I am wondering about design features which facilitate a quick first pump and the ability to generate speed as quickly off the take off as possible.
My question is specifically directed at shortboard design.
I’ve seen folks make remarks critiquing other shapes such as… “that looks like it will take a few pumps to get up to speed, etc.”
I primarily surf small, sectiony, fast breaking waves. Accordingly, early entry and instantaneous speed are super critical to making the most out of the conditions. If a board needs two pumps to get up to speed then, well, the wave is over.
My experience as a surfer in such conditions suggests the following:
1. additional width in the tail area
2. less overall rocker... I've noticed that as a my tail rockers decrease down to 2'' or so things starting working a bit better.
If anyone can provide their experience and theories on this subject, I’d be very interested… particulary, thoughts with more detail and backing than the above generalizations.
I’ve always thought lower entry rocker was the key to early speed on mushier waves. i don’t think it really helps with a quick pump, but I’ve noticed that boards with lowered rocker up front feel like they get up to speed right as you get to your feet.
Your design ideas are a pretty good start but it’s more surfer ability than design, good surfers can surf well on just about anything, crappy surfers like me just suck in beachbreak.
I agree with Bernie that you need to define the whole package, not just a few design features. I’d encourage you to look at the Horan / Nugget shapes Solosurfer has. They work great for him in Florida, and a lot of other places besides.
They also have many of the same specs that have already been mentioned here - low tail rocker, wide tail, hard tail rails, flat bottom (basically), pulled nose up from center to project & not catch… I find that mine can be front-foot surfed on the inside rail & jam down the line like a fish, or I can weight the back foot and it rollercoasters sort of less like a fish. No hesitation where you’re stabilizing in the middle of a turn like you have to feel for with twin keels. Easy to stay balanced over the middle, no matter where you are on the wave. Its never needed a single pump for me…
Tom: I’m going to implement your suggestion next go out with some big fiberglass halcyon sides and the smallest trailer I can find.
My current board feels like it hesitates for a critical instant in super small waves and I often miss my opportunity. In day to day southern NC waves there is zero margin for error (in a completely non-heavy way). Every fraction of a second counts.
Current board is firewire construction. 6’4 by 19.5’‘. Tail is 14.5’‘. Tail rocker is 2 3/8’’ and nose is about 4.5’'. Rails are standard procedure soft blending to hard in tail section. I’m thinking I might have a bit much tail rocker for super crap surf.
To provide some perspective for you west coast/HI/Oz guys, there was a video of slater surfing a twin fin at small malibu posted awhile back. Every one was stoked on how he was milking such small mushy conditions. To me those were GOOD waves. In fact, if the waves were like that out back right now I’d have a cow and take the day off. I’m talking knee to thigh at best, sectiony, choppy.
I’d also like to hear input on riding technique in such waves. I’ve been told that I have a fairly narrow stance and suspect I trim off the front foot. In small waves, my back foot is hardly ever on the tail pad.
It has been suggested to me that perhaps I should try widening the stance a bit to ‘plane’ the board better in the grovel. It feels akward though.
When the surf gets in the waist high range and better… no problems with this board… things feel great. It’s the lower threshold that troubles me. This stuff CAN be ripped. I’ve seen it done. hehe.
I’d like to give one of those a go for sure. One thing I suppose I should emphasize… I don’t mind pumping up some speed. I feel like it can be done in a smooth and aesthetically pleasing way. I actually enjoy the challenge of trying to do something with small waves. It’s rather like putting together a puzzle. In fact, if I link up a good ride on a crap wave and really feel like I pulled all the energy out of it, it gives me almost as much stoke as riding good waves (sort of).
here is an illustration of the conditions of which I speak (notice it’s not necessarily mushy)–the smaller waves shown here of course as there is some decent waist high in some of the heats…
Halcyon has all kinds of templates size wise. Many of them are high aspect ratio. I’d be looking for max inside surface area on those side fins. And, yes it’s a delicate balance of trim and thrust. So, technique is hugely important. Don’t overly bury the tail cause you’ll just stall. But, a twichy pivot swing does get you much either. So, just project off that side fin with a moderate amount of rail into the closest power pocket you can find. Making sure you take off in the right spot is huge as well.
I would consider moving. I am not being funny. I checked out your website and you are seriously into surfing. You only live once and the world is full of great waves. You can try all kinds of mental games to make that stuff fun, like seeing how far you can get down the line, or throwing the tail out and over a tiny lip, or spend your time building boards and thinking about surfing. You can even call it “practice” for when the waves get good. I do this all the time. But nothing is going to compare to surfing quality waves.
I spent a lot of time in northern california battling big heavy dark beach breaks trying to do turns and tricks. Then it dawned on me that sunny days and point breaks and reefs are a lot easier to surf well. If the waves are of a certain quality you can get were you need to go. So, I moved.
As for, getting better in the type of conditions illustrated in the video you posted, skateboarding is hands down the best way to get lightfooted like that. If you can olley curbs, at will, going full speed then you can leverage a short board like that. It’s the same twitch. Then add a serious fitness program. You want to be small and light like a jockey. If scabs and dieting aren’t appealing, the sane choice would be to ride boards that glide in those waves.
No amount of technology or tuning is going to make a shitty day shine…
Hunt down good waves, get them in your sites, and take them down.
Yeah, Bernie, I’m with you on the design. Mine’s maybe just a little gunnier than yours was, at 7’1" and a hair under 22" wide. Backside, I really need to keep it close to the pocket, but frontside, if I keep my back foot right over the front edge of the fin and most of my front foot all the way on the wave side of the stringer, it’ll blast down the line like its on rails. Since I spend most of my time on noseriders, I get used to moving my feet around a lot too.
