Hi Shapers, my friend just asked me to shape for him a new surfboard but what he’s asking for sounds impossible. He is 197 cm tall and weights 86 kg and he wants something between 8’ and 9’ that floats like a sup, paddles easly but at same it has to ride like a shortboard in very mushy surf…I was having a look to the walden mega magic which looks very fun in those conditionsDo you have any better idea?
I’m actually about to shape a board for a client who is actually just slightly bigger than that, more like ~202cm and 100kg and he wants an 8’6. It’s doable, just keep a lot of foam- think something like 8’6 x 23 x 3.25 and not foiling the heck out of the blank. Figure out a loose enough tail setup and his size will make the “board feel like a shortboard”.
More like a tight squash tail or more rounded?
I’m going to go the other way and suggest a shape like the Stoker V-Machine in a shorter length, like a 7-0 or 7-4. If your guy had any skill at all he could probably get it done in such conditions with even shorter lengths - like a 6-6 - so long as you retained the standard foils for the design.
Lots of volume relative to the length due to the foil and deck/rail profiles as well as the wide tail for getting off the line fast and planing early. He uses a relaxed nose rocker and a lot of tail rocker with vee and a hard tucked rail to get it to turn. Possibly better with a quad and move the fin cluster forward so your friend won’t have as much trouble finding the sweet spot.
For their length the Stoker-type design packs way more volume where you can use it than the mini-HP Longboards. Based on what you’re calling out it doesn’t sound like your friend is interested in surfing a longboard like a longboard, anyway.
If you did a search for “big guy shortboard” you’d find a lot of information in the archives on this subject. Lots of good photos too.
I’ve linked to this guy before. I’ve seen one of these in person and if I recall correctly, it was even thicker than specifications show on website.
In a nutshell… if you’re gonna think out of the box, think out of the box. That means toss any arbitrary 22 1/2" width limit out the door. Might as well toss the typical 2 1/2"-3" thickness limit out as well.
Word on the street was that everybody around here who tried the Beast loved it. They were all older guys who appreciated how easily it paddled along with the way it surfed.
http://gogreensurfboards.com/ggs-fb-beast.html