Rethinking Board Length

Saturday night we had some solid surf here (accompanied by 20*F temps and hard offshores). I went up to shoot some pics of my son and daughter surfing. There was a guy out there in his 60s getting some good rides in the overhead and hollow conditions. Got a few shots of him. He was getting in easily and surfing well on the board he was riding. When he came in I got a look at what he was riding. It was a Dick Brewer 90s style semi-gun shape. Looked to be about 7’6"-8’0. Rockered out, narrow and thin. Been a long long time since I’ve seen someone riding a board like this. Seeing how easily he was getting into waves has me really rethinking my approach to my personal boards for bigger days. I’ve been taking off under the lip and quite frankly as I’m getting older and struggling with injuries its been getting harder and harder. Going wider and thicker with my personal boards has been counterproductive when the waves are hollow. It may be time to revisit some of those 90s semi-gun shapes.

Image may contain: ocean, water, outdoor and nature

Image may contain: one or more people, ocean, water, sky, outdoor and nature

Image may contain: one or more people, ocean, water, outdoor and nature

Image may contain: ocean, water, outdoor and nature

or a less gunny shape like a 2+1 mid length egg with a pinny tail.

speaking of which, anyone in Indo shaping something like this? modern and performance with the right rails?

Over a good many years, my board lengths moved around quite a bit. Longest was 10’ 7’‘, and shortest was 6’ 3’‘. Where I settled in was 7’ 10’‘. My first short board, 7’ 11’’ x 20’‘, was in 1959. As I’ve aged I’ve gone longer, but have still returned to 7 foot 10 inches. That’s my current board length. A little wider now, and an outline a little more small wave friendly. For me, it’s the best of all worlds. In my youth, 30 yrs old to 50 yrs old, I could ride LJ Shores @ 3 feet, take a plane to Hawaii the next day and ride 15 foot Sunset on the same 7’ 10’’ x 21.5’’ surfboard. That’s what I call a versatile surfboard. A one board quiver, if you will.

I’ll be 60 this year, and I’m not in the best shape, but I’m OK. I still surf as much as I want, but not everyday.
I think the board length needs to fit the kind of wave you ride. My philosophy for board choice was to go shorter as the waves get better and bigger, as short as possible. But as I get older, I don’t have the paddling power the younger kids have, so jocking around trying to stay in the right spot for a good wave was getting to be a pain in the ass. I rode mid length boards between 7’ and 8’ for the last 12 to 15 years.
Going longer on bigger days doesn’t always work. A found that for some of the places I surf, the longer period swells come in thick and jack up quickly. It also creates a strange double lip, so you have to get over the front lip or the wave goes by. There’s a very small zone where you will either miss the wave, catch the wave, or go over the falls. The longer boards didn’t help, but I could pump a shorter board and use the rebounding to pop in and get an extra push to get over the hump and down into the wave. With the shorter board it’s easier to make a steeper, late drop.
I went back to riding boards between 6’ and 6’4" but up to 21" wide and 3" thick, with nice and thin rails. I have way more fun with these boards up until I get tired then it’s hard to get to my feet.
If the waves build up smooth and allow me to get in early, I like the mid lengths, but if I can catch waves, the short boards are a lot more fun. Bottom line for surfing is that you have to catch the wave to ride it, so whatever works for you is the right thing to do. Longer boards paddle better, and you can get back out quicker, shorter boards turn better, so can “surf” the wave rather “ride” the wave. That’s something that Ben Aipa likes to say. To me riding is good enough.

When it gets overhead here most of the time we have wave shape similar to what’s pictured above. Steep takeoff and runs fast down the line. Beachbreak barrels. Up until recently taking off late under the lip was not a problem. Now in my late 40s with bad shoulders and getting a little slower to pop up the search is on for the easiest way to stay on a performance board rather than switch to a longboard like most guys my age or younger do. For the past 5 years I have been going wider and thicker on my personal boards while keeping the same length as I was riding 20 years ago in an effort to increase float and paddling. The problem there is getting in on a ledging takeoff. The thick wide boards seem to hang up at the top and I can’t knife the takeoff. Starting to think more length, more rocker, narrower with thin rails may be a better answer for these overhead beachbreak barrels.
I still have a gunny 6’8 JC step up board that I used to ride in the late 90s. That board has a very low volume for its length and I’d struggle on it today but I’m thinking a beefed up version of that outline perhaps 7’4 would be a good answer. instead of the thick and wide 6’5 and 6’6 boards I’ve been riding. I would probably arrive at about the same volume just in a stretched out board.

