the longboard hulls pg and spence make are really a meld of yater like spoons and nat’s “sam” board.they are not designed as “tip” riders(full hang ten,etc. but in right surf can be), but are indeed “nose” riders in that you can stay up on the sweet spot of the nose area and trim/turn from there still maintaining speed and flow.rockers are low (compared to most longboards) the best one i have surfed is kp’s 9’4" “son of sam” honkin’ surf in ‘97 and the thing just burned it down…works equally as well in 2’ surf.it’s i keep trying to get it from him but he won’t budge…
where are the pics of your 9’6" i’m thinking it might be a template of a 9 footer pg made me years ago…one i surfed the shit out of until it got a big delam. i gave it to a kid who was learning to surf - he had a beat up walden thing and was wanting to fix it up.my pg was in better shape so i gave it to him. last i heard he was fully stoked on how it rode and got him totally stoked on surfing.said he like how it surfed/felt better than the other board he had…
Can you post the basic dimensions of your 9’6". It looks like an interesting board. I’ve never seen a 9’6" quite like that. What kind of fin are you using and how far up is it? I would guess a 9.75" Greenough 4A.
Well they sure ain’t trendy in the South Bay yet and most likely never will be. They are a very rare sight down here. Almost everyone I run into has never even heard of them.
The only people I know that have hulls down here are Paul Diamond and Richard Safady and they both have been surfing them for over 20 years (Paul has been riding Liddles since 1970). And they both live within a mile from me by coincidence.
I know one guy that ordered a Liddle, tried it a few times and didn’t like it (sold the board to Saf). I’ve been riding that board recently and its a lot of fun.
Btw, I also have a “pre-owned by Matt” board. Matt sure has owned a lot of boards!
how many people do you know who ride hulls? (i’m asking everyone) i’m in Central America – i know of no one outside of myself who has a clue as to what a hull is… much less owns one. I see fish all the time here - visitors, locals. now that’s a trendy board… and even tho this post has over 1000 replies now, it’s like pretty much the same 10-15 guys doing all the posting.
not because they didn’t work but i’d get a board, ride it, then want to chenge a little something here or there and in order to do so many times i’d have to sell the old one to finance the new one. truth be told, i’d like to have evry board i ever had still. it would be a collection of hulls numbering around 70-80…i still have plenty remaining though.
That’s a serious addiction there Matt. Spence is making me the 7th hull I’ve owned right now. But I’m totally in control. I can stop any time. This will be my last one…
7’2" stringerless roundtail
18.5" x 22.25" x 15.25"
3.875" NR
1" TR
Just sold a bonzer and a single fin gun to finance this.
yes trendy, I got my first hull in 99 and never saw more than one other guy with one. now every time I go out to rincon I see 5 or 6 guys on the hull they just got. I get guys in the shop every day asking about hulls , before the surfers journal article, dan malloy riding on them, never. I think this post started around that time . so yes trendy.
in that context yes - trendy - since the TSJ there’s been more interest. however to most “surfers”, hulls are not sexy enough. Doesn’t rincon get 50-60+ people surfing on any given day? ( i could swear i’ve seen pics of more) but look at the real numbers, of the umpteen million surfers in CA, what % even know what a hull is? Then ask, what percentage know what a fish is? or Bonzers? or Quads now? Plus there have been so many people who’ve expressed frustation with them.
we here on sways – and this thread in particular, people tend to be more open minded about surfcraft. i’ll wager 99.99% of ‘surfers’ in the world want lip-launch sleds – so hulls don’t appeal to probably the corresponding amount of peeps.
i’ll bet that perhaps up to 90% of the peeps posting on this thread also ride … surfmats. Again, i’ve been riding mats for a couple years - and expect for this one guys i turned on to them … i’m still the only one here. Similar increase in interest in mats a little while back, as there is in hulls now.
in the end – trendy or not — me likee, and they interesting boards … lets talk again in 10 yrs and see how many of us are still riding them… i’ll wager i still will be.
Trendy perhaps, but still a very small group in comparison to the the trendy CI, potato chip, tri-fins. I surf the point on nearly a daily basis, (conditions allowing) and have never seen more than one or possibly two other hulls out there at a given time. Potato chip tri however, dozens everywhere you look. Longboards, popouts, they all have a greater following than hulls ever will.
The thing is, most people don’t understand them or know what they are. A while back, someone here (Lee V?) told a story about a guy saying to him, “Nice funboard!” and his response “yeah, it is a fun board.”
I would seriously doubt that they’re ever in danger of becoming too trendy. It takes too much time and effort to learn how to ride them. The donkeys don’t want em cause the pros don’t ride em and that’s a huge factor of persuasion these days.
Anyway, rode mine this morning and had a great time. Wouldn’t give it up or trade it in for anything.
I guess some people do it because they saw someone else who is “cool” do it and they think that’s “cool”. That’s how I understand “trendy”. They are just following the latest fashion.
However, if the fashion changes and they don’t genuinely enjoy the feeling (regardless of what others think), they will give it up for the next “trend”. I hope that is not how people here feel. It is getting more popular with increased media coverage (magazines, videos, internet) and some people will do it because it’s trendy but some will discover they really enjoy that kind of surfing.
During the 70’s nobody rode or made longboards because they were out of fashion. It wasn’t cool. Now they are very popular. But doesn’t mean that we who ride longboards are trendy. It is simply fun.
I remember I started skateboarding when I was 12 because I thought it was “cool” and a lot of the people that I looked up to were doing it. But the more I did it, the better I got and the more I enjoyed it. Now I still love to skate and I’m 39. Almost everyone I know who I skated with back in the 80’s gave it up.
It’s hard to judge someone’s motivation for doing something that’s new to them. There will be a lot of “trendies” in any scene but just because someone is trying something new, doesn’t mean their motivation is to keep up with the latest style or trend. Media exposure will give people reason to try things they never thought of by themselves. Trends will die out.
Without trying to mimick the previous responses, I’m not too worried about the current hull explosion either. Frankly I’m really stoked to see this handful of master crafstmen getting the recognition that’s due to them (and hopefully an added bit of cash flow). The boards themselves will do an adequate job filtering out the genuine hull weirdos from the klingons. I get excited just thinking about all the craigslist deals that will inevitably arise once Mr. Coolhaircut realizes that a Liddle gives you no cool points unless you can ride it properly. I better start making room in the garage…
I’m curious to see how the Displacement film will affect hull mania. Will it spike even further interest or has the fascination factor plateaued? I’m kinda hoping that the film is so avant-garde, esoteric, and offputting that it completely alienates even the most curious boardphiles, thus eliminating any buyer competition when the quickly-disillusioned hull newbies unload their impluse purchases en masse.
there was a time during the 70’s when there would be a shit load of hulls out at the 'bu and 'con-glad those numbers have dropped…the last thing we expected from article was the sudden spike in interest. i’m sure, once again, the numbers will fade as before and the true hullers will be standing as before-strong but small in numbers, united by that oh-so bitchin flex fin and rail turn! i don’t know about dan, but i lent chris one of my 7’2" arc tailed stubbies on a trip he took to maldives back in '97.he was stoked on it and since then has tinkered with them off and on…
