Displacement, hull, deep V, loaded dome… all crutches to make your overly wide board work in waves.
Try narrowing the boards, and they don’t need all that hocus pocus.
Try telling an over two hundred pounder that does not want to ride a longboard to ride a narrower concaved board.
Bingo, Solo.
I’d go so far as to argue (not because I think its true, but because it’s at least as logical as Leed’s position) that narrow boards are crutches for shapers who don’t know how to shape bottom contours.
I totally agree with Solo(got your back on this one Solo)… But LeeD has some good points about design.
My most versatile “longboard” so far is my “Loaded Dome” 7’11" Geoff McCoy Surftech single fin with either his Gullfins or Cheyne’s keel. You do not want extra length if you want performance front and backside The extra 4-5 feet will just get in the way all over the place. But stubby and wide is also very bad too so I think Geoff’s loaded dome solves the stubby problem versus going thin and wide with a hull to compensate. With the exception of nose riding except for cheater fives, this one board will kicks all the other longboards a**es cause it’s not long yet you’ll out paddle a 20year old on a 10 footer… If you want glide or trim then go skip, carvenalu or hull… And yes hulls work great at slow mainland point breaks but that’s their only home. Here in Hawaii or like wise I don’t think so…
My second most versatile longboard is a 6’8" Horan replica I got from solo last year with a " rounded belly keel nose" and ultra flat big a** tail 19" I think. Single with a keel it floats guys as big as CMP 6’3" 220lbs and still turns on a dime for guys as small as me 5’8" 195lbs.
We just finished and rode a 5’10" stretch quad copy with full concave melding into a hull with morey-like rails in the tail… Looks like sh*t goes like hell but not that versatile. Definitely says hulls have there place but only fit certain situations versus being an all around type of board which I believe the two McCoy designs I described above are…
McCoy’s “loaded dome” is the most under rated design underground design secret out there for midsize boards that rip… But of course this is all one man’s opinion and what the hell do I know. You should go find out for your self.
Loaded Dome, Linea Dome its all good stuff.
I wish people would try everything and find out what works best for themselves.
A good surfer can make any dumb design work really well. Just cause he makes it work, doesn’t mean the design is good for anyone at all!
Taj makes a bonzer work great at 12’ Sunset.
You are dumb enough to think because Cheyne rode a McNugget at Wiamea, that’s the right design.
And the guy who WON Mav’s last contest rode a thick 9’er. Are you dumb enough to ride a 9’er at Mavs against 5 other hungry good big wave surfers riding 10’6"ers?
So Bunker rode a 5’ downrailed single fin in SD, and the boyz rode similar 5’ers at 8’ Hanalei. You think that’s a good design?
Just what are you riding nowadaze?
Don’t forget the Hanalei boyz who rode 7’7" x 16"ers while the 5’er’s were being ridden in the SAME 8’ Hanalei waves!!!
they are designed to connect into the wave, at the power zone in a effortlees and natural track because that is where the hull gravitated to with very little, if any, rider input.the ideal wave is a winding point break preferably with some wind texture/surface tension.however, they are just at home in beach and reef breaks, the shortcoming being those types of waves usually don’t provide too much length which would allow the hull to obtain maximum speed-you might hit third gear in those shorter waves, but will seldom realize fourth or fifth gear.as long as the wave has a base to it, they will burn it down, and stay with the speed of the wave, for as long as the wave is, without having to turn or break trim.as for being for old guys, well, it’s just that not too many ride these boards, but those that do have be doing it for a long time, so yea, we are older.they may not be doing the BIG airs, etc, but they are going faster with little gyration and a lot more style than most(roots of longboarding).
Geez Matt, you’ve nailed it!!! Speed, minimal effort and STYLE.
These boards are not for everyone, especially the 6’2" CI Flyer crowd, but that’s O.K. because the 6’2" potato chip is not my choice either.
Daisy Shayne once said “…I ride what I ride because of certain feel…” I have to agree.
Skip, that is my 10-4 Simmons outline that now resides in Ewa. It loves to glide inches above the bottom in tiny waves along the Ewa plane. The day I got it over to Oahu, I paddled out in overhead waves at Ala Moana and almost got killed wrestling with it. I was petrified that it would get away from me and do major damage to either the locals or the breakwall!!! It weighs in at 35 pounds.
BTW, it took two blanks to get the tail width on that board.
A good surfer can make any dumb design work really well. Just cause he makes it work, doesn’t mean the design is good for anyone at all!
