How much faster would a light board say 5 pounds compared to 7 or 8 pounds. I have made my last couple of boards with really light glass job and they seem like they hover over the water. Am i just thinking they do this or do they acutaully go faster and float better.
Thanks
Ps i am talkgina botu standar 6’0 thrustes and i am 5’8 150
In the right hands, a board like you describe will go insane. We’ve found that the bottom shapes have evolved differently for boards that are just 2 pounds lighter. The hovering you describe is no joke; it can be exploited to yield more performance. With that said, I also have boards made heavy on purpose, it just depends what your focus is… …for small wave ripping, you cannot make it neither light enough nor drivey enough. Hope this helped…
what are he good bottom contours for a super light board that woudl be ridden in n e thign under head high.
Thanks
Actually pretty subtle singles with even more subtle doubles through the fins seems to work well. Also, narrowing the overall template seems to go better. By subtle I mean no more that anout 1/8" at the max point.
Spazman, The theoretical increase or decrease in speed to be gained or lost by having a five pound lighter board is the same as that gained or lost by having a five pound lighter body. Happy hovering, Roy
wrong!!!
sorry roy …
halve the weight of a board and you halve the effort it takes to make a direction change, take 25% of weight away and it takes 25% less effort to swing around…
double the weight of the board and it takes double the effort to make a radical direction change…
small wave surfing is all about throwing your board around to maximise every bit of power in the wave ,if its light its easier to throw around…
currently excepted small wave performance surfing requires the lightest board possible…
regards
BERT
What about momentum? I have a slightly heavier board and it seems faster down the line than my lighter ones. It seems to glide through sections better. I had a 10’ longboard shaped by Steve Forstall that was light epoxy. that thing road like a 9’0’'. You could actually do off the lips with the board. On shorboards, I wonder if a little extra weight does not help in certain situations though.
solosurfer ! …
you answered your own question…and your observations are entirely correct…
current judging critirea for performance surfing…
the surfer who executes the tightest most radical manouver in the most critical part of the wave with speed power and control…
a lighter board will accelerate quicker ,decelerate quicker,turn tighter at higher speeds with less effort , ultimatley giving more control…
regards
BERT
I recently transitioned from PU boards to lighter EPS boards and Bert is exactly right (went from 7.5lb to 6.5lb and the difference is huge).
In high-performance surfing its about board RESPONSIVENESS and a lighter board responds soooooooo much better. I surf a lot of fast sectiony waves in my area and when u want to accelerate/pump/drive, a lighter board will outperform by leaps and bounds.
A lighter board also turns quicker due to its lower moment of inertia…lower resistance to turning the nose of the board about the pivot at the tail…kind of the same effect of choking up on a baseball bat or golf club…lower swingweight.
Im afraid Roy’s brand of surfing (going fast and straight on superlong heavy boards) is out of step with the mainstream so buyer beware. I do agree that momentum from a heavy board is an advantage in some cases but for shortB surfing lighter is better.
Cheers
How many times do I have to say it . . .I am not just going straight!
Bert
Apparently you didn’t read my post correctly. I was pointing out that the overall weight of board and rider is the same in the case where you shave five pounds off the board, as it is when you shave five off the rider. That’s all.
Regards, Roy
So you are saying that i could lose 10 pounds and then ride a 17 pound 6 foot shortboard and get the same feeling. I dotn think that is correct.
I don’t remember saying that you would get the same feeling. I said that the total weight of the board and rider would be the same in both cases.
"… Back down on the lower deck, the other new arrival, Dan Malloy, was cracking open a freakishly long and wide cardboard box. The ruckus piqued Rasta’s interest, and he closed in for a better vantage. When Dan had unveiled the contents, Rasta’s eyes widened as he recognized the significance of both objects. Grabbing one of the two candy-colored, vintage-style, single-fin mini-guns shaped by Gerry Lopez, he gave it closer inspection.
“What are those all about?” Matt Ratt asked before attempting to answer his own question. “Those are, like, for big waves, huh?”
Rubbing his hands over the shiny, polished gloss coat of the red seven-two, Rasta eyeballed the rocker and rail line. “This kind of board was used by Gerry (Lopez) and some of the boys in the early to mid 70s in Hawai‘i, as well as when they were pioneering waves in this part of the world,” he explained matter-of-factly.
“They gonna work?” Matt Ratt queried.
“I’m sure they will, grommet,” Rasta confirmed. “We’re heading to a place where they should go beautifully.”
