you’re very welcome.
I have another suggestion for you, and it’s something you can do right now (i.e. in your next surf session), and without having to wait for another board to be built for you… but I’ll get to that later in this post.
First of all:
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good on you for your commitment to your surfing; 200 days a year in the water is something many surfers who don’t live near the water dream of, and also something which many who do live near the water could do, but don’t.
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good on you for your commitment to your development of your surfing (in spite of your handicaps); from the sound of it, you’re working with, and getting a board built by a local shaper every 6 months - which is helping keep a roof over them and their family’s head. In the last decade and a bit, the mass-production of surfboards in countries with cheap labour has killed off the livelihood of many of the smaller local shapers, and your regular purchase of boards from them is helping to counteract that.
I’m not a pro-shaper, but a few of the other users here on Swaylocks are, and people like you are helping keep them employed and their family’s fed. Good stuff
My instinct on that is yes, but I’ve never actually ridden a Baked Potato, so my response to that would be “I think that could work for you; see if you can try one out”.
gdaddy’s comments about Geoff McCoy’s Nugget/Astron Zot boards also ring true for me, but again I haven’t ridden any of them either so can’t comment from first-hand experience about them; again see if you can get a few waves on one to find out if it works for you.
My impression of the Baked Potato is it’s a groveller with some performance to it (i.e. could be limited to small-to-medium size surf), while the Nuggets are all-rounders (good in small to large surf) that are fast, have tons of volume and are very user-friendly (e.g. good for beginner through intermediate-to-advanced surfers, but something an advanced surfer would reject in favour of a high-performance shortboard).
Depends on what you’re after.
Heck, ride as many different boards as you can and tell your shaper how they went for you, including the ones that “sucked” - it’s all good information for them.
Okay, now we’ve come to that suggestion (in fact it’s more like a bunch of questions) I mentioned at the start of this post: does your board have an interchangeable fin system in it (e.g FCS, Futures, etc)?
If it has this, what kind of fins do you have in your current board, and how much have you played around with putting different fins in the board to try and alleviate the problems you’re having?
You say you’re having trouble getting speed. Also that you have trouble getting forward (i.e. are having to step forward) on the board to try and alleviate that.
Not much you can do to change where your feet land on the board by swapping fins around, but it is possible (to a degree) to alter how the board responds to your stance in it’s current position, by playing with the fins a bit.
According to a theory I read here on Swaylocks from a fair while ago, if your board is a thruster and you reduce size of the fin in the central thruster fin-slot, the tail of your board will ride a little higher in the water when you’re trimming down the line, more rail line (and I think bottom surface area too?) will be brought into play and your board will plane/pick up speed easier.
However if you’re also having to step forward to get to the “sweet spot”/pivot-point for turning your board, and reducing the size of the central thruster fin doesn’t alleviate this, you may also need to reduce the size of the fins in your thruster’s side fins; according to the theory, this will have a similiar effect to bringing the wide-point further to the rear of the board; less rail-line engaged, more bottom surface engaged, and sharper, less carvey/drawn out turns.
That’s the theory anyway, assuming I’m interpreting/applying it correctly to your circumstances; maybe it’s the other way around.
I’d probably start out playing with the centre thruster fin to get the speed you’re after. And then start playing with the side fins to get the turning you’re after.
I haven’t played around with this too much myself though (while I’ve a few different fins, they’re evenly distributed between different style fin systems, so there’s actually not much all that much room for interchangebility of fins within and between boards).
Secondly, this theory may well be more for fine-tuning of how a board responds rather than effecting radical changes in response.
If you’re riding a twin, you can play with the side fins to alter pivot-point (according to the theory), but probably can’t do much for increasing down the line trim speed. If you’re riding a quad though, the theory may still work by putting in smaller rear quad fins to increase down the line trim speed (maybe to a lesser extent though? - guess it depends on how far back your quad rears are positioned).
But anyway, have a play if you can beg or borrow fins from friends. If nothing else, it’ll be fun and you’ll learn something.
Now, Swaylocks is free for all.
But it shouldn’t be. Well, not entirely anyway; I (along with a bunch of others) have put in time and effort in replying to your question, and (while I can’t speak for the others), I’d appreciate if you could do something in return - could you please post to let us know what’s happened next as a result of our responses.
If you play (or have already played) around with fins, how did that turn out for you?
If your shaper builds you a new board, what’s it like, could you post some photo’s of it please? What’s new/different from before (and why) and how’s it ride for you?
Come to think of it, do you think you could post a photo of your current board leaning up against a wall with the bottom showing (so we can get an idea of the outline and fin setup) as well as a side view (i.e. so we can see the rocker-lines).
Lastly if you do end up playing with the fins, and the suggestions I mentioned above turn out to solve your problem here’s what I’d like you to do: pay the credit where it’s due by sending a nice thank-you email to a guy named Greg Loehr (you can reach him at gl10@aol.com ) seeing as he was the one that posted that theory here on Swaylocks all those years ago.
Tell him about your circumstances, and how the application of the theory he posted here so long ago has helped you fix your problem, and attach a photo showing the size of the smile on your dial that’s the result of that.
Tell him L.I.T. and the other misfits at Swaylocks sent you.
While you’re at it, 'might as well include a hyperlink to this thread (http://www.swaylocks.com/forums/suggestions-specializedadapted-surfboard?page=1) in your email to him - you never know; he might just chime in here and give you some more advice on what you can do in your next board to help alleviate your issues. If I was in your shaper’s shoes, Greg’s someone whose opinion I would at the very least entertain.
Speaking of your local shaper, I don’t mean to be stepping on their toes with any of my comments/idea’s here; they’re the professional, not me, so in your next board, their opinion should carry the greatest weight with you.
I’m just trying to help out to the best of my limited knowledge by throwing in my 2 cents worth.
Anyway, hope you get to have a play around with some different fins in your current board, and to have a play with some different boards as well. Please post to let us know how it all goes. We’re here to learn too.
Okay, I’m off to pack the car and head off down the coast (i.e. will be offline) for a week or so.
Hope my comments have been of value & will catch you all when I get back.
Cheers!