Taj makes a bonzer work great at 12’ Sunset.
You are dumb enough to think because Cheyne rode a McNugget at Wiamea, that’s the right design.
And the guy who WON Mav’s last contest rode a thick 9’er. Are you dumb enough to ride a 9’er at Mavs against 5 other hungry good big wave surfers riding 10’6"ers?
So Bunker rode a 5’ downrailed single fin in SD, and the boyz rode similar 5’ers at 8’ Hanalei. You think that’s a good design?
Just what are you riding nowadaze?
Don’t forget the Hanalei boyz who rode 7’7" x 16"ers while the 5’er’s were being ridden in the SAME 8’ Hanalei waves!!!
Lee,
You make some good points, but who are you calling stupid and what does your post mean. Who cares what Cheyne road in big W or Taz making a bonzer work. This proves my point of not calling any design stupid. It all starts with float and those that make up for lack of float are young, elite surfers, or above average talent. Everyone else wants to have fun surfing, not riding what surfboard snobs say is the right board for them. As for Cheyne’s board at Wiamea: He did it to prove a point and you don’t see the pics in the movie or the mags of him smacking the lip and stuff. He didn’t slide around on every wave and he proved his point about people saying he was weak in big waves. No, of course thats not the right board for 90% of the people in the world to ride Wiamea anymore than the modern chip is the right board for 90% of the surfing public to be riding their local beachbreak with.
Cheyne is good enough to rip anywhere at any size at any spot. The fact he could even drop in on a 20’ wave with a 6’ board proves his limitations are well past any other surfers’s limits.
He just did it his way. Don't mean we should copy him.
Let’s settle this once and for all… EVERYbody knows what the technical name for these boards is. Maybe it’s time we all just get onboard, join the team and call them what they really are. That way we can all go in for the big win…
Cheyne is good enough to rip anywhere at any size at any spot. The fact he could even drop in on a 20’ wave with a 6’ board proves his limitations are well past any other surfers’s limits.
He just did it his way. Don’t mean we should copy him.
You including yourself in that 98%?
I agree no one should try and copy Cheyne…that would be a hard act to follow by some of the best.
I am not upset in the slightest sense, but I still don’t understand your post or why you dislike loaded domes and such. It’s fine by me, we all have opinions. I dislike boards with lots of edges and scooped out bottoms. If I were a light small framed surfer…I may feel differently. I have alot of boards and they vary, so I like many different things. I have been having he most fun on my Nuggets and I still love the old Forstall cheaters shaped from that old Becker 7’3’'. I rode longboards almost exclusively for two years and still take them out when it calls for it and I feel like long rail surfing.
I have a 6’10" Klaus Hull. I surf in SLO County. I only surf it at Hazards in SLO. Sometimes Cayucos pier. Both are fast, down the line, hollow waves. I make more tubes on this board then I do on ANY of my shortboards. I also surf it at the pts in SB, plus the Ranch. It is a very versatile board.
However, I cannot ride it backside so I never take it out at beach breaks.
My point is, no, it is not a beginner board. No, it is not an every day board. And NO, it is not for everyone.
Does this thread show that because there are SO many terms to describe the same board, that the name/s are irrelevant due to the confusion they create?
I hesitate to suggest a Swayctionary as a companion to the Swaylopedia cuz I dont think anyones going to change their regional vocab.
Just stumbled onto this thread trying to figure out where the term “dink” comes from, and all is now clear. The “rules” of Swaylocks discourage personal attacks and “know-it-alls”, so I figure anyone using the term “dink” has just broken both rules. Nice work!
Once paddled from a spot in Cayucos, CA that had deteriorated due to dropping tide over to another peak that turned out to be localized by some antagonistic jerk who called me a kook before I ever paddled for a wave. Turned out his (pre)judgement was due to the fact that I was riding a full-nosed, eggy quad that didn’t fit his concept of a “high-performance” (read Channel Islands") surfboard. Being probably 15 years older than this guy, and having observed that the waves on this occasion were not exactly demanding, I wrote off this attack as pure ignorance. Point is, ride what feels right for YOU and for the conditions and F#*K the nay-sayers.
i’m super stoked right now yall, gonna go buy some beers, drink em and crash out, hopefully there’ll be waves here on Whidbey Island in the morning, you never know around here, if so im gonna take my new 6’4" fineline hull/stubbie/douche board out for some serious slideage before therapy in the afternoon.
surfing is great, its nice surfing with a hood on, you can’t hear anyone talking!
