Guys,
Your thoughts please. Is there an agreed upon MINIMUM LENGTH, where a surfboard IS A LONGBOARD. That definition has been different over the years.
What is it today, in your opinion? How about board weight? Is that a factor to be considered? Thank you, in advance, for your contributions.
My 2 cents would have it that a longboard is defined as anything 9 feet or larger.
But a long board is anything larger than what’s commonly ridden at spot X on day X.
in asp i believe you can be disqualified if board under 9.0 foot
longboard=>9.0 foot, bottom length
but i cant find definition on ASP site
Somewhere back in the early 90’s I heard it defined as this: A “longboard” is over 9 foot long or at least 3 feet longer than the rider is tall.
There was some distinction between a longboard and a regular gun style board, but I can’t remember what that was…and I can’t remember anything about where this definition came from. It made sense to me though and has stuck. Weight, number of fins, and style of surfing the equipment was irrelevent.
Honolulus 2 cents is the same as my “era” definition but to me individually I consider a long board a board I walk upon to adjust trim or for particular wave enhancement like c-5s or 10 etc.
As screwed up as it may sound I might not personally consider a certain blokes 13’r a long board.
That blokes board looks like a chip if a guy 16-18 feet tall were on it.
…land of the giants.
I would keep this opinion to myself of course.
My first board in 1963 was a used Jacobs 8 footer, and they were all longboards then. I think today you could still start there depending on shape, style, size of rider, lots of different criteria. But I agree most would start at around 3 feet taller that the rider and all the geometry of a longboard shape.
IMHO there’s no such thing…
its like someone just made up that word years ago to sell something…
before that
they were all “tankers”
or “big wave guns” and “miniguns”
but primarily just “surfboards”
big or small
its just what you rode
it used to be just “your surfboard”
Maybe Greg Noll started this whole “car model” thing…
so we would have to buy one of each…
I don’t know why we needed this whole “longboard” verbage
other than to justify all the “cheater” boards
everyone was migrating to years ago
to boost their wave count
or because they got too fat or old to surf on
their old “regular boards”…
long or short
seems all relative to the rider
just my take on it…
for contest purposes I say
should be close to 85% twice your height
and about 25% wider…
Charlie,
I tend to agree. Though it seemed that 8 feet might be the new benchmark. In 1968, in Hawaii, under 9 feet was a ‘‘mini-board’’, as I’m sure you remember.
In the mid 80’s, my 7’10’’ board was frequently referred to as a longboard, by many young surfers. Thus my ‘‘uncertainty.’’
Cant tell you about specs, but i can tell you they are a SH&T load of fun, and if built with local conditions in mind, can be very practical. I want an 8’ allrounder at the moment, after riding my mate’s 8’6’’ all round LB. Thinner than most, round, but pinched rails, a bit of edge in the tail, and enough rocker in the nose that it doesnt pearl. Super fun board, and can be whipped around, and you can easily cheat 5, and drive it from right up on the nose ( a skilled LB’er could probably hang ten, easily 5 ). Shock horror it’s a surftech, but i want a poly version.
Which 8.0 surftech is it?
Otay will love this
-its a name for board that is long
nothing more, nothing less
for championship the minimum is 9´ by 21"
normally they began with 9´1", by 21 1/2"
Most people would generally agree that in the year 1962, everyone was riding what’s come to be known as a longboard. So, what would you call the board that LJ Richards was using at the time?
Hobie ad from late '62:
I agree there is no such thing as a longboard. There are surfboards and there are short boards. No longboards.
In the fall of 1969 I was sitting on the cliff above Newbreak with Larry Gordon. I was bummed because my new Gordon designed fin box with hand foiled fiberglass fin had failed. The fins had a pin similar to today’s Bahne box but no plate and screw. We jammed the fin in, usually with a folded matchbook as a shim and hoped for the best. The best that day was a dangling fin as I had tried to surf some perfect waves down the way at 33’s.
