Hey Mike...
No more pics of "Secret spot"! Or ELSE! (Heheh...)
Remember, there's no surf in Victoria.
Josh
yes, thats right, Tasmania blocks all the swell
i am 6’3 200 at the moment and my usual two boards are a 6’3x21x3 for really small days then a 6’3x20x2 3/4 for up to about head high. now i havent gotten to use it yet in big surf but i shaped a 6’8x20ishx2.25-2.75 performance quad for those really big days. concave to fins then v in the tail. worked ok in waist surf but needs more juice to get it moving. also shaped on with less rocker and more volume to see which is better.
good luck with your choices.
also good to see some beautiful boards guys
yet to shape it, but its going to be
6’7 * 18.5 * 12.5 nose * 2.5 * 14 tail,rounded pin
5.5 nose + 2.25 tail rocker, continuous rocker
flat to vee with double concave out the back,
and oh, hard to choose, tri or quad or tri or quad, or…?
i think tri!
and my specs are in cm… 6ft3 * foot size 11 or 1m90 * 43
and weight 172 pounds or 78kg…
i consider myself advanced, but do not belong to my countries best surfers, who rip up 2 foot slop…
Aloha Mr. J
if you watch the film "The Shapemakers" you can see Terry's design strategy behind his "fatgirl" boards.
This board was originally made for Alekai Kinimaka (Titus's brother) and it hung behind the counter on display at Tropical Rush in Haleiwa for a year before I asked if I could buy it from them. It just looked like something that would float me and handle anything. And it proved to be true. 1/2" stringer and 3 1/8 thick it was made for a bigger guy for the waves on the northshore of Kauai which can get very serious. Solid beautiful glass job about 6-8 years old now and still in great shape. Probably something you could surf 10' hawaiian with no problem.
I'll try and get you more specs
[img_assist|nid=1045411|title=tc specs|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=0|height=0]
cheers Onelua, I can see that its 7' 4" x 20+ wide. I think your already on it when it comes to getting a step up board with good paddle power for your small feet because it looks like its got a narrow tail. I would guess the deck is quite domed? My silicon valley hybrids were 6' 9" x 20" with a narrow 13 1/2" tail and despite being fairly wide in the middle it worked for my small feet (size 8). I need good paddle power for my own reasons. At 171cm and 56kg max I'm small and although I am fairly fit I'm not very strong. I have a fairly major gastric problem which means I need to use a lot of special liquid nutrition, it actually takes a lot of self discipline for me to stay well for the surf! Oversize boards seem to be working well for me in recent years - not just longer but scaled up. On the plus side it makes borrowing other peoples boards easy. I think being middle aged has something to do with wanting the extra size boards too! I used to own the high volume Doc Lausch HVP 6' 7" - that was an excellent big shortboard, borrowed a 6' 4" Peter Mel machine by JC hawaii once and thats another good big shortboard.
[quote="$1"] flat to vee with double concave out the back, [/quote]
yeah Wouter, different bottom contours to my choice, but I think it will be stable when conditions step up. I think it was Kirk Putnam I heard say at a swaylocks gathering "it all works"
it all works, but if it works good for you is another thing
i choose this one, because it is simpler to make for myself!
would love to try your step up for sure!
winter is in full effect with you guys now right?
I think thats the context in which that quote was stated - different people can get all sorts of things to work, it was a reference to the vast variety of designs at the gathering. Although nothing works well for everyone. Yes winter is in full effect - in Vicco anyway, I'm not sure what its like in tropical Queensland. I can see from your planshape dimensions that your choice is more of a performance shortboard type step up than mine - I think it will work! Your rocker measurements, what is your reasoning for those measurements, I am interested, were they suggestions from Surfding?
many an evolving surfer steps up a few inches at a time.
or down in length as the case may be
a 5'10'' to a 6'2'' and a 6'8 and a 7'1''
is a mere shadow of a 9'2'' to a 6'8''
or a 10'7'' to a 15'10''
stepping up or down is a step into the next dimension
the courage to change precludes the will to devote
accumulated self esteem to the hot frying pan of
ego death kooking out.
The 4 inch increment steps are tiny steps
with only a llittle ego death and quite surviveable.
the ease and granduer of the way outside drop
of an eleven two and solid grinding bottom turn engaged
arch is a stellar experience,as with the incremental steps
one at a time from 4'' increment to another.
the diffrence is simply you end up way further down the beach
and easily covering the distance back to take off "A"
the z of thet big board is proportionally vain-glorious .
