7-4 square tail
8’ squash tail quad
8’ winged swallowtail quad
7-4 HWS
To be honest, I’ve been surfing crowds a lot lately, and so have gravitated more to my longboards than my mid lengths, but now that I’m on a campaign to shed some excess weight, I’ve lost 15 lbs., and about ready to break out the midlengths again this summer.
7’-8’ boards have always been my favorite sizes. Fit the waves good feel good and do the job.
Just finished this custom 7’8" for a certain beach break around here for
! me gusta mucho!
rogelio
Does that have some sort of channel or something around the fin, ace? Or is it just the lighting?
At my size I sort of consider my 6’4" (which is about a foot taller than me) a midlength. I have an 8 footer too. They’re fun. Super fast. I like the 6’4" because I can bring it any day and it’ll work, big or small, fast and steep or flat and mushy. I know I’ll have fun it. I just tried the 8 footer with a 3mm suit on for the first time, after all winter in 5mm rubber. All I can say is I won’t have issues with crowds on that thing. Last summer I had this one day where I dominated on the 6’4" because everybody else was on potato chips. Good fun.
I think a criticism of midlengths would be that they’re too short to get the full longboard feel, but too long to ride like a shortboard. So that’s why they might get hate. That would especially come from the shortboard crowd, or people who are younger and don’t need extra foam. Cause when it comes down to it, it’s not a shortboard. It doesn’t surf like one, and if you’re young and in shape it’s just not quick enough.
My logic is I’d rather be surfing than wishing it was good enough to be surfing a shortboard.
I’ve had at least one midlength in the 7-0 size range at my place at all times for the last 15 years, and I’ve used those in lieu of a longboard. The disadvantage with those for me isn’t wave count because with a little crowd avoidance and some skill I can usually get my waves .
I draw the line with midlengths at what I can duckdive in those conditions. Once a board becomes too much to duckdive I might as well go to a longboard.
pages of boards to scroll through, and lots of them midlengths
I clicked on the Mollusk link over on Surfer mag erbb (which you maybe did too) and started scrolling down and thought to myself how lucky I was that I am not walking through their doors anytime soon because my brain would be fried trying to figure out which one to grab.
Love your work Ace.
Mike ordered 3 boards
A 5’6" , a 6’2" and
This 8’ x 22" x 3" All Wave Dominator - heavily modified modern fish
A longer shape that will go and be very exciting in all sizes of surf.
Rocker and Foil
4 and 5 fin set up
Holy smokes, thanks for posting that link to Mollusk Huck!
Those Fowler V8 machines and the Bonzer Eggs have given me some ideas for the 7’6" funboard blank that Stingray gifted me… Might even try to do some color and polish on this one… hmmm
Greg that thing looks killer - lean and mean!
ChrisP - my earlier post in this thread shows my take on the Fowler V - it’s the green board, 7’ 4", similar planshape, standard thruster setup, but mine has way more dome than Fowler’s boards, pinched rails in the nose, with double barrel v in tail.
I just had it out this morning for a couple hours, 3-4 foot waves, so much faster than my longboards, it flies!
so tell me more about this cloth?
Basalt, is it dyed or specially strong???
It looks like flax
Do you have an outline shot of that board Huck?
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8160/7707798980_f9a38ac7d0_b.jpg
sorry I can’t post pics to save my life with this goofy i-phone!
Right on Huck!
My “longboard” is 8 foot. I can kneepaddle it. It catches waves with ease. My “go to” board for waves under waist high, which are common where I am.
Making a mid length now.
Here is the build thread
http://www.swaylocks.com/forums/bigsunnycomfort-too-late-sbc.
7’4" x 22 1/4" x 2 7/8"
Sanmy can you post up some pics and a little description of the rails, bottom, etc, sounds like a great shape!
Outline of my Josh Dowling midlength :). Obviously the early stages, before the secret sauce gets added 
The guy makes nice boards, and that one in particular looks like a keeper. That said, I find most online descriptions are designed as a selling tool, not really for conveying information accurately.
Expressions like “ultimate longboarder’s shortboard, just enough curve in planshape and rocker to make it fit into waves not just upon them, it makes old guys rip, small to medium wave board for older guys who can still do some proper turns”, etc. You know, if its for older guys who can still do a proper turn, then what are longboarders doing, improper turns? Or at a certain age do proper turns become improper? If a guy can’t surf worth beans, will giving him a particular board really make him rip? And so on.
Anyway, it seems to me there are three facets of moving from a shortboard to a longer (i.e. midlength) board: Paddling, Pop-up, and Riding. The first two seem to be the driving impetus for the existence of midlengths, since I believe most intermediate surfers could ride a shorter board just fine, its the paddling around and catching waves and standing up that prevents them from riding a shorter board. I have seen video of guys surfing decent waves on a skimboard, but they were towed in. They could ride the board, but couldn’t paddle it or pop-up on it. If I could tow in to all my waves, I believe I could ride a much shorter board than I need to paddle into a wave and stand up. Compare the boards the tow-in guys are using for big waves vs the boards that paddle-in guys are using for big waves.
So to my mind, the midlength is striving to give increased paddle power (here, I suspect the aging surfer’s increased weight and decreased strength / stamina are the motivating factors), and a more stable pop-up platform (the need for this is probably related to issues of balance / reflexes / limberness that are a direct result of the aging process), while retaining some of the speed and maneuverability of a shorter board. I think a smaller board’s speed results from having less drag due to decreased surface area in contact with the wave, and greater maneuverability due to the increased leverage (proportionally) of the surfer, and the smaller amount of mass / surface to actually maneuver.
Paddle power comes from greater planing surface, increased buoyancy, and minimized rocker. Stability for the pop-up comes from a wider, longer plan shape, more volume, often a wider tail (which I think also aids in catching the wave as a wider tail seems to rise with the wave giving a little more downhill impetus to the takeoff). The “secret sauce” to a good midlength, then, would be to balance maneuverability and late take-off recovery against increased paddle-ability and pop-up stability.
Regardless of what others say, my experience has been that a midlength board still has to be “walked”, I just don’t think you can get the maximum performance / maneuverability from one “sweet spot”. Moving the fins forward may lessen the need for walking, it seems from the commentary that is what they are striving for. Admittedly, if you look at that initial video that was posted, the surfer doesn’t seem to be walking his egg, but if you watch closely, he is shifting his weight by moving his back foot. And some waves he is clearly farther forward on the board than he is on others. DEVON HOWARD SURFING A 7'2" EGG on Vimeo
Anyway, these are just some thoughts off the top of my head (as an aging guy who can’t ride as small of a board as I once did). Be interested to hear what anyone else thinks.
