Weighing over 200 Lbs, finding a board on the rack was always a challenge, and a hindrance to my progression as a surfer.
I always wound up on a bigger wave board designed for someone much lighter.
When I finally ordered one, the shaper was confused that I didn’t want just a meatier shortboard, but something with more of a rounded nose with some volume, a lot of volume compared to what was acceptable and fashionable in the day. What confused him even more was when I wanted it heavy. I wanted a strong board which would not turn into mashed potatoes under my feet as all previous ones did.
When everybody was going potato chip and hyper rocker and hyper light in the early 90’s in any and all waves, I got a meaty heavily glassed rounded nose what today would be called a speed egg, though highly unrefined. Everybody looked at it funny. It wasn’t sexy enough for them and it was “sooooo heavy!!!”. I loved it and was a wave catching machine and the doubters who didn’t catch half as many waves still were lock step with the pro’s in what they demanded to ride. It was limited in some conditions, and I kept trying different things, and selling them and coming back to the reliable speed egg. I still have it, but it has not left the attic for 12 years. It looks pretty crude with today’s eyeball.
A few years later, on a different coast, I worked with the same shaper and we came up with what I’ve been riding ever since. 6’6 to 6’10" ~14" nose and tail, 2 5/8 thick, 20 to 20.5 wide double bump swallow, squash and round pin with a nose chine. I have tried the regular shortboard since when travelling overseas for an extended period, even getting a 6’10" Wayne Lynch Evolution in Torquay, but finding I was missing the fuller template, and not appreciating the lightness or the softness of a lighter glass job. I had another board made for me in NZ for good waves, another 6’10", but meaty and heavy, and it works great, in great waves, everything else, blah.
When I returned to the states almost 3 years after leaving, I pulled out the last of the speed eggs I left behind. The shaper was dead, but the board was still alive. I later pulled templates off it and made a HWS round pin version of it, and that HWS has been my goto shortboard for over a decade now, but it has to be at least chest high with some push, anything smaller and I’m on an old school longboard and trying my best to surf it traditionally.
I find it amusing that the general outline, which was poo poo’d in the 90’s is now quite common to see, but in much shorter lengths, for small wave boards for smaller surfers.
While I like seeing that not everybody has to be riding a hyper performance disposable shortboard these days, I do miss the days of having a paddling advantage with little performance disadvantage in good surf and no disadvantage at all in lackluster conditions.
I have not had facilities to build a board for a while, nor have I been seeking one, but the desire is back, and I have a shed lined up to set up my table. I am not sure what I want to build, and am keeping a keen eye out for something I can adapt to my likes, experience, and advancing years, and make another HWS “shortboard” to last me the rest of my life. Problem with HWS, is that it is so labor intensive, that experimentation to find that feel, is not much of an option. I have not mowed foam since '98 and I never mowed much foam in the first place.
I recently tried a friend’s new 6’0" fat swallow tailed quad in some head high waves, that sunk me to above my nipples when sitting on it, and the thing was an eye opener once I got it onto open face.