So Larry and I sat there on the cliff above Newbreak watching the surfing with our 7’6’s laying next to us. The usual crew was out at the various spots on some pretty experimental craft. The surfing was about as “high performance†as you would find anywhere with the crew (probably Bunker Spreckels, John Holly, Steve Lis, Fred Grosskruetz etc.) shredding the surf on their late sixties mystical mind machines and pocket rockets. Mike Purpus was out there too on one of his periodic visits to “The Cliffsâ€.
Larry said, “You know, these short boards have been equalizers. There used to be standouts, but now with the new boards being so much easier to ride, high performance surfing is within the reach of a lot more surfers. Can you tell which one is Purpus? Before the short boards there were standouts. Now they’re all standoutsâ€.
Just then a guy with a crewcut paddling a noserider took off far outside of everyone else. He faded to the left across the peak before standing and cranking a hard turn. As he came around, he began walking to the nose, hung five across the wall and then at the shoulder he backpeddled to do a giant cutback into the soup, then back around again for a controlled kick out.
We were both silent for a moment. This crewcut wearing anachronism on his obsolete surfboard had just shattered the moment.
“You knowâ€, said Larry, “I think eventually there are going to be two sports. And they’re going to be called Surfing and Short Boarding.â€
I explained to one of the editors of one of the surfing magazines when I was being interviewed a few years ago that we didn’t call them longboards back in the sixties. The point seemed to be lost on the youngster.
So the real question to me isn’t “What is a longboard?†It’s: What is a shortboard? Answer: Anything not long enough to be considered a surfboard and not short enough to be called a belly board.
Hi Bill -
Obviously there are different takes on this one. Type “Longboard” in to a search engine and you’re as likely to find skateboards as anything.
I suppose if someone is entering a contest where the typical contest bureaucrats have set the rules… THEN it matters. As an example, if THEY say “3 feet longer than height of rider, OR 9 feet” I guess that settles it - there and then anyway.
I still remember a “longboard” contest in Morro Bay where a guy was disqualified after the fact when someone protested about the length of the winner’s board. The rules in that contest said “9 feet.” A quick check revealed that although the length along the bottom was exactly 9 feet, the overall length (measured with tape pulled tight from nose to tail on the deck side) was just shy. The winner was disqualified. LOL
My opinion definitely doesn’t matter. The above scenario speaks for itself.
used to be a saying awhile back
that 9’ was the new shortboard for guys over 30
I think that’s when Lance folks started riding 9’0"s
taking over every line up they paddled in to
started a whole new generation of shredders riding 9’0"s just like regular sized boards…
I think that’s about when the term “longboards” and longboarder magazine gained popularity.
Remember “Blazing Longboards”?
Don’t remember ever seeing something called “Blazing Shortboards”
8’6’’ steven slater.
Wouter, no, not nine foot on the bottom, get your old geometry book, look under definition of length, length is described as the SHORTEST distance betweeen two points, not around the curvature of a plane.
When I was competition director of the central Florida Eastern Surfing assocation, I built and brought to all the contests a 10 foot 2"x4" with a stop at one end and a tape from a retractable tape measure hooked over the first end and another stop at the nine foot mark, if your board did NOT touch both stops, it was NOT nine foot and thus inelligible to be ridden in the contest.
Rules are rules and if you want to surf in contests, surf by the rules.
Believe me, I watched may contestants throw tantrums, get tapes and show me that their board was nine feet along the bottom and 8’10-1/2" on the deck, but nine feet is nine feet.
I’m 5’8" standing against the wall, now I’m 6’3" if I measure along my heel, up my calf, out around my ass cheeks, along my back, out around the back of my head to the top.
Hey Jim, thanks for that!
Definition of length, length is described as the SHORTEST distance betweeen two points, not around the curvature of a plane.
In Australia there used to be a formula for a comp mal. It had to ad up to 45 or something like that . not really sure. but the nose tail and wide point had to add up. also had to be 9 or longer. there was also a criterea for 8 footers. The mal criterea was so people weren’t riding guns and such I think . like I said not really sure but I know there was something.