How to make a groveler work in better waves

General Discussion
1

Aloha,

currently designing a 5’5" 20.5 2.75 board with a fishy kind of outline. curious to see if anyone has any advice in regards to making a shorter groveler-esque board work better in good surf. thinking overhead to well overhead waves with push, located on oahu . I love short chunky boards and want to push em into as much as I can. I’m thinking a more parallel outline with a wing or hip that cuts to a pulled in round or swallow tail would be fun, not trying to reinvent the wheel, just looking for some groovy design ideas to increase drive and hold.

Mahalo in advance!

2

Its all about the fins. Toe in, Cant, flex and fin template.
If you want to test what I’m saying, take your favorite current board and ride a few waves with Performer fins then go in and change the fins to a set of Carvers.

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3

Yeah that makes alot of sense! Ill try some of the bigger, drivey twins first!

4

As well as more fins, longer, higher aspect fins.

Pinched rails, but keeping the volume in the deck?

5

Maybe one way to think about this is to go back to the beginning of the short/thick/wide design shift that I reckon really reached the mainstream with the Slater Wizard Sleeve.

This is a fun write up from Swellnet: https://www.swellnet.com/news/rearview-mirror/2018/12/12/day-kelly-slater-wins-pipe-masters-deep-six

I can’t find the original explanation, but I remember at the time Slater saying the basis of the design was to take the tail off a 6’10 (or so) semi-gun and blend it with a nose from a fish.

So many boards, but maybe most notably in terms of commercial success - Hayden Shapes Hypto Krypto - followed that logic.

Just for my taste and not trying to convince you not to go with the flyers but I think these boards work in larger and heavier surf (at least in part) because they have a rail line from a bigger wave board.

That is to say if you take the lines from a 6’10 or 7’0 Pipe gun (including the rocker, rails and concave) and blend everything with a paddle friendly nose, you should get something that paddles great but will hold when you get back over your fins for a heavy section.

You then get the added bonus of a shorter overall board that’s easier to turn. Anyway just a suggestion would love to see what you come up with.

Remember with big surf and fins you’re not necessarily looking for lift as much as hold because the wave is delivering excess power and you just want the board to feel more predictable.

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