I think what all 3 of us have in common is gutless waves. Although I usually surf a cobble reef, its inside a mile-long natural reef that blocks a lot of direct energy & depends on wraparound, or high tide mush making it over the top. It can definitely be a struggle to get good rides out of waves with a tiny little power pocket. But the good news is that when you find the right combination of style & equipment so you can tap that power, every ‘better’ wave everywhere else seems so easy to ride. My wave starts out so gutless, you’re basically going left on a right So you fade, fade, fade, but then you have to find the spot to turn to slingshot past a section that’s unmakeable unless you’re coming out of a turn. Starting deeper & heading straight for it doesn’t work on any board - the mush just doesn’t produce enough speed (whoops, sorry, I forgot its all about gravity or something : ) to make the section, but a bottom turn at the right moment will. I’m not a precise enough fish rider or smooth enough thruster rider to nail it, but a longboard with a big pivot fin always works just right for me - as does the Nugget.
I definitely dig what you’re saying. It’s the similar here in SD, just not as heavy as the islands. If someone looks like they might not make the most of a wave, someone else is going to drop in. No use in watching a wave pass by barely ridden.
TheBoys, it’s an interesting question I think. There seem to be two approaches.
I know people who ride tiny thrusters in small surf and flail all over the wave. Sometimes it actually looks pretty fun–and often it is amazing the speed they can generate out of nothing. The pump is like a carve on a skateboard that generates speed and you’ll want a long stiff rail fin to make the most of it. Like a tiny turn.
On the other hand, if you minimize drag–flat bottom, totally flattened rocker, wide fin cluster–and paddle a thicker board, you can get up to speed quick without much pump. Try to find the sweet spot in the wave, where it’s energy is focused. Only turn big if you see energy in the wave’s arch, if that makes any sense. This is how I prefer to surf but I respect guys who ride tiny boards well in tiny waves. More of the same, but I hope all together it helps.
Good thoughts all around guys. I wish I could move. hehe. I’m a bit locked in at present.
Bernie: I can really identify with those waves in your clip. That would be a mediocre windswell type situation for us, but we’d be on it for sure. hehe.
I’ve got lotsa boards for the small stuff. I’ve got a sweet 7’0’’ single fin which surfs smooth and good in just about anything the East Coast serves up. I’ve got a canard quad 6’0’‘. I’ve got a 5’7’’ keel fish. I’ve got a 12’’ munoz. I’m stoked with how my fish ride in small waves. I can generate lotsa speed and have a good time… the type of early speed I’m talking about… esp with the 5’7’'.
However…
When I ride my ‘cheater’ boards I develop some bad habits. When I have a shortboard as my primary vehicle and can really make it go in small waves, then my other boards are gravy. I rotate them in and feel like I’ve got super powers on those days.
Jeez. I’m making this like golf clubs or something. I know, I know… it’s the not the plane, it’s the pilot. Still, we’re all looking for an edge aren’t we?–esp. here at sways.
I’d love to find ‘the one’ and clean out this gear head quiver I’m accumulating (maybe).
I was out the other day with a friend from this area. I was on my fish and sort of struggling. The surf was really barely rideable. My buddy was on a smallish thruster which he had made for soft conditions in Japan. He was owning it… flying… throwing bathtubs of water. Now granted, this guy is gifted (really gifted)… but surfing with guys like that shows you the possibilities.
I also watch a guy like Dan Malloy, who surfs exactly how I want to surf, and I see him ripping alternative designs but also surfing great on the shortboard–even in marginal waves. That’s what I want to do.
Alot of damm good mush wave surfing advice here.I spent my final year at high school landlocked in Rockhampton about 40 k’s (20 miles) from central queensland coast. The beaches there have some of the shittiest windswell available (great barrier reef blocks all swell). We surfed there as a sanity saver but planned every day to get the hell out as soon as we graduated. My wife comes from a town on the English Channel (Bournemouth) so I have had some recent experience surfing hideous, cold, polluted windswell.
Based on those experiences I reckon technique and fitness are probably the lions share of successful crap wave surfing on a shortboard. You need impeccable positioning, a very good explosive paddle and popup and the first turn needs to use technique and explosive leg strength to get you moving. You need fast twitch strength to pump but awareness and light-footedness to not overpower the front rail (being under 25 helps alot).
Mick Fanning uses a program called CHEK (corrective holistic exercise kinesiology)…check out their website and another one called jamcore training (i think) and get ready to sweat. You need to be as fit as a boxer to pull that shit off.
Cross-training is essential (Curren ran up sandunes, Cheyne did yoga etc etc), skateboarding is the key if you want to work on your technique…you need to be light, fast and flexible and have very good speed generation technique or as other posters have noted go long or get the hell out of there.
I agree with the other posters about board designs for mush. The best mush wave shortboard I had was a McCoy thumbtail (just prior to the nugget era) 6’3" by 19’1/2 by 2 5/8 with generous tail width (actually quite similar in outline to the board in the “looks so wrong surfs so right thread”). Maybe there’s something in that. Good luck, let us know how you get on.
I’m almost 30. 6’0’’ x 180lbs. I ‘surf’ several days a week. I lift weights and do yoga regularly. I skate bowls as much as I can… just pumping and carving though. I can ride the sort of waves we’re talking about. Some days are better than others. Usually, I’ll have a few good rides interspersed among alot of frustrating ones.
I’m a little fixated on maximizing my equipment (perhaps too fixated). I’ve had the feeling of ‘magic’ under my feet before with a shortboard and not so long ago that I’m just getting old (I hope!).
No hesitation where you’re stabilizing in the middle of a turn like you have to feel for with twin keels. Easy to stay balanced over the middle, no matter where you are on the wave. Its never needed a single pump for me…