Enjoy the ride,while applying accumulated skills
every length stepping up and down is a challenge all its own
and the limits are the same,and the limits are skills and imagination.
I once thought my 7'6 pintail with fredrick douglas's cover shot on life magazine
cover glassed to the deck was rhe necessary pintail for big hanalei...
9'ers wer better.
but that was 1968 and 1975
the 7'6 was reshaped into titus's first short board
he bought it from me for 15$ i used it once or twice at kalihiwai
beach reef...
make a gun that kneel paddles
...ambrose...
P.E said ride your best board on the worst days
so that when it gets good you are used to it.
good big waves are a gift be ready...
dont just hoplessly blow a good wave cause your board
cant make em.
[img_assist|nid=1045447|title=Step up boards|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=417]
In my world step up boards start at 7’4"and end around 8’6".
They work for larger but not serious surf.You can duckdive any board with the proper technique.
When it gets 2x+ overhead grab a real gun and Make all your waves.
The top two boards are 7’& 11’2".In between this I own a 7’2,7’4,7’6",7’8",7’10",2x 8’,8’6",9’,9’4",10’4".
Options are good!
[img_assist|nid=1045450|title=6-8 step up outline|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=299|height=324]
[img_assist|nid=1045451|title=Step-up Needle Nose|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=397|height=265]
[img_assist|nid=1044832|title=first|desc=|link=none|align=none|width=379|height=253][img_assist|nid=1044826|title=2|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=417|height=386]
[img_assist|nid=1044825|title=3|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=441|height=409]
the rocker specs i got yeeaaars ago from bert burger, i asked for a shortboard rocker for bigger waves, and that is it.
I thought this thread was interesting. As Resinhead accurately points out- depends on the spot, but in truly bigger waves, I concur with JJR’s bigger is better theory.
I caught some more swell
[img_assist|nid=1045615|title=The Point break Aug 2009|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480][img_assist|nid=1045616|title=The Point break inside section Aug 2009|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480]
aplogies if this post is a bit long for general consumption, but I wrote it yesterday after I was still pumped from a session on my GTS step-up. I know the maker of my GTS has told me off for posting pics of Vicco, but I just can’t contain myself. However I will write a more technical post about how the step up performed, but later its fri evening now and I’m going back to the beach
thurs was my day off work in return for some saturday work I did. Wind had been strong offshore for days and was due to abate on thurs leaving behind decent solid surf. So on wednesday evening I packed my car and drove to my mate Peter’s house - late in the evening - about 1hr 15min. Got up for an early (but not too early - no point in competing with the before work crowd if I had all day to surf) However I had that oh crap this is really big feeling when I saw the surf at the Bowl and I decided to watch it for a bit. Then I saw Mark in the carpark and he said “did you see that set a while ago?”, I said no and he said “maaaaate!”. I asked him if he was going out and he said “mate, I have 3 kids, I don’t need to do this stuff any more”. I thought to myself, I don’t have kids but I’m 48 and although my wife lives overseas most of the year I do have a sense of responsibility to her to remain alive and well, so I don’t need to do that stuff either.
I had that feeling of disappointment of not surfing the waves. I was also a bit pissed off that I had squandered a precious mid-week day off work when the Bowl was too big for me. At the start of last winter I had the session of a lifetime at this spot when two of my mates had encouraged me to go out. I told them it looked a bit big for me and was probably going to go the Point, but my mate said to me “Mike if you are going to go out here I think you should go out now”. Another surfmate said “you’ll be right mate”. But this time Mark said to me, “if you want a surf the Point is 6 foot”. So basically someone who knows me was telling me that I should NOT go out here. Mark is an excellent surfer, knows the bowl really well and is a supremely fit paddler (he entered a surf rescue board paddle board race and came second and he doesn’t even do any kneepaddling). Mark’s told me that his friend (one of the main shapers in town), was waxing up his 7’ 6" then changed his mind when that set come in.