The wave that Rasta spoke of gained notoriety in the mid 90s when Sonny Miller documented Tom Curren taming freight-train-sized caverns on a micro tri-fin fish. Dan shared Rasta’s enthusiasm, and they traded thoughts about how incredibly these boards should perform at the aforementioned break.
With a blank look on his face, Matt Ratt tried to understand the reason for the fuss over such antiquated equipment. He was admittedly “over” anything retro or longboard-related, a sentiment shared among many surfers–especially those from the über-core lineups of his Santa Cruz home.
Matt Ratt only cared to ride contemporary thrusters, and why wouldn’t he? He was raised on spoon-fed messages from the media that surfing is “progressive” and performance-driven.
Thus, in conforming to that commonly held belief of what surfing really is, one must bow down to the bedrock paradigm of riding an ultra-light 6’ 2" tri-fin in almost all conditions…"
http://www.transworldsurf.com/surf/article/0,19929,672396,00.html
Mr Burger,
I am of the opinion that the ‘current judging criteria’ (referred to in your post) are actually an anachronism. I was unpleasantly surprised to discover that in the New Zealand Nationals zero points are given for radical takeoffs, bottom turns, tubes, or cutbacks. The Surfing New Zealand head judge explained that this was in line with international pro surfing standards.
Pro surfing is ‘out on a limb’
Roy
PS No points are awarded for speed or length of ride, either.
Bert, yer wrong to say that a 50 percent lighter board turns twice as fast. And inertia is no a linear relation as your post seems to imply.
Let’s use a simple physical analogy: a broomstick can quickly be rotated about its long axis, but cannot quickly be turned about an axis perpendicular to its length. The weight of the broomstick is constant in either case; it’s the inertia you’re fighting.
Assuming the rider is more or less perpendicular to the board, the best place to lose weight is at the far end of the board, so you most readily lose inertia.
Of course, all other things are never equal.
Straight line, it’s easier to make a significant difference in rider weight than total (board plus rider) weight.
How many times do I have to say it . . .I am not just going straight!
The proof is in the pictures (video)… we are still waiting! 
O’ Great Terrorists:
It seems to me that what we’re really talking about is generating speed. If we take three boards that are configured exactly the same way, any size, each will act differently in the same wave conditions. So for the sake of comparison we have to choose a given board size.
Does a 7’6"“x21.0” board sound like a good place to start. It’s a middle of the road size and seems like a good one to me.
I know modern shortboards are mostly around 6’1" or so. And longboards are mostly around 9’6", but we have to start somewhere.
So we have three boards and for the sake of comparison let say there is a pound and a half difference in weight.
One is 7.5lbs. , one is 9lbs. and one is 10.5lbs.
The lightest board is going to accelerate and decelerate more quickly. The 10.5lb will hold it’s speed better than the light one and the one in the middle may well be the most versatile of the lot and the most controllable of the three and will handle a wider variety of surf conditions but then if you put a real big boy on a heavy surfboard he’s going to be able to get more leverage than a grom and probably be able to make that big board go faster. One critical thing to remember is that gravity will only make things accelerate so fast so that fact along has a huge equalizing effect on the whole picture. When you’re in the critical part of the wave IMHO there is no substitute for rapid acceleration but do the big boys paddle in real light boards in huge waves? No, they aren’t stable enough. So in the end, is there an answer?
Of all the people I would want to ask I think Gerry Lopez would be at the top of my list but he’s busy with other things these days.
When you start talking about speed and lightness you have to remember that everything you do to a surfboard changes how fast it will go and how it performs in a giving circumstance, so making gross statements about performance related to weight is probably an exercise much like one describing a subrise.
Mahalo, Rich
P.S. The big boys towing in are going faster than anyone has before IMHO & they’re on boards that are around 6’3"x16.5" and weight around 20lbs. They are almost the same specific gravity as water itself. It makes sense to me.
Hey gadget,
I am now able to post video on my site, but it keeps coming out with an effect like rain running down a window. Plus I can’t get edited clips up for some reason, only raw footage. This means that background noises like tiny members of my family having a tizzy fit would (so far) have to be posted too. It’s a learning curve and I am working on it. In the meantime, why not realize that it is almost impossible to make a wave without turning? Really everyone riding a wave turns. It is therefore not correct when people keep saying that I only go straight.
Thanks for showing an interest!
Roy
Halcyon,
If all else were equal, a lighter board and rider combination will go faster than a heavier one. As you correctly point out, there are many other variables involved.