heavy weight longboard

A guy come into my shop today and wants to order a 10’ longboard. This guys weighs close to 300 lbs. Any suggestions on dimensions and thickness for this guy? Clark blank recommendation?

My old roomate weighed 275lbs…rode a 8’6" x 24 G&S single fin…like a shortboard! Board was 3.25" thick, special order, of course. Submerged board float to his bellybutton.

Wanting a 10’er, you’d want lots more float. So ya gotta go as wide as 25" if he’s taller than say…6’. If he’s shorter, he might need narrower.

Thickness for kneepaddling would require close to 4".

Since he’s heavy, he can ride really wide tails, like 18" a foot up.

Make it like that Harbour Wave hogger board, really wide, thick railed, wide.

Hey Tuna. Does the guy know what he’s doing or is he a beginner? I made a 10’6" for a guy that was 275, it was a 10’7"H blank 18.25 x 23.375 x 15.75 x 3.25 or 3.5 not sure. It worked out for him but he knew how to surf well.

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A guy come into my shop today and wants to order a 10’ longboard. This guys weighs close to 300 lbs. Any suggestions on dimensions and thickness for this guy?

Make some new, extra big calipers and a little Vaseline to his midsection and take your reading w/ a measuring tape

Tuna---- 300 lbs on a 10 footer isn’t gonna make it. The fact that he weighs 300 to begin with tells me that he’s either a novice or a guy who surfed years ago and wants to get back into it. Buying a 10’0 is like buy a wetsuit a size smaller in hopes that you’ll lose your gut eventually. Uncomfortable and not easy to get in and out of. This reminds me of the many surfers I have seen still trying to ride short boards. Maybe they ripped on 6’2’s when they were kids, but they can’t even paddle them now. Too much beer and pizza on monday night. On the business end of it I have found that based on a surfers ability,weight,experience; I sometimes need to steer them in a direction that will provide them with the most fun. Put a 10’1’ Y under this guy and he will not have much fun. He may even complain to his buddies about his board not floating his big ass. If you screw-up on this one he won’t be back for another board. On the other hand, if you convince him to go to a 10’6 or 11 footer he’ll have more fun and he can work on getting in shape, trimming that waistline etc. He’ll enjoy the board you made him and come back for the 10’0 at another time. Take a look at the Clark catalogue. The 11’3 nets a 10’6’ for a 250lb guy.

Hey,

Why does everyone assume this guy is an out of shape slob? If he is, I think it’s way cool that he wants to get out there (stay at Malibu or Ft. Lauderdale). However, I’ve seen some guys in Hawaii and Fiji that are over 300 pounds, rock hard, and can surf over most guys. How do you know he’s not choosing a board to go win at Makaha? Remember the old, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. Good advice on going longer, but let’s give him a break eh?

Tuna— Try this; Take an 11’3, skin it, removing minimum foam. Cut out a well proportioned 11’0 or 10’6’. Leave a solid 4 inches throughout the mid section of the board. Approximatly when paddling from his neck to his knees. Foil the rest (tail and nose) out to a nice balance. Give him a nice rail. Only use the fat boy rail if he can’t surf. That is what I do for big guys who can surf, but want more float. McDing

Richard------- when I advise a big boy to go longer, I am giving him a break. Whatever his ability I want him to have fun. McDing

McDing,

Guess I’m a little sensitive since I gained 4 pounds on a recent trip and feel out of shape. Actually, your advice was right on. It was the comment about the vaseline and tape measure before your post that seemed a little over assumptive.

I agree with you Richard… I have a friend who weights over 300 pounds, but 300 pounds of pure lean muscle, he is a bodybuilder and also a surfer… he rips!

Cabeto

Richard----I like to have fun. I like to see people get in the water because it is FUN. I fill in sometimes for a friend of mine on Maui at his surf school. Teaching kids to stand up on a soft-top is a kick. But when I get a 300lb guy from NY(who looks like he could be one of the sopranos) to stand up on a twelve footer, the look on his face is something I will never forget. Being on vacation, it is probably the only time in his life he will surf. But I’m sure he’ll be tellin’ his buddies back at the card club about it for some time. McDing

Tuna how in the heck are you going to shape a board that big in your Munchkin sized shaping room?You guys ought to see Tuna’s factory.Its about the size of a van (but well done).LOL

Just curious of cleanlines comment about your shaping bay size… what size is it?

My shaping bay is small… the biggest board that can be shaped is a 10’ or maybe a 10’2’'…

12’10’’ length x 8’6’’ width x 7’3’’ height

Cabeto

OK…my shaping bay is small 16x8 and low 7 foot,but the rents real cheap! I wasn’t to worried about the shaping. My glassing room is not much bigger! Maybe I’ll bring the damn thing out to your shop, cleanlines! This guy is 6 foot x 6 foot. The kind of guy you want on your side in a barroom brawl. This arms are bigger around than my legs…He is beginner with the ability to stand and turn. He’s been using his brothers 10’ which is 3 1/4 thick. He says it doesn’t float him well but has this thing about going longer. I’m thinking maybe a little wider and leaving a lot of foam almost to the rails…

I know/knew two 300-pounders that surfed. One ripped on an 8’6" moderately wide pintail single fin; the other guy was a slug. How your guy does is a function of his ability more than the board.

