This is gonna sound stupid and all…
but in the almost 35+ years I been doing this thing and all the variations of surfcraft I’ve played around with. It seems to me that the key to obtaining truely high performance surfing is riding the absolutely smallest board that you can adequately paddle into the waves you are riding. Obviously this will vary depending on the conditions but it seems I can always do alot more and go alot more places on a wave the smaller the platform is as long as the design and fins do what they need to do when you need them. Multifins like thrusters, quads and 5fins help as well as your thickness profile and materials used. Short and stubby is a no no becuase I think going as thin as possible is also important. So it’s a delicate balance of shape and materials that will get you there. That’s where I believe styro has alot of advantages but there’s still alot of problems that need to be worked out especially since there’s folk who are not your 130lb 20 year old paddling machines. I also have a problem with ultra light for the same reason because of the mass and technique difference between an aged surfer and a hot magazine surfer.
Bert might have an answer but the proof will be in the pudding or testing. All we can do is hope and imagine at this point on the direction he and RR are taking everything.
Dale on the other hand might argue that this is why we must all go with his rubber baffles but I still kind of like carving my turns standing versus lying prone. That why sponging isn’t a solution for me either although it’s allot closer to where we’re going vehicle size and texture-wise than we want to realize. Snowboard/Flowboard sized equipment is where we’re heading just can’t quite see in my head what the final solution is going to look like. I just know some how it’ll be either real small or real big…
About 10 years ago after my experience with a 6’8" Linden XPS Recycler, I found this used little pure white 6 channel homemade epoxy styro almost Zap-like design swallow tail. It was that kind of painted white look you saw on alot of homemade epoxies back then. The first time I paddled it out to Alii to test it, Fred Pattch Sr told me it was an epoxy just from looking at it from afar. The northshore shop I bought it from said it was Kong’s old board so I new it would float me. I had such a blast with that little epoxy styro swallow fish until she started to delam. But is was amazing how well such a small thing rode the bigger the waves got. A little after that it was a 6’2" Bushman fish in 10’ hurricane Iniki surf that opened our eyes to the effects of speed and lack of control from these little rockets.
So I definitely agree with your observations and comments about riding your fish.