‘I think that once you have facial hair you can no longer be categorized as a grom…’’
Isn’t anyone younger than yourself a grommet?
use what works for you .
McCoy’s work for some , not for me
use what works for you .
Best reply so far.
the surf police don’t allow ‘surfers’ to enter the water without the appropriate equiptment.
as of 2012 the interntional surf police as mandated by the international council of surfing
has an elected determinant board of directors assigned to regional surf zones
to determine what style board of the twelve standardized designs appropriate for given days.
Turn stiles in place at designated surf areas will only allow coded boards that comply with daily
recommendation of the board of directors.
thank god competent analists have taken this problem in hand.
gone are the days of wanker kuks polluting
the surfline with the wrong boards for the conditions.
…ambrose…
requirements for board members
have been the biggest problem
in finalizing this system.
over 9 years old and under 80 years
minimum surfing esperience of 3 years
and not over 60 years.
no height requirement.
no ethnic considertions.
must be male or female.
weight must include no more than 80% fat.
must live within 200 miles of regulated spots.
there is hope for the future.
I don’t agree with drawing a line between modern boards and ‘retro’. There is nothing retro about good designs just because they were first developed in the past. I agree that people jump on the band wagon for the sake of a ‘retro’ image but that should have nothing to do with the design and developement that has gone into a board. And I don’t understand why one would want to ignore years of developement by putting modern rocker and modern rails into an older design. I have seen and ridden boards like this and they have been terrible. A fish is a fish but when it has the rails and rocker of a modern thruster to me it is no longer a fish. It no longer surfs like a fish. And this isn’t to say that one cannot take a board made 40 years ago as a starting point and continue to develope the design. I have met many great shapers who do this very thing and have made some fantastic boards, but the idea that a newer design is better simply because it is newer is very short sighted. There will always be great design and great designers and there should be less effort put into comparisons and more into appreciating the variety boards they have brought to our quivers. There is a board for everyone and for every wave.
I don’t understand this. Most experienced surfers on shortboards seem to make them turn fairly well.
It can’t be understood - it’s rubbish!
MF
On the flip side I see a lot of people riding retro boards and fishes completely wrong. In fact I see very few people riding the retros well. Nothing is uglier than a surfer who is completely out of synch and spastic on a fish or retro board because he is trying to ride it like a modern shortboard. A kook is a kook regardless of the equipment he is on.
where does it say that all boards that float well are retro ?
And really doesn't even the lowest kook need all the help he or she can get !
completey agree mako.
personally i think a better title would be 'the modern slating of the shortboard is a hoax'
shortbaords have been made much more user friendly in the last decade and yet when the anti brigade get out they refer to the boards surfed by slater in 1999, boards used by a minority 11 years ago.
I've been sucking on the kook virus lately as I get older and fatter...
The cold here is really affecting my arthritis and I can't paddle as well even if it floats, so I'm finally ditching the dimensions I stuck with for the last ten years...6'6 x 19 1/2 x 2 3/8...The next personal board will be like, 6'10 x 21 x 2 3/4...I just wanna have fun again.
So maybe I'm just accepting my reality. It's also working for the older customers.
I look at old footage and some of the beat-up dungers that come through for repairs. I think we forget that those boards absolutely shralped back in the day.
A nod to Geoff and Cheyne...2 3/4 thick...
Josh
And why are they more user friendly in the last decade...... well because they are thicker and wider and support the average surfer better.
Do you really think that now is as good as it gets and they can't get even more user friendly ..... really
I live 5 minutes walk from a world class break down here in Cosa Rica. We get surfers in all shapes and sizes from all over the world. Sometimes I’ll sit and watch. I can’t tell you how often I’ll think, “What the hell is that fat slob doing on that potato chip?” or “That guy would have made that section if he were on a longer board.” or “Who brings a 9’ board out in this?” etc… I understand that not everyone can afford to have an extensive quiver and so sometimes we’re stuck on what we have, but I don’t think anyone can dispute the concept that the board needs to match the wave and the rider. If not, then you’re simply on the wrong board… or I suppose you could be on the wrong wave… or you need to lose a few tons.
[quote="$1"]
One of my most fun sessions this summer was a waist to stomach high beachbreak a few weeks ago. It was the sort of wave where you could pop to your feet and cover 20 yards real fast and then launch a floater into the shorebreak and jump off on dry sand. It was a blast and the wave was totally unsuitable for a longboard.
A couple shots of a local grom from that waist high day.
[/quote]
IF Butch and Peck could rip on a longboard at Pipe, then those waves are not unsuitable for a longboard.
The key to surfing with style?
Flow.
Nice looking board, Speedy.
