Anyway I've done alot of searching and can't find any good threads on experienced surfers moving from shortboards to longboards. After 3 decades on shortboards I've decided to move to equipment more appropiate for the small beachbreak I usually ride. Longest board I've ridden is a 6'10" egg which got met hooked on going bigger. This board seems like a tank to me, but have had some really fun sessions. So here's my question everything I see says for a guy my size 6 foot 190ish (full rubber in winter) and 40 years old to go 10 footish and about 3 inches thick on a longboard. I have no desire to noseride other than maybe to goof off. I kind of like the high performance Longboards I see. In fact I have my eye on a Brewer that's 9'2" 22ish and 2 7/8 and nicely foiled with a 2+1 set up. Will I miss something getting a LB this size other than nose riding? Remember I'm coming off boards in the 6'0 range
I've been dabbling with longboards a bit lately. Not so much coming from a shortboard, but I was away from surfing for a longtime. Back then, we didn't call them "shortboards", just surfboards, but my two favorite boards were a 5' 11" twin keel fish and a 6' 7" Gordon and Smith single fin swallowtail. Longboards were "logs", and pretty uncommon, especially in my circles. The fish was new, swallowtails were coming into popularity, a couple guys in Oxnard were working on a three fin bonzer, and the thruster was new.
So, fast forward to now: getting back into surfing, I tried with shorter boards like I used to ride, in the 6' range. Couldn't do it. 7' seems like my minimum for where I'm at right now. But I have a 9' er and a 9' 6", and I'm working on getting the hang of managing all that board.
I don't noseride much, never really appealed to me. I had a 9' Rick Fignutti Rockin' Fig which I loved but had to sell for the money, and I've got a Walden Magic 9' 6". I don't think you're missing anything by going in the 9' range. 9' 6" is pushing the limit of "too much board" for me, 9' feels more comfortable. (5' 7" 185 lbs. 56 yrs. old).
Hmph, my go to board is currently a 9’0" x 22 1/2" x 3" roundpin by Junod. Can hit the lip, do floaters and do a cheater 5 easily. I also take it out on well overhead tubes and sometimes 2xOH. It also rides great on knee high and mushy. For reference I am 33 yrs old, 5’10" and weigh 220 lbs. Have been surfing for over 20 yrs in PR and know how to ride shortboards too. A well designed longboard is like a swiss army knife for surf. I say go for the high performance log and get “Another State of Mind” DVD. All my friends who have tried logs are hooked, even the bodyboarders. By the way, my board’s a single fin.
I started on longboards, rode shortboards for years and then started jumping back and forth between the two (starting with a 7’10", full-template Yater in about 1980).
By 1990 I stopped riding shortboards altogether. I rode 9’0"s for several years but now ride mostly 9’6"s.
“Performance” longboards (9’0"-range, thinner, more rocker, lighter weight, racier outlines, thruster, quad or 2+1) are great in larger, juicier waves but, IMHO, just aren’t as well suited to smaller, mushier, slower beach break waves (which is what you say you want this new board for). They don’t catch waves as early or as easily as a longer board with flatter rocker, more volume and a fuller outline (more planing area) and they also don’t trim as well over mushy back-offs to get you to the inside re-forms.
You pump a performance longboard to generate speed. You trim a more traditional longboard to generate speed.
I also prefer single fins in mushy beachbreak surf because, at least in my experience, they maintain forward momentum better when plowing through soup. Multi-fin longboards with more rocker have a greater tendency to tailslide and/or bog down if you try to ride the front third of the board to trim them through soup.
Occasionally, I take one of my performance longboards to ride mushy beach break. 9 times out of 10, I’m back on my more traditional single fin the next time I surf that same break: it just allows me to milk more fun out of marginal conditions.