I’m new to the forums here at swaylocks, but I thought this would be the right place to have my question answered. I’ve been surfing since I was 10, im 19 now and have been with the same shaper for the last 6 of those years. I went through the fish phase in the beginning, seeing how short I could go, until I realized how little speed I was carrying through the wave, I got hooked on the looseness and having my tail slide out without any effort at all. I got over that phase fairly quickly, and started dialing in my shortboards to fix everything. I’m 5’10 155lbs and everything I do is all about speed. The problem I never realized was a problem until tonight was in my lateral snaps, I like throwing the tail out off the top but in the flatter sections the board seems to spin out and release too easily when I turn or snap too hard. Im riding a 6’1 epoxy with 18.5 width at dead center, 1-7/8 thick flat deck and 14" tail and the Futures v2 437 blackstix. It’s a challenge to paddle sometimes, and when it gets over chest high, I’m stuck doing late drops, which aren’t a problem until it gets choppy and blown out, but as far as boosting and controlling my board in the air, I have yet to match it. I can pump enough speed out of a knee high wave to throw my fins out in a mush section but it doesn’t seem to hold and drive through the turns when it gets bigger. I thought releasing the tail was the whole point of riding a shortboard, but I’m tired of it. I just had one of the best sessions of my life in a chopped out ribcage high wave, on a 5’8 Lost RNF, with twin fins it wasn’t any fun for me, I felt like I was riding a retro board, but with the FCS M5’s I couldn’t get enough. I couldn’t dig my rail hard enough, I couldn’t push any harder into my turns, and the board refused to slip out unless I wanted it to where I wanted it to, all I had to do was kick out a little and throw my arms back at the end of the turn. My only gripes were that I couldn’t pump any speed out of it to get the height i wanted in the air, it didn’t seem to want to make those fine adjustments as much, and that my front side snaps in the pocket didnt have the snap I wanted. Is there something I should tell my shaper to change when I go in for another board, I don’t really want anything any thicker than 2" maybe 2-1/8", thats the one thing I can’t go without at this point, is the sensitivity of a board that thin, but otherwise, do the things I’m looking for compliment each other, and will it be enough to say I want this 5’8 RNF as a 6’0-6’1 shortboard with a pointed tip and 1-7/8 thick, or do I need to look into modifying the shapes I’ve dialed in for something with a little more drive and hold in the turns while maintaining the pop and air control I have now, and how would that be accomplished. I would also like to add to that that my shaper wants me to surf a quad, saying it’s faster than anything you’ve surfed before, and turns better than anything you’ve ridden, would that also then match my requests, I’ve heard they’re mainly novelty and hype and don’t have the up/down performance I’m used to on 3 fins.
Thank You for any help you can give.
Sincerely,
Josh Olson