a little background story: about two years ago i posted my first post here on S.L. https://www.swaylocks.com/forums/very-first-displacement-hull-suggestions-fins but unfortunately at the time I was not ready for such a specialized style board , it was too difficult and only given it a few tries and stored it in my garage. fast forward…about a month ago I was contemplating on selling it on c.l but wanted to be certain if I could ride it not. anyway, I am now able to ride this beauty and have completely fallen in love with it !!! I have taken her out on o.h surf at o.b in san fran , rockaway in Pacifica and the thing glides so clean. this thing is freaking fast and one of the liveliest boards in my quiver. bottom turns are easy and i really dial it in when I surf it with my front foot but it becomes difficult when I try to ride it with my backfoot. it really flips out on me and I cant manage to stay on the board when I make a turn on it. here is my question to you all; (I ride a range of boards from my 8’6 liddle, 8’2 stubby crime board, to my 9’4 andreini noserider. I am used to riding with my front foot to increase speed ) what is the best method for someone who rides longer boards and now is learning a new technique on a much shorter board? really appreciate any advice. btw I am currently riding it with future controller seaworthy fins. thank you
My advice is to sell the board. In your other thread I didn’t realize that you were trying to surf the board in bigger conditions, otherwise I’d have told you to move on back then. If you normally surf a hull and a noserider and you need something for bigger conditions then this board is just going to make things harder for you. This type of design is the LAST thing I would choose for bigger and faster conditions.
First off, this is a long fish design, which is a niche design all by itself. It’s made to go fast in smaller and cleaner conditions, and is more about the long carve than the pivoting top turn. Secondly, they set this board up as a thruster which isn’t normally a great choice for boards with wide tails unless they also add a lot of vee. Moreover, the surfers who are actually skilled enough to surf a thruster better than a quad or twin are also skilled enough to not need a 6-8 length in order to get their waves. So this design was aimed at surfers who have a lot of skill and are riding this length because they want to, not because they actually need this much board to get their waves.
So yeah, if you can get into a wave on this board in bigger conditions it will go real fast - in a straight line. But you’ll have trouble controlling it. Anyone would. What you need for bigger conditions is a design that’s more oriented to control and less oriented to maximizing wave energy. If you’re already on singlefins and wide point forward designs like a Liddle hull then the next step on that track would be something like an Andreini Serena. By comparison, that type of board would feel way more comfortable to your style and wouldn’t require much adjustment or learning curve. He’s one of the other big names in the hull community and his designs have a reputation for being versatile and user-friendly.
BTW, if it was my board and I intended to keep it I would install the rear boxes for a quad setup and run it as a quad with the rears from your Controller set.
gdaddy! You always have the best adivce and with this insight I can totally see what you mean about this type of board and how I will now try to adapt to this shape rather than trying to surf it the way I thought it should be surfed. I took it out today in Very large WNW swell and had a blast. It’s like a butter knife slicing thorugh a stick of butter; super smooth. I surfed it off my front foot, and get the glide/trim/speed of a hull. The pescado paddles great and it just takes off. is the type of speed that makes my eyes water. its pretty easy to surf it rail to rail but turns too damn fast and I lose control. I will stick with this and much appreciate your adivce. I just thought maybe I was doing something wrong when I put more weight and plament on my back foot. it just flips and flops. We’ve had pretty thick, large swells here in the bay area and I was too impatient to wait for smaller days and just took it out. I really, really like this thing.
