I was just wondering if there is an official cut off point in lenght (above X is Mal and below is a mini Mal)? Or is it more of a design thing?
i draw the line at 9’…maybe cut it back to 8’ for the ladies
9’ or 3’ taller than the rider.
The buffalo big board contest used to require a minimum of 9’ to be a longboard. Not sure if that’s been changed. Guys are riding longer boards these days, 10’ to 11’ is not unusual.
Seems like there are a lot of ugly 7’6" boards here that are called funboards. I tried several and didn’t like any of them.
The Mal name seems to be something Australians like to use. Not too many people here in Hawaii calling boards Mals or mini Mals.
I would think that if you could properly noseride it, it’s a longboard. I have an 8’6’’ that noserides as well as any 9’6’’ or 9’ I’ve ever had.
It’s almost as if I can hear the comments being made about this statement already…fire away.
So my gaggle of 9’1s are fun boards since I’m 6’3?
no, but if you are a kid who is 4’ tall, then a 7’ board would be a longboard to you -
I’ve never heard a good definition of a “funboard” myself, but I have ridden lots of boards that were fun. I think a good 7’ to 8’ egg shape is a “funboard”… when I try to teach someone to surf that’s often what I recommend. Big & floaty, easy to paddle, but still turns fairly easily…and no pointy bits.
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I would think that if you could properly noseride it, it’s a longboard. I have an 8’6’’ that noserides as well as any 9’6’’ or 9’ I’ve ever had.
It’s almost as if I can hear the comments being made about this statement already…fire away.
i’ll take the first shot!!!
i have a 6’6" that can hang 5 all day long…is THAT a longboard?
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no, but if you are a kid who is 4’ tall, then a 7’ board would be a longboard to you -
I’ve never heard a good definition of a “funboard” myself, but I have ridden lots of boards that were fun. I think a good 7’ to 8’ egg shape is a “funboard”… when I try to teach someone to surf that’s often what I recommend. Big & floaty, easy to paddle, but still turns fairly easily…and no pointy bits.
The funboard is an industry term used to call into question the performance capabilities of anything that does not have a pointed nose.
The industry for the last 30 years has been built around a pointed nose thruster with a squash tail. The blanks were made for that and the magazines pushed it. The term funboard is really a sort of insult. example: Hey…those boards are fun…but if you want real performance surfing buy____________.
I can nose ride my 9’1 gun, so does that make me a Long Mal, Honkey Jizzz Master.
But then I have fun on all my boards, so does that make me a Fun Master. Or does that make me some other kind of Master.
-Dick Bater
Oh answer to your question: 9 ft x 21 is the beginning of a long board.
Surprised it hasn’t come up yet - maybe its a good thing that this place isn’t very competition-focused - but to be entered in a longboard division of a contest, a board has to be 9’0" minimum. Simple as that, for whatever it’s worth…
Most longboard competitions require your board to be 9’0" or longer… unless your a kid, then it’s at least taller than you can reach (unless you can reach over 9’). Therefore most competitive longboarders ride 9’1"s or more, so there’s no question. If you’re not entering longboard contests (or marketing surfboards), what difference does it make where the cutoff is?
As far as the “funboard” thing goes… I like to think all boards are FUN boards - including my 6’1" Brewer towboard (even though I get a little scared looking at it).
My girlfriend has a quiver of Pearson Arrows - mostly longboard shapes - from 7’0" to 9’6". Her 8’6" is really thin, and rides like a shortboard. Her 7’3" rides more like a longboard. If you surfed them with your eyes closed you’d think the lengths were reversed.
I’ve built 5’6" noseriders, and 9’6" pointy nosed spears that I couldn’t get anywhere near the nose on.
The shortboard revolution spawned the segregation in board types. Surfers jumped on the thruster bandwagon, and anything that wasn’t a thruster was looked down on.
I’m in the industry, and I categorize boards to make them easier to sell, so I can’t rant too loudly… but I’d really like to get back to where surfers didn’t feel like they had to make a political choice by selecting their next board. The closure of Clark, the retro movement, and folks like the ones on swaylocks are helping to free our minds again.
As Oneula says - “it’s not what you surf, it’s how you surf”
stepping off my box.
The statement “it’s not what you surf, it’s how you surf” was to my brother from me. It was because he seems to be on an endless quest to find the magic board that will make him a “better” surfer. After 40 years of surfing, and 20 - 30 extra pounds, we’re not going to jump on a magic board and all of a sudden become Kelly Slater.
I have friends that only have 1 board and charge everything from small town to the country. They don’t have a leash plug on that board, and it’s usually a single fin.
I will say that a good board will definitely enhance the surfing experience, but we’re all so different that what I consider a good board my brother laughs at. Any board that works well is a fun board to me, but I’d have to say that the board needs to paddle well, yet can make hard quick turns where I want to make them and I need to be in control at all times. Not all boards have that combination.
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Surprised it hasn’t come up yet - maybe its a good thing that this place isn’t very competition-focused - but to be entered in a longboard division of a contest, a board has to be 9’0" minimum. Simple as that, for whatever it’s worth…
i think that’s where Keith got his measurