So this is something that’s been on my mind a lot recently, and the commentators for the Quik pro kind of solidified my need to ask about it. Everyone was talking about how small Kelly’s board is, because its a 5’9… but he is only 5’9. So that’s like Joel riding a 6’0. has anybody else noticed this? It seems kind of weird, because if Kelly was riding a 6’0 it would be like Jordy riding a 6’5 or something. It just seems weird that they wouldn’t at least acknowledge his height the ten times they talked about how short his board was.
I know its not a big deal. But I think that Kelly’s impact on design and consumer’s board choices is pretty significant, and a lot of kids only have one board.
length of board is dependant in my opinion on rider center of gravity and preference. im 6’5 i can ride 5’2" boards and smaller if i want. where the volume is distributed in that board makes more of the difference. Height and length of board are a huge mis conception of surfboard to me. But hey… thats just me.
Yeah i noticed they talk alot about his boards being shorter etc bla bla bla , i guess that why they are commentators? But you picked up on a good point , I have noticed jordy is normally on 6’0plus boards as hes a bigger guy etc. I think the reason kellys boards are a little shorter also is he seems to have a little more nose area on most of them so its easier to paddle a shorter board with volume forward…
Yeah, with that Nose volume and low entry rocker, it’s more like a 5’11 with the end chopped off. I just think that with the amount of coverage that board got, they should have mentioned he’s riding a board at his height like everyone else.
@tall, I definitely agree that you can ride an extremely short board if the volume is still there (a la mini sims) but that’s not what most pros ride in comps. I just think its kind of misinformation, and a bunch of teenage kids are gonna buy rocker chips way too short because of it.
Still the commentators are doing better at keeping up than the judges (not giving extra points for no-grab airs, not deducting for double safety grabs, etc)
Oh I agree. I’m not saying they should ignore it. I’ve always thought that part of each surfers info should be whose board they’re riding and the dims. I love it when they grab a particular board and give some info on it. I just don’t like them saying Kelly’s on this tiny board when it’s completely average for his height in those conditions.
Speaking of average, taj on a regular poly board looked fantastic. I don’t know if the mayhems were really good or if he just looks smoother on poly, but it was obviously a good call.