I live in North Carolina, I am 5’7",145 lbs. My surfing ability is,well lets just say I can ride a wave make it all feel good. Problem is my takeoff is to slow.
I have been creating boards trying to solve this problem. I started going bigger, I don’t really care for long boards cause I like to tear a wave apart. So thicker and wider seemed to be the call. I had made some good boards but not what I am looking for,then I arrived at what I call the retro fish. Wow what a board this is I took it out on a small day and this thing could catch em,make turns like never before and get me through sections I could have never made before it. All this in mush. But when I tried it in bigger surf back to late takeoff and over the falls.
A lot of my idea's and dimensions have come from this place,So maybe someone has some good idea for my problem. Roostersurf
Going to need some more information to answer your question…
Bigger waves could be from waist to checst high, which won’t have much difference, or from waist to double-oh, in which your paddle strength and experience come into play too.
Retro fish covers a lot of ground, not just ‘bigger and thicker’ like you described. Sure more volume helps, but a nubby little 5’6" fish isn’t going to get into overhead stuff very early.
Give a little more info, and many of the others here have a ton of info for you.
perhaps you should train your timing. the right board is important but even more important is the surfing, paddling and take off technique. A flat rocker will make it easier. but for me it sounds as if you should really paddle earlier and faster. Probably you should work out your upperbody muscles.
fish measures 5’7",19x22.5x18x2.75thick, 7.5"deep swallow,tips about11.75 twin fin 7.5’ up 4-5 deg. cant single to double concave bottom.
I went out after hurricane Charlie guess it was around 6-10’.
As for upper body strength,I think i’ve got it? I have thought it was my timing,but how would I know cause I can’t seem to get it right. Thanks people.
on re-reading your post… it could well be your timing is a little off. Especially coming into hurricane stuff after lots and lots of summer-dinky-mush waves. And not a helluva lot of transition period.
What happens to me, and it happens every time I spend too much time on small stuff, is that I just am so far off on timing that I eat it every time. My timing is off, and I get mad at the ocean and the board and most especially me. Once opon a time I maybe had the reaction time and reflexes to do small stuff and then switch over to good stuff and make it all happen, but it’s a funny thing, y’know? I can’t do it any more, so if I do the small mush grovel to ‘stay in shape’ then I wind up being useless for the crisp Fall stuff that I really enjoy. Which is why I have pretty well given up on summer surf, period.
Bigger waves, well, the drop is later no matter what you’re doing. Suggestion is to take it out on a medium day, lets call it, a bit over head high and clean. Start doing your drops on it later and later and later until you have some freefall in there. That ought to do something for ya. Change your reflexes around some.
Good post, Doc. I can surely identify with your comments. Geting older and no longer so spry and muscle-toned (holy krapola, 59!), and dealing dealing with the majority of Nor’East Coast waves (mostly mush), all contribute to problems when dealing with better surf venues and larger wave conditions. Dicey late takeoffs are becoming the norm for most of my surfing, particularly when the swell is well up and with our usual quick jacking waves. It sux getting older, but the stoke for waves hasn’t left …
Exactly, man. How I describe it is " Hey, would you buy an expensive suit, book a table at the finest restaurant and get a Benz limo…to hook up with an ugly fat chick? " But that’s summer surfing - grovelling in the moosh. I don’t need to impress a bunch of sunburnt beachgoers, I just need to impress me, and that slop won’t cut it.
Now, when it gets good here, and the rubber comes into play… that’s what I want my skills to be calibrated for. http://fbates.home.comcast.net/cold2.htm and succeeding pages, for instance. It’s fun.
At 59, and I just turned fifty a little while back…well, age and treachery will always defeat youth and skill.
Thanks doc, I have noticed riding mush gets me out of shape for the bigger surf. But since my surf days are much fewer than I would like I take anything I can get.
The feeling of small surf is good,but the feelings from a clean head high day are usually memories that seem to last a life time.
I remember a day I guess in the 80’s at seal beach jetty it was about 8’ enough to take out a portion of the pier. this place is usually smaller and weaker than most spots,but a day that was closing out elsewere we ended there the surf was breaking from the outside jetty a good 100yds of clean fun stuff. These are the days that draw me back for the next excellent session.
For us old guys, paddle impaired and lacking good timing (I’m 55), it never hurts to ride a slightly bigger board, but more important, to have the profile volume shifted aft, and is the WidePoint, with narrower noses, so the board tips DOWN the face as we lower our heads just before picking up the wave.
Low drag fin setups, wide hips but narrow tail blocks also help ease the later than youth takeoffs.
Personally, I don’t like the flat rocker lines of Fish boards for bigger surf, as it just drives straight down, almost catching forward rails on the bottom turn. Give me a board designed for bigger surf, and I’ll keep my small wave boards in…small waves.
well put LeeDD, I guess I should have known something that worked so well in small surf might not work so well in bigger stuff. After all the board was made with intentions of ripping up smaller surf.
So now the question is, What kind of board should I make for for bigger east coast surf? anyone have any great idea’s? I am 5’7",140lbs.would say my ability to surf is intermediate.
Seems a fun semi gun should be close to ideal. Extra paddling and float for the outer sand bars and side moving rips, still wide enough to plane right up in slightly slower moving, shorter period swells, but narrow enough in the tail to handle the increased speed from the drops, and a narrow enough nose to handle the steep drops when the winds are offshore.
Somewhere around a 6’8" x 19.5 with wide point centered, 12.5" nose, 14" tail, lots of V, slight double concave if you like extra squirt, and thickness depending on your weight, need to duckdive bigger surf, and needs for pure float =ing easier paddling.