howdy huck,
we’re about the same size & surf the same conditions, i’m not sure if you’ve tried using a gun for the surf conditions you prefer but it works like magic for me. here’s the template attempting to replicate the dimensions of that rental board that got (sold) away hehe IMO it’ll float ya too :
just disregard the board slices & the 3-fin setup at the lower half of the page & customize for your preferred bottom setup. as you know i went bonzer hehe
cheers,
Check these out Huck, Some great shapes and interesting reading!
http://www.harboursurfboards.com/surfboards.asp
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well - there's always the good old 8 foot egg. An under-rated shape in my opinion. You don't HAVE to ride a longboard...
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This is 7'10'' x 22 x 3. Plenty of foam. Im 175lbs, 5'9''. Nose and tail are just over 15, with the tail being a little wider than the nose. I can surf knee high windswell on this, and i've also had it out in little bit overhead. Great all rounder. The best thing about it is how versatile it is, especially when you change fins. 7.5" flexy centre plus gl side bites, great for fat waves, and trims great from up near the logo. With a thruster setup, holy jesus, you can do some deceptively sharp turns off the bottom and top, and throw it around. Feels much shorter than 7'10'' when i surf it as a thruster.
Cheers.
For me, a longboard only needs to be 8', though i surf beach breaks, and have a toyota corolla hahaha. Foam is your friend.
i am 28 and 175 so ?
tried a ten footer at sano last summer, it paddled so good and had a unique glide to it. it was thick and floaty but it turned very easy and could be turned from the middle of the board . if you are in san clemente ever you should stop in and fondle one .
I like the Infinity shapes. They understand the older surfer. I have several. A 9’6x23.5x3.75 and a 9x24x3.875. I love them both. I mostly use the shorter one travel. I made a board last summer with a marko blank pretty much as is. It does not have enough nose kick so it tends to pearl. It works well though on broken white-water.
Hey Huck,
Rich Blundell sells cheap templates for HWS, here’s the link for his templates: //www.treetosea.org/pg/expages/read/Terms
and here’s a link for his 8’0" being built, start to finish : http://web.me.com/gallaghersurfboards/Gallagher_Surfboards/6_Fulkersons_Malibu.html
good luck
dave
Here is my first longboard. 9'4" 23 wide point, 16 tail, 18 nose. I shaped it out of 2lbs EPS in my front yard. Its currently getting glassed. I set it up as a quad fin, with a single 10" box also just in case I wanna ride it as a single fin.
hey huck - you still not sussed this one yet..? My first HWS was that Rich Blundell 8' funshape (I stretched it an extra 2" with the nose block) - a very steady feeling board and weighed in at 10kg. I like it a lot but at Christmas bought a 7'6 eggy mally shape (a bilbo torpedo, google it you'll see the shape - I love it) - my wave count rose dramatically, therefore my confidence too. The issue now is fitness...
I like the mal but use the bilbo more, and suspect I'd have better success on the mal if it was a bit thicker. I love my parallel profile pintail the most but its too tail narrow for me at the moment, and the volume is perfect. i'm kind of in a similar place to you trying to find the perfect board but am sticking to eggy fat shapes, maybe even a mccoy nugget shape in 7'8" to 8'. To be honest, I love the building of boards but my surfing will only improve by putting the hours in on one board and getting fit - that has to be my priority, and keep tinkering in the workshop as and when time allows. If i were you I'd try to find a battered old thing 7'6" upwards, no bigger than 9' and use that to get up to scratch, or try to make something as cheaply as possible (say XPS floor foam) - the foam we get in the UK is 2500mm long, so i'd keep it that size.
Good luck with your quest, Grasshopper!
thanks Blue - good insights there. I actually had forgotten about this thread, but some nice folks out there brought it back for me! I've pretty well decided to go for an 8'7" squash tail shape, 23" x 3", continuous rocker, like the sketch shows. I'm finishing up my 7' egg because I started it, then I hope to go to the longboard. 8'7" is pushing it as far as how much room I have to work with. But that's 3' over my height. Meanwhile I've offered to trade my 6'10" retro-fish for a longboard, but no takers. I would ride a longer board (than 8'7"), but just don't have room to build one.
Part of my problem is that I surf spots that tend to be very crowded. You sit down a bit from the pack and try to pick up some leftovers - and maybe once an hour you get something. I used to paddle to the top and take off at the peak when I was younger and quicker and the lineup was less crowded. And I surfed every day. Now, coming back to it, I get out once or twice a month, and it makes it hard to see any progress, so it gets really frustrating! I know people tell me - surf the uncrowded beach breaks, avoid the crowded point breaks. Sounds so easy. But the beach breaks where I surf are just junky closeouts. If they're any good at all, they're just as crowded as the point breaks.
When I tried my friend's "funboard" longboard, I caught waves and stood up easily. But it went downhill from there - the board just did not turn and respond like I'm used to (I used to ride a 5'11", turned on a dime). So I've avoided longboards, but truth is, I just never learned how to surf them. I've always enjoyed riding fishes. But age, ah yes, age, it does catch up with us. How did 23 years fly by without any surfing?
I may have a job coming up by the beach, if so, I hope to get out a bit more, at least for a couple of weeks.