I’m 61 now and my go to boards are clustered in a few sizes… 6’7”, 7’2’, 7’10”, all plus or minus one inch.
Depending on the size of surf and where I am (SoCal vs Fiji, eg) those fairly narrow ranges of length just work. Occasionally bigger, eg anew 8’10” the other day was fun, along with 9’6” gun. And I’m making 5’7”-5’10 fishes (mostly quads). But those are special purpose boards. I have a lot of boards in other sizes, they just get used infrequently if 6’10 or 8’2” or even 9’0” longboard or 6’2” shortboard. Definitely give your quiver some new options. Be prepared to take a few iterations to get it dialed in though… happy shaping!

I’m 65 and I don’t go out as much as I like. I no longer charge, but a boart in the 7’ to 8’ range seems to be the ticket for most days. On the other hand I have a 9’ Bill Hamilton and it rips like a short board. You have the ability to shape and glass, play around within a certain range until you dial it in.

Very good advice. Wherever it is, that I am today, that’s how I got here.

That’s a beautiful wave.
I surf reefs that are usually a couple hundred yards offshore and the water is at least 10 feet deep. The waves I surf tend to have more of a playful almond or oval tube, or when it’s long period pretty thick but not very round except for the inside. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the lip from inside a barrel. The last was in 2015 and I ended up hitting my board.
Here’s a link to a shot of Devon Howard surfing the spot I got hurt at 2 days before, a Friday. It was the biggest day of the swell and a great swell. I was riding an 8’6" and it was working great for this spot. Saturday was amazing and looked the same. Devon surfed there all weekend. On Sunday, the surf was only half as big and on my last ride I decided to keep going for the inside barrel that tends to close out. Big mistake.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFEeyPtK6JN/?taken-by=devon_howard&hl=en


People don’t think of New Jersey as being a heavy place to surf but when it gets good many of the spots are hollow beach breaks where you need your A game.

Here is a wave my 12 year old dropped in on during that same session followed by a wave from a session a few weeks ago.

Image may contain: one or more people, water, ocean, outdoor and nature

Image may contain: water, ocean, outdoor and nature

And a video of one of my friends from Saturday

I reckon that old guy would surf well on pretty much any board. He looks to me like he’s good at surfing. Simple as that. However, that said, I agree with the idea that we need to be looking at narrower, longer boards again. Like all design fads the current emphasis on short and wide has probably gone a bit too far. I see a lot of guys around here trying to surf solid waves on 5’4"s and the like with little success. I’ll generally be out on the solid days on a 6’2" or even a 6’8" (which are pretty much considered rhino chasers these days!) Generally I’ll be having a better time of it on the longer equipment than the guys on the super short boards.

Hi Mako. Welcome to the club. I surf a 7-9, 7-8, 7-6, 7-4, and a 6 foot fish in snappy chest high stuff if there’s not a lot of crowd pressure. I’m working on a 7-1. Mike a few months shy of 60.

That’s look waves i ride in winter here in France because i don’t go in big waves reef spots do i stay on beachbreak and it’ often enough for me. On those days i still ride my every day board but it’s à wrong choice, i make semiguns in 7 to 7’6 range to older freinds they take and surf better all waves when i do near nothing right. I know i bet to make me one but it’s often tricky to go out with longer boards in those beachbreak where you make lot of duckdive. I think to go to a kind of stretched fish with thickness in middle instead of ultra wideness, flat rocker in entry more in tail with straight wide fish tail but thin and convex bottom to “hide” extra volume. And hope it can go well on smaller day too.

No doubt he’s a good surfer. I’m not too shabby either. Just getting older, dinged up and a drop slower getting to my feet in waves that are throwing. Seeing how much earlier this guy could get in on that gunny board compared to the late takeoffs my current equipment would require in hollow offshore conditions just got me thinking that a similar board belongs in my quiver.

Also interesting to watch Mason Ho riding bigger boards at Pipeline on days when most of his counterparts are riding much smaller boards. He gets in earlier and rides the tube deeper. Sure he’s sacrificing some things too but the longer gunny boards just work and look much more user friendly. He’s often riding boards that you would have seen his father and uncle’s generation ride at Pipe.

I barely ride wave over shoulder high, so my experience might be different.
But my board length choice increases with waveheight.

In small waves (knee high) I go as short as possible, with enough volume. Otherwise I won’t be able to make nice cut backs because of the small wave size.

In bigger waves I tend to choose between a 6’6" and 9’1" longboard, depending on the wave. When the waves are long, I choose the longboard and when waves are short or in heavy beachbreaks like @lemat sais I tend to choose the 6’6".