Mike
Hi Josh,the volume your talking about is real close to my magic volume,6’6"x21"x 2 3/4",almost the same outline as a webber fatburner.At 180 pounds and 6’ tall and 32 years of age it works well as a shortboard on Floridas east coast.If I get lucky and its head high for a week and I surf alot I develope a stronger paddle thus getting the early drop on waves which is my goal.It has taken me a few years to find what I think is the right volume for me,and it’s tricky because as I get older the volume wants to go up,or the less I surf and the volume wants to go up.My current rocker on my daily driver has alot of tail kick,I’ve thought about keeping everything the same and chopping 6" off the tail,Keeping my volume just loosing that little chunk of board back there that takes the snap out of my turns.I like seeing pics of the ferraris you shape,keep them coming!
@Speedneedle -
What an amazing looking board - I'd love to have a turn on that.
How many fins do you intend riding it with - 5, 3 or 4? Looking forward to a ride report...
[/quote]
IF Butch and Peck could rip on a longboard at Pipe, then those waves are not unsuitable for a longboard.
The key to surfing with style?
Flow.
Nice looking board, Speedy.
Mike
[/quote]
I wouldn’t say Butch and Peck ripped pipe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT-0OVETeHQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7PWM3T9OA4&feature=related
Compare that to Gerry Lopez a few years later.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6g9xlYem-s
compared to Slater and Irons today
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqGwfHijBAI
Yea, throw it out there that Slater and Irons are exceptional athletes, but Peck and Lopez were/are too. Now we are left with what has allowed these two people today to actually rip at pipe? the modern board. And I surf the waves that Mako is referring to daily and they suck on a log. By the time you get the thing whipped around and in trim it is usually too late to walk to the nose. There are small wave shortboards which take design elements from old boards(look at Mike Daniel’s M-80) which take an old template/rocker and throw in modern curves and by all accounts work. Old designs were left behind for a reason. Most combinations have been tried, one must figure out what works for them and their surfing. The modern shortboard is not a dead end, because if you add anything new too it becomes even more modern and more evolved.They might not work for some people but by and large more people are surfing the wave better than people in the past. They might be catching fewer waves but they can get in better shape. George Greenough said “Do you want to paddle or do you want to surf?”
[/quote]
IF Butch and Peck could rip on a longboard at Pipe, then those waves are not unsuitable for a longboard.
The key to surfing with style?
Flow.
Nice looking board, Speedy.
Mike
[/quote]
I wouldn’t say Butch and Peck ripped pipe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT-0OVETeHQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7PWM3T9OA4&feature=related
Compare that to Gerry Lopez a few years later.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6g9xlYem-s
compared to Slater and Irons today
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqGwfHijBAI
Yea, throw it out there that Slater and Irons are exceptional athletes, but Peck and Lopez were/are too. Now we are left with what has allowed these two people today to actually rip at pipe? the modern board. And I surf the waves that Mako is referring to daily and they suck on a log. By the time you get the thing whipped around and in trim it is usually too late to walk to the nose. There are small wave shortboards which take design elements from old boards(look at Mike Daniel’s M-80) which take an old template/rocker and throw in modern curves and by all accounts work. Old designs were left behind for a reason. Most combinations have been tried, one must figure out what works for them and their surfing. The modern shortboard is not a dead end, because if you add anything new too it becomes even more modern and more evolved.They might not work for some people but by and large more people are surfing the wave better than people in the past. They might be catching fewer waves but they can get in better shape. George Greenough said “Do you want to paddle or do you want to surf?”
my comment is posting. Peck and Artsdalen were far from ripping pipe. The best guys at pipe today are riding it deeper and with more control than they could on those heavy unweildy boards, Peck and Artsdale and lopez were probably in better shape than Jamie O’brien and Lopez probably knows the wave just as well as Jamie but the modern boards allow him to ride the wave deeper than the pioneers could imagine. The waves that mako is refering to suck on longboards. I know I have done it. By the time you have it whipped around and in trim you are on the sand. Old designs and rockers are not dead, look at the coil m-80. A 1980’s template with modern rails, modern bottom contours and it works pretty freaking well for most people. There are average surfers today are doing things in crap waves that 30 years ago the best surfers were not even pulling off. Modern is evolving so if the modern surfboard is what McCoy proposes then he is declaring his boards invalid too.
Agree w many things said by many folks here, and most undoubtedly with McCoy's quote
we surf (or should) boards that meet our location's waves and our current physical position in life... and when I'm going mach 10 on my 7'0x22.25x3.125 too long too thick too wide round tail quad on a rib high wave, I'm ok with it.
The Josh Zap is not for me...the customer is a Cheyne fan from way back and the one by me is based loosely on two he had as well as the boards Cheyne rides in that video Solo posted a while back.
While not intended as an outright copy, I've tried to stay reasonably true to form with an authentic foil and volume.
Josh