I weighed about 240 when I took my 80-pound daughter tandem surfing on a 10’2" x 24 x 4 board I shaped from a triple stringer 10-3Y blank. Five inch square tail. Single 8-inch fin glassed on (shoulda been a little bigger), a little concave in the nose for jollies and just because. Floated just fine, paddled pretty damn well. I think I copied a “Phil Edwards” model from a photo ad in some magazine.

I think you want to know how well your customer surfs before you decide to make him a log he can wallow on, or a board with some actual surfing potential.

Suspect comments above about the guy being a has-been wanting to get back into it may be correct, but it ain’t necessarily so.

Maybe I can shed a little light on the subject (or maybe a big shadow)I weigh about 310 and am 6’4". I surf just about every other day and I’m pretty athletic. It really comes down to how good a surfer this guy is, My “short boards” that are about eight feet and 24 wide and 3’‘, but I have a few polyester longboards that at 10 feet are too small if your looking for some glide for slow smaller surf. I’ve been above the 270 pound mark for a long time, and I wasted a lot of time on boards that were too small and frustrating. If he is like I am he could duck dive a 9’6’’ that is 3 inches thick. Bigger guys run into a lot of problems It takes more surface area to plane and the boards are much slower to getting up on top of the water, so keeping as much width is just as important as length. The volume needs to be as much as possible just to make it paddle. Most of the time you can leave the rails pretty full, because it not that hard to put a rail in the water with 300 pounds, and if the rails are too thin they will dig before the board planes and that cause a bigger problem. If you make him a 11’ at about 24’’ wide 4’’ or so in the thickness, he will have a pretty good float/paddle, ad I just had a eps foam/epoxy 10’ 25’’ wide and about 3 3/4’', and it is great. It still isn’t a big cruiser longboard though. For bigger guys buoyancy of the epoxies are awsome and make life a lot easier. So to sum the whole thing up, THE BIGGER THE BETTER

I’ve got two brothers in the 270 range, and took us a long time to solve the problems of having boards that work, so If you got anymore questions about making boards that ‘‘bigger’’ guys can surf, email me at fattysrevenge@hotmail.com

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A guy come into my shop today and wants to order a 10’ longboard. This guys weighs close to 300 lbs. Any suggestions on dimensions and thickness for this guy? Clark blank recommendation?

Speaking from experience on boards for heavy weights, I’d say to try to keep the board close to 3”- 3.25” thick max, and try to stay under 24” wide. With that thickness you can still pinch the rails enough so it can penetrate on a turn. When the rails get thicker than that it becomes more like bar of soap and not much of a surfboard. I like smaller, thinner boards that surf better, but maybe are more of a chore to paddle which is one of those incentives for physical conditioning. When I’m huffing and puffing my way back out into the lineup I laugh at myself and call it a free workout. I used to feel the same way about riding my heavier mountain bike, that wasn’t the $2000.00 20lbs. steed.

I guess all of this is moot if you’re talking about 1’-2’ summer mush waves. When I talk to my customers I can never be clear enough as to what they want, and what they are looking for as an end result. Let them dictate there desired results then you have a starting point to work off for future boards.

A friend who weighs about 240 recently asked me to make a board. We ended up making a board that was 11’6" X 24"+ X 4"+. It has full rails that are turned down in the tail. Carrying under the arm, duck diving and riding big waves were not concerns when it was designed. If you check out Bruce Jones’ website, there are quite a few big boards over 24" wide. Infinity also has some full railed thick boards - check the “Secret Weapon” - I think the 8’6" is 4" thick.

I’m not saying they don’t make boards 4” thick but in my experience riding those super thick railed boards, if they have a hard tail, you can make a good turn off the tail, then the re-entry turn just gets pushed back over the top due to the lack of penetration.

The 260+ pound guy I know from around here has been through the gamut of 24”x 4” thick planks (maybe 12 to 15 boards), non work well, and they all come back eventually w/ criticism attached. It really depends on the circumstances and waves too. Modos -Queens, or Rincon – Ala Mo ?

I saw the DVD “To” with Laird Hamilton riding the big one in Tahiti. There was a section on the movie with him on a 12’ board. He was surfing it like most good guys riding a 9’. Laird is tall, but he does not weigh 300 pounds. He made an interesting comment. He said if he could have just one board to surf on it would be the 12’ board. Talked about the transition going from surfing a tanker down to surfing a shorter board really improves the surfing because the short boards are easier.