Hi everyone, A good friend of mine surprised me with a gift board that he shaped for me. Which was an amazing surprise and I love it!
It is 6’10”, 15” nose 21.25”, 15” tail, 3” round pin
Simplified it is a single concave nose to tail, there are subtle dual concaves through the fins.
It flies high in the water but still holds a bottom turn, it’s very stable but responsive once I’m up and going. The thing is that I’m having trouble with getting down the face. When I m taking off it paddles fine but as soon as I go to pop up it feels like it gets stuck in the lip. It almost feels like it suction cups to the lip. I’m no spring chicken (49, 6’1” 225lbs plus 5/4 rubber) and my pop up is creaky and slow but this feels like there’s something more than my lack of fitness at play. The best wave I had yesterday was a solid overhead A frame (south Van Isle reef). Stuck in the lip, I finally got it to go and took a barely connected foam elevator into a pure instinct bottom turn which the board did beautifully. It also did great on the wall and on the fading shoulder. It’s just the thing on the take off. Most of my other waves I would go over the falls or if I try to shoulder hop it just won’t go down the face.
In smaller surf I can sort of lunge it over and in but it doesn’t feel natural.
Does anyone have an Idea if this could be an issue with the board, it has more concave in the entry than I’m used to. My other boards this length have vee but they are way more gunny and smaller in every way but length. To be fair I’m not really in shape to ride them anymore. I’ll try to post a picture of the board. Any opinions would be appreciated. Thanks!
I’ll take a guess, but I’m no expert. To me it sounds very much like what I experienced when I started building & riding boards with more volume (i.e. more foam).
The boards paddled well & could catch waves, but the extra volume made the board want to ride up the face instead of dropping down into it. You can see this with SUPs sometimes, how they struggle to get down the face at takeoff. Not like smaller shortboards that drop in with a few strokes if they’re in the right spot.
If thats the case then its a matter of just getting used to it, being aware, and compensating with some extra vigorous paddle strokes after you feel the wave picking up the board. Also I find it helpful to shift my weight a little forward toward the nose at takeoff as I’m trying to push down into the wave.
Might be something completely different, like I say its just a guess, but look and see if the board has more volume than what you’ve been riding.
Just some wild ass speculation.
Maybe move your weight distribution forward for takeoffs.
Thanks Huck,
That tracks with my suspicions also. It’s definitely a lot more volume than my other short boards.
Thanks Stoneburner,
I’ve been frothing since I got home yesterday to go again and try some different weight distribution. I am paddling fairly far forward, not sure if I can go much further without really bad padding trim. The board does have a lot of volume up there though, a half inch could make the difference I suppose.
SchoonerB,
I push take-off paddling position forward to just short of pearling.
(I found it especially useful for late, near free-fall take-offs with a quick pop-up.)
The trick is not shifting weight distribution backward too much when standing/popping up…
Try marking chin position on the deck with duct tape until you find the take-off sweet spot — different color duct tape for each new chin position.
StoneB
Thanks, I’ll be giving that a go.
I also am planning to stay on top of those low impact prone to standing exercises you suggested in another thread. I find doing pop ups in my living room a little jarring.
I’m sure as I restore hip mobility a bit it will help with the takeoffs.
Lot of volume, lot of concave front, thick tail and probably not enough tail lift and you do the cork on top of hollow waves. I bet it go right on mellow waves.
You need a specific board for step waves or with this one try to start before, fast standup with some angle like longborders in hollow waves.
Thanks Lemat,
‘The cork” is a good way to describe the situation. I look forward to trying it at some of our central Island breaks (beach breaks around Tofino ) I suspect the board will be at home there. I’m also not ruling out my slowness. When you say tail lift are you referring to more rocker in the tail? Or that the concave holds the board on the water more as opposed to some vee out the fins providing lift/release?
Yes more tail lift=more tail rocker.
What i understand of concaves is that at low speed they slow down board, pushing more water so feel like board stick then at higher speed they lift board up giving free flying feeling. Can be some times a real plus but also some times a bad feeling . More i go more i add volume and reduce rocker more i use concaves with subtility reducing their size and depth.
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Concave in the nose is the problem. At 6’10 the concave looks like it is too far forward. It looks like it is forward of your front foot standing. If so, that’s a problem. You can make it work by adjusting your surfing, but you shouldn’t have to do that.
SchoonerB,
“One does what one must in this imperfect world.”
Gotta learn to fly what you’ve got.
Ultra-Lights fly different than F-22 Raptors — both can be successfully piloted.
Learn the nuances and you should get plenty fun surfing in…
Thanks Ossi,
That also tracks with my initial suspicions. I suspect the deep concave just doesn’t provide any low speed lift combined with an extra floaty tail the board wants to ride up and over the wave like a lifeboat. At any rate it’s a challenge and it keeps my motivation up just to see how I can tweak my form to make it work because as stated it goes pretty good once I’m up.
I fully agree Stoneburner,
I was notorious for breaking all my boards when I was younger (sometimes my friends boards too😬) never really being able to afford to buy new ones I rode a lot of whatever I could get my hands on. One winter I shaped an Alia and limited myself to only ride that all winter in beach break! A lot of swimming that winter not a lot of stand up riding. But I learned about that Alia and about swimming in after it.
I had Stewart shape me a knee board with lots of concave under the nose and takeoffs were challenging at times but I could cover lots of area paddling but depending on the size of the wave and your positioning you can practically stand on the nose without fear of pearling .
A technique I developed at Brooks St was to push off on the nose of the board its self . Of course I used bodysurfing fins but because the board was in the 5’8” range and a really wide 23” quad the fins were mostly used to supplement paddling back out to the lineup.
The concave nose was developed for longboard nose riding and gives a lot of stability with the air pocket under the front of the board.
I desired it because of outside breaks like second reef would press you down in a foam ball before you could pop up … and in those cases and really steep ledges it could take a beating an move really fast when I needed to. I was also helpful at places like San O or Cottons for long paddles.
Thanks Luck,
My friend who shaped it also said that he shifts his weight way forward on his for takeoffs. His board is 5’8” I think, mine is definitely the biggest version of it he has made. At over a foot longer the tail really feels like it’s bobbing when I get my weight way forward. But that’s what I will try next session, these days I m lucky if I can get out twice a month. So I’ll have to wait to see.
Tail rocker. If there’s not enough it projects the board rather than lets it down the face. Just put a builders level along the stringer and see how the last 18-12 inches compares with a board that you like.
All that’s been said before but maybe take a look at the angle of the side fins towards the nose. A bit too much can translate into slowing the board when going straight whereas it works better when it’s on the rail with the outside fin out.
Good point surffoils,
It has a little less tail rocker than my 7’2” x 18.5 pintail. But not a lot less than my 6’4” hpsb.
Thanks Balsa,
That’s another thing I was curious about.
The outside fins basically point at the nose which doesn’t seem extreme on a 6’10”
But I’m no expert.
The Center fin is actually slightly crooked though. It seems an insignificant amount but who knows?