I’m not talking about riding chest high or smaller conditions. I can ride anything in those sort of conditions. I’m talking about our days when its well overhead and breaking top to bottom. I have at least dozen different boards I can ride when the conditions are not difficult.

There is also the wetsuit factor I should have had in my original post. Most of the time when we get these solid swells in my region you are wearing at minimum a 4/3 with hood, boots and gloves if not a 5/4 with 7mm boots and crab claw gloves. When I shot the pictures in my original post the air temp was about 20F and the water 36F with a pretty stiff offshore wind.

I grow up Surfing NJ. I understand what you mean about taking off under the lip. If you look at footage of people riding Pipline in the mid to late 70s they were getting in early riding boards that were pretty thick. Like 3” and up. Mark Richards 1987 Twin fin was 3.25” by 1980 he was riding a”thinner” version of 2.75”
In Video he talked about his twins. He still rides a his modern version of his 1980 twin fin same size. Same fin set with an added box for a trailer fin. One of the things that caught my attention was the fact that his board had an ever so slight V in the nose. Something like a 1/32” V. The Bottom was noseV into Flat into V before fins running out the tail. Outline had fluted wings. Something like that in a 7’0” to 7’4” might be fun for those rare overhead days. Another thing you might want to try is mid to late 1970s hawk nose lighting bolt outline with modern Bottom shape and rail. Those Boards did get in early.

The strong offshores in NJ when it is good, are a huge factor. Also is the ripping longshore current.

One of my fondest memories of a surf session was an early 90’s clean mid winter NE swell with a steady 30MPH offshore wind with 45mph gusts, air temp 30’s water temp low 40’s. The current was ripping around the Jetty, and me and my bud watched a few shortboarders get to the end of the jetty, get pounded by sets, then quickly swept down the beach and some never even made it outside. It was only slightly overhead.

We decided to take out our pre '67 Longbooards, his an almost rockerless Bing, me a Greg Noll.

With all the extra rail line and paddle power we squeezed out past the jetty and were easily able to maintian the fight against the current ripping around its tip.

With such strong offshores, and long rails, we were able to get in early at an angle, and also paddle half way down the face before standing up in an aerodynamic tuck, waiting for the right time to bottom turn, and then it was left sand bottom point break barrell joy fest.

A few shortboarders tried to join us, and the few that made it ouside were quickly swept away by the ripping longshore current, whereas we’d paddle back further outside against the current and easily make it back to the peak and be able maintain position at the peak without having to constantly paddle at 85% speed. For a solid 2.5 hours we had the sand bottom pointbreak to ourselves as it rifled away. We saw lots of guys checking it, but only a small handful decided to try it and were quickly swept out of view. The few who caught waves at the peak had to watch the wave reel off without them.

I’ve been 200+ Lbs since the early 90’s, and while I swapped boards with others to as low as a 6’4" My size range has been 6’8" tpo 7’0" for a shortboard and 9’3"+ for a longboard since my late teens. The only boards in between that length are semiguns at 7’7" range.

I despised the hyperrockered potato chips of the 90’s. And the flatter wider shorter acceptance more recently is kind of similar, in that it seems to have been pushed to the extreme, by people who think they can ride what the pros can ride, when most can’t, not well anyway

I’ll ride what i feel I will have the most fun on, and it will not be dictated by what size board I can lock in my vehicle, or what style board is being ridden by the pros. I will not ride my longboard when surfing with my friends on Shortboards, out of consideration for them, but strangers at a primarily longboard break on shortboards, even grovelers, will no doubt hate me.

We’ve had fairly considerable swell here the last two days. I had lots of fun on my 6’11" x 22 x 3 round pin, but if I had my gunny pintail 9’3"x22x3, I would have been able to get into a lot more memorable rogue set bombs.

Jersey gets a lot of coverage these days. When its good it is world class. I always got irritated when people would say an east coast board had to be made for mushier waves, when NJ is a hollow barrell fest when conditions come together.

Riding the semiguns in anything, works for many, but from my selfish crowded wavecount measure, i am glad that many have decided that shorter wider flatter is their goto board. it is a bit irritating to be an observer and see them miss a wave when more railline would have allowed them entry. A wider nose and stiff offshores can hold one up in the lip on the drop, a semigunny shape will do so to a much lesser extent.

Surfing is about joy. If a surfboard has to fit a certain look to be appreciated, well as others said, if you cant catch the wave, then what’s the point?

Ride what gives you joy, and if you find yourself with an exteme paddlng advantage over the crowd, don’t be a hog. Give some away and you will usually be rewarded with an even better one, and everybody remains happier.

One greedy douchebag with a lot of railline, can ruin it for everybody.