So off to the point and I suppose it was 6’ on the stupid macho underestimate it scale, not super tall but carrying a lot of water. The first pic is taken in the carpark and shows the waves out at the point which is far away. The waves travel all the way to the left of that vantage point as shown by the second pic I took. There are guys out there. Definately a job for my GTS stepup. One of the problems with the point is that a strong current sweeps to the left, sometimes that current persists in the line up too. It was a long paddle, I don’t fight the current, instead I walk right into the corner and allow myself to be swept to the left while making steady outward progress. When I reach the channel, I then make a right turn back into the line up. This time after reaching the line up - no current! Magic, ould just sit there. I caught 4 waves, 1 of which sectioned on me after a while. One wave ran only as far as the channel. The other 2 waves allowed me to go all the way to the left of the vantage point in pic 2. What happens when making the full length of wave is that there is a closeout crunch section. To kick out there on a day like that and try and paddle out doesn’t work for me because the sweeping current intensifies there and makes it too hard. So I square off for the beach and try and outrun the whitewater explosion which happens behind, then fall off when it catches me, then get washed to the beach. So the thing to do when making the full length of the wave is to get out of the water and walk back right into the corner of the point and paddle out again. So in total I did the long paddle 3 times (in less than an hour) then got out to conserve energy for another session later in the day. Its not a perfect wave but what a length of ride!
In the carpark a surfer changing asked me if I had a few, I said yes exactly 4. He laughed and I defensively said, “well I think thats alright”. Then I realised he laughed at the precision of my statement rather than the low wavecount and he commended me on my choice of wetsuit - excel with attached hood. Mine is 5mm with polypropylene lining on chest and back. 5mm is considered excessive for Vicco and you can’t buy it locally. It is however great for chilly windy mornings and other surfers do sometimes say they are cold so I don’t think its stupid.
then some food, chill out, spectate the Bowl, phew really big there and the superhuman guys out were taking off extremely late due to the strong offshore wind. When to surf again is not simple with me due to my health condition and I have to wait before food digests totally before considering it. However by the time I was ready I decided I needed more calories, so a tablet of prepulsid to kick my damaged digestive system into action, a little bit of chocolate and a liquid lunch of “Aussie bodies perfect protein”. Then wait about 1.5 hrs to assimilate that. By which time surf had built more. Fun fun fun! Attire for my early arvo session was 5mm rip-curl, no hood and my helmet. I made the paddle out and there was my mate Mark. No current in line up. Normally I wear ear plugs, but when its big I don’t coz I’ve had problems with them pressuring my ears. So with the helmet and no hood I could hear more and I remember the sound of my first wave. It was great, flying along on the GTS and what a sound a sandwich board makes as it hammers over heavy texture!
I didn’t count my waves this time, but I got more and stayed out longer. I had revised my technique and decided that due to the extra size, the ride it all the way past the channel then walk to the corner would be too exhausting, so instead I chose to kick out before the channel - except for the last one when I had no choice because I wanted to go in. I took an absolute beating when the crunch section caught up with me. Another issue I have is that I wear contact lenses, so a wipeout that drives me deep requires me to open my eyes to locate the surface, but I have to half open them so I don’t lose my lenses which requires a certain presence of mind and this crunch section did put me in that situation. I suppose it wouldn’t have mattered on my last wave in if I lost lenses, but I did retain them.
[quote="$1"]
aplogies if this post is a bit long for general consumption, but I wrote it yesterday after I was still pumped from a session on my GTS step-up. I know the maker of my GTS has told me off for posting pics of Vicco,
[/quote]
LOL...
But now, expect a visit from some large gentlemen...
Josh
AWESOME write-up, that just got me so amped! I had that big swell feeling…
It’s triple overhead (+) here at the mo, breaking out near the horizon, on-shore, whoah… nature in full mix-it-up mode. 4 metre swells and onshore for the next week.
Glad you guys are actually getting something rideable out of this
Don’t worry about attracting crouds, all the warm water surfers won’t want a bar of it, and all the cold water guys wanna head where the tropics are…
The americans that can relate live in SC or more northern, or equivilant east coast, so why travel to the depths of downunder?
DEATH ON A STICK OUT THERE MATE!
Hey Mr. J, thanks for the report. I’m 48 too, with wife and a kid now, and it’s true, on big days the thought does cross my mind, “What if…?”
That wave looks really challenging too. Heaving on the outside, looks like some sections really back off too. What works at one section of the wave would hinder your performance on another…
How big are you? Looking at the photos I’d say I’d want something bigger than 6-10, just to paddle and get in early…
But , at 48 years I almost can’t wait to be 50, so I can say, “Yeah, I’m pretty good for an old fart.” 50 sounds legitimately middle aged.