I was wondering if you all could help me make a decision? After getting some good advise from some of you all I have been working with a local Oceanside, California shaper and have been getting my shortboard dialed. I am in my mid thirties, 6’2 & just under 200 lbs with no wetsuit. After losing some weight and going through a couple of boards I have arrived at a 6’5-20.5-2.6 80’s style shortboard. It has a pretty wide nose at 13 inches.
My small wave board is a 6’3-20.75-2.75 quad fish twith a pretty full outline (kind of like a hynson twinser?)that I have had before working my shortboard size down. People Online and at the beach who ride similar size shortboards seem to go smaller than I do on their fishes. As I am becoming more compentent on my shortboard do you all think that I could also benifit from droping size on my fish? I really only use it for smaller California beachbreak waves (chest high and below) I know I COULD go shorter, but could I take advantage of a smaller fish in smaller waves?? I would like your opinions. THANKS!
Depending on how much foam is in the fish, you could easily go smaller for California surf. If your pretty competent on a 6’4 you could probably drop to a 6’1 and maybe just full out the template a little more. I’m 6’5 and 190 and I right a 5’8 fine.
You could go down to 6’4 easily… even shorter than that might be better. But I’d go wider and a little thicker (2.75"), and keep the deck flat. I’m almost your size, and I like 21" for the width. Seems to work well for me.
The advantage in small surf is you have a short, skatey board you can turn on a relatively small face, and stuff into the pocket. Too long, and you lose that skate, and the thing starts to feel like a longboard! The flat rocker and straight rail lines stiffen the ride, so the design compensates for that by being short. The width compensates for the reduced planing surface of the short length. The added thickness makes up the volume you need for float. Flex is not a major concern with these boards. They’re supposed to skim across the water, with plenty of fin, and a deep crack to give you the hold and directional control you need. The flat rocker helps facilitate this, and you can add some rail rocker in the tail with heavy vee for turnability and rail-to-rail.
So, you really want to go as short as you dare, without going too wide. You’re an inch taller than me, and a few lbs. heavier, so I’d say you could go to 21.5". I’ve built a number of fish for myself over the years in the 6’0 - 6’4 rage, in different widths up to 23" wide, and if they’re too long, or too wide, they just don’t go like they should.
I surf in Oceanside all the time. If you want to try out a 6ft fish I’ve got one I could let you borrow. It’s a keel fish, which you might not like, but at least you’d get an idea about whether the volume and length would work for you. Hit me up with a PM and we can make it happen.
Gdaddy- Thank you for your offer. I actually tried a 6’0-21-2.75 quad fish this morning. Thing felt super skaty and loose, but it had about as much volume as my shortboard so I was o.k. with the float. I think I may order one with a touch more width and give it a go.