’ something I have to overcome. I sure as hell will never go pro. The best sessions are the ones where I not thinking about all of this stuff at all, so I should go with that- Just digesting what everyone is saying.
I started surfing in 1966 when all boards were single fins. I don’t get to surf everyday anymore, but I still surf as much as I can. After riding all sorts of boards, I’m back to having a lot single fin boards, and I don’t think there’s any problem with them. You just need the right fin for the size of tail you ride, and you need to know where to stand. Step back on the tail and you’ll be making very quick sharp turns. If you stand a little more forward, you can stretch out that turn. If you drop straight down and push as hard as you can, you can make as hard a turn as a modern short board. I think the difference is more in the rail line and where the wide point is. Single fin short boards in Hawaii were usually made with the wide point forward of center, and that tends to make more drawn out turns. They also usually had very thin tails that you could really sink down into the water. Now the boards have the wide point back and they will turn on a dime, but they need the 3 fins to hold the tail in. 2 fins didn’t work for everyone, but 3 did.
There’s a good board type for all kinds of conditions, but in most cases a good single fin can handle if you know how to surf. I think a slightly longer and wider single fin semi gun or an egg with the wide point forward is a much better all around board. I like that the singles will glide along without having to pump from rail to rail, they can make sharp turns if you want to or they can make longer turns. You can go fast by standing in the pocket up on the front, or you can stay back a little and pump the board like a thruster. And, if you have boxes for side fins, you just add them when the waves get big and gnarly. The only down side of single fins is paddling at low tide. It’s easy to bang your fin up when you paddle over the reef at low tide.
I’m over 50 now, so I’m not trying to look like Slater or any other young pro. If I was surfing 3 to 4 hours everyday like I used to I might feel differently, but for now it’s about fun. Sometimes I just want to make just enough turns to be in the right spot, sometimes I might get a little aggressive and attack the wave.