why do people still ride these things. they are nice to look at and are smooth, but they really dont provide anything over a more modern shape. they dont necessarily nose ride better, and they are certainly much slower.
by riding one of these boards with a soft tail, your actually riding a board that is taking away speed with every turn, as opposed to keeping some of it with an edge. i just dont see any clear advantages to the things. people say that they never slide out when on the nose in the pocket, but even modern longboards very rarely slide out.
Don’t worry about it, they like what they like and you like what you like. There’s plenty of people who can’t imagine why anybody would long board at all when we have short boards now days. Some refuse leashes or wetsuits, I just figure thats their deal and they can deal with it. If your board is slow enough you can stay in the pocket with little manuevering.
Just like what KeepOnKeepnOn mentioned, it’s all prefrence. Ever notice how some people are locked into their classic cars, and would choose to drive their 1969 z28 to work every day, over a modern car with power stearing and all the bells and whistles. Same thing with boards and styles, some want to rip, some want to glide. If we were all the same it would be boring.
why not ? why do people ride potatoe chips? why tris, twinnies, fish, singles, stingers, why moderns classics, why surf matts, why why whyetc etc? any way they all float
well how traditonal are you going the tudor single fin is enormously more maneuverable than my 9 6 1965 hobie but i can ride the hobie on the nose like it’s nothing the thing is like standing on dry land, but once it’s going go ahead try to turn good luck.
Great analogy by Nostalgic Soul with the cars. When you drive that older car it puts your mind back in the 60’s where so many great memories live. Same with the boards. Whenever I take an old tanker out I immediately hear the beach Boys, in my mind feel those carefree days of my youth. However I ultimately snap back to reality and jump back on my keel fish.
Some people, like me, can’t ride longboards. Learning on shortboards spoilt me, or was that spoiled me. I wanted to do stuff on the wave that shortboards allowed me to do.
Other people can’t ride shortboards, for their own reasons.
You can do some of those classic longboard poses on a shortboard, except maybe hanging ten, and it feels just as good. Your high performance mates might scoff occasionally, but when the wave and the mood dictates, just stand there, it’s fun.
For a surfer, longboard or short, just riding the swell is what it’s all about.
you also have to remember that some people surf sooooooooo much that they get tired of riding the same ol’ thing… jumping on something that is so different from what you normally ride can be a great challange even to the best of surfers… it goes both ways as well, i have a friend that only owns and rides old singles and i always ask him wouldn’t it be nice to be able to really hit the lip? don’t you get sick of always making nice smooth turns?
the poeple i don’t really get are the ones that have been surfing all of their lives and only have one board?
In Hawaii, there are so many different types of waves and it’s fun riding a variety of boards to match the waves. I ride progessive longboards as well as the old point break style tankers. Sometimes I like bringing out my 12’ and do a little crowd control at Waikiki. I found that it helps give me additional power in my turns when I jump back on a smaller board. Every once in a while I ride one of my balsa boards. The feel is totally different and the flow is a lot smoother.
There are surfers here that ride the old style ancient Hawaiian wooden boards. Surfers like Tom Stone said that he gets a real appreciation for our surfing forefathers when he rides those boards. Imagine turning with your feet and being finless on a large heavy wooden plank. For them, its getting back to their Hawaiian heritage and surfing’s true roots. There are many surfers here that jump on their OC-1 outrigger canoes and ride open ocean swells. We jump on our sponges to play in the shore break at Makapu’u. I think it comes down to the stoke of riding wave energy in the ocean no matter what the human powered vehicle is.
Some prefer schooners over TP52s, $35 garagesale beach cruisers over $4000 carbon race bikes, mexican cuisine over french cuisine, Ireland over Barbados…
Yeah, I really don’t enjoy watching tri-fin shortboard surfing. To me it gets rather boreing to watch after you see 20 waves of twitching. I’ve never really gotten the hang of surfing a tri-fin shortboard either. Something about the way it turns.
Maybe it’s because I’m a skimboarder and I’ve always had to rely on my rails to make the board turn, but anything with a fin turns very easy for me compaired to a skimboard.
Although I know the answer, but with questions and a topic like this one. I have to ask, Why have fins?
Here’s a couple great reasons {in video} I have as proof all of us should learn to go finless. Click link and double click the box.
in the wedge video it seems that till they hit the juice their ride is lacking prjection. i skim i wish i was that good, i normally ride crappy jersey shore break.
It’s really obvious how fast and loose it is, but I’m not sure about the drive. Then again, I don’t like thrusters either.
Not to take it away from you guys doing it, I can see it is another positive direction of wave riding. And I do think some skimboard design aspects should be considered for surfboards.