From what iv seen and read Kelly is trying to say that the best surfboard is one that will float you but being as short as possible?
And is it also true that the shorter the board the faster it will be?
From my shaping experiments I think that as long as a board does not hinder your ability to get into waves, ie too short to get a decent amount of speed up to be catching the wave comfortably then I can see nothing but advantages to a shorter wider board…
Im riding boards I never thought id ride like 5’8" and having a blast on them, always having been fixed on the idea of 6’2"s and 3"s , I think nose is really important for paddling so Ive added a touch more nose width on my personal boards and cut inches off them.A shorter board is definitely not faster as you say but more manouverable and versatile on the face once up and riding…
just my opinions anyway…
thats not what his missus thinks...
remember, what you lack in length, you can make up for in girth…
at least that’s what i keep telling myself
Well this is a rookie question, but I’ll bite.
Going short helps Slater gain a bit of competitve edge in some limited situations.
Really short helps Slater look more dramatic/radical on his boards and score a few extra points for it here and there(especially on late crazy take offs), short is not especially a shortcoming in catching waves in 2,3, 4 man heats.
If you want to look more dramatic and catch less waves than your cohorts, go short or shorter.
As a reminder we make boards here.
Body surfing is usually more fun than swimming for many. Shorter boards are similar in that way for me. Less of a third party and more of the wave and me while riding. It’s a personal preference and experience maybe. Thank God.
Why Kelly is into it? I guess we should ask him.
I was under the impression that that’s been the theory for the last 30 years. You’ve seen the videos of Bruce Irons and company riding huge surf on kiteboards, right?
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I was under the impression that that's been the theory for the last 30 years. You've seen the videos of Bruce Irons and company riding huge surf on kiteboards, right?
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Some of us have been saying this for decades and following shapers who create boards like this.. Slater comes along after saying the same thing about waffer thin and narrow elf shoes and all of a sudden it's starts getting looked at seriously when the idea was previously laughed at.
This is the typical surf industry. Laugh at something one day and then attempt to take credit for it later when you think you can make a buck from it.
I like Slater and believe him to be a gifted surfer...but he has zero credibility to me when it comes to surfboards because he is a product of the surf industry. It's also now being attempted to set him up as some board designer without him even being an experienced shaper. Folks like Slater are not who the average surfer needs to look to for their next surfboard design. The kiddies who buy boards because of advertisment and hero worship will be the main target and might pay attention...but folks looking for their next common sense surfboard might do well looking elsewhere. Slater had more than ample opportunity to ride these designs over the years. Ask yourself why now after all these years he is starting to say this stuff? Could be because the underground has already started to notice. The industry is always behind. It's never ahead.
If you want to do more moves shorter and fatter is one way to accomplish it...but it's old theory. Not new theory. Pig, Double ender, Egg, Lazor Zap, nugget, mini Simmons..even fish....look in these lines for the theory.
One this is FOR SURE...it's NOT Kelly Slaters, " shorter is better " theory.
shorter is better mmhhh but for what surfer and what conditions? my everyday board is 5’7 x 19 x 2 5/8 but there are moments that i would like to have more rail, it all depends on…
salu2
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I said this a while ago about Slater…he’s just getting older. He’s not doing anything that all older surfers who want to continue to ride short boards haven’t done already. He’s getting older and he wants more volume in his boards. After realizing he wants more volume he then realized he could have more volume in a shorter board. No more wafer thin chips but a fuller outline with more volume. And even though his boards are a few inches shorter they have more total volume than his past boards. All Slater has is access to a state of the art computer where he can play around with total volume numbers. Ones he found the volume number he felt was right for him he just played around with the computer trying smaller boards with that same volume number. No real shaping skill and no real new insight, just a bi-product of having your hand held by Al Merrick as you sit at his computer.
oh my, that clip in mexico on that tiny little 4’8? 4 fin was utter insanity.the speed he got on that thing was immense.
link for clip for anyone whos interested http://www.surfline.com/video/premium-partner-video/annihilator-series-catching-up-with-bruce_49796.
Todd Morcom gets a couple of massive ones in that vid. Bad craziness on tiny boards/steppin' off.
It’s not what will float you, but what will allow you to catch and ride the wave. If you don’t have to paddle, there’s a huge difference. If you’re surfing in contests it’s very different.
I’d bet that you could cut 2" to 3" off the nose of a short board just cut it straight across and nothing else. That would make your board 2" to 3" shorter, and it would more than likely ride the same. Does that mean a 6’0" becomes a 5’10" or a 5’9"?
If you have to paddle to catch the wave, you’ll need to match what you can paddle on with what the wave will let you do. Too wide and short on a bigger wave and the board gets squirrely, so you need more fin(s). Too short and you may not be able to catch the wave. Too small of a board on small waves and the board just doesn’t want to go.
Then there’s how you want to surf the wave. Are you the type of person that tries to destroy the wave or the type that likes to cruise? You can still do a lot with a board considered big by pro standards. And there’s a lot of guys in Hawaii that can ride a 9’ longboard as radical as others ride a short board in any size surf. The SUP guys are catching up too.
For speed, I think the rocker, bottom contours, and rails have more affect on speed, than going shorter.
What Kelly has is a ton of experience riding waves all over the world. He is very smart, and able to understand how his boards work. I think it’s great that he says the heavy rocker chip board may have taken us down the wrong path.
There’s a lot of guys that have only been shaping and glassing for a short time but have become really good. One thing they have in common is that they are all good surfers that can understand what they feel in the boards when they surf. Slater could easily become a great board designer/shaper with the help of modern tools. If you have access to the top of the line tools including a great shaper like Merrick, why not use them?
Pull your templates 1/2" apart at the nose and tail and you can hit all the same numbers but lose 1-2" in length.
This discussion hasn’t yet got into how to transition from that extra thickness to unchanged rail thickness.
I love shorter boards. I used to surf a lot of pretty typical HPS thruster style shapes, never going much shorter than 6’2", usually 18 5/8" x 2 1/2" and never changing those dims. After being convinced by pridmore I started riding boards under 6’, going wider than 19" and thicker than 2 1/2", and its given me the most fun I have ever had in surfing. Typical foiled and rockered thrusters now just feel slow and boring to me…
My favorite adaptation of the shorter and wider theory is a board around 5’5", give or take a few inches, with different proprotions to a HPS - flatter rocker, wider, thicker, more volume kept in the deck with a flatter deck, quad fins to maintain the hold from losing some rail-line, and rails still quite low. Its a lot more fun in any waves up to about 6ft, being able to fit the board into tighter spaces, low swing weight to really throw it around, but more elements for speed like flat planing area and quad fins. It just has so many more advantages for how I like to surf than a typical HPS. You can even counteract the extra hold of the quad fins by creating more lift in the tail, giving a similar release to thrusters (that a lot of people miss when changing to a quad).
Pridmore has made some absolutely magic boards for me using this principle. The 5’7 quad-fin Kritta with a flat-deck, 5’11" quad-fin Swinger with the Ben Apia style stingers close to the mid-point, 5’3" mini-simmons interpretation. Since making the change and surfing quads most of the time I haven’t surfed a board over 6’0" in Australia yet for the past 2-odd years.
I have to admit, I was only curious of this theory after seeing Kelly Slater ride the Wizard Sleeve, but that was also because all of the surfers I knew were still surfing typical HPS’s as well. I’m guilty of it too, but its a shame that it takes a high profile pro to bring attention to the shorter-wider adaptations of performance boards… I guess surfers can become a lot like sheep in that sense…
Insightful.
My apologies for being a troll, but i want those few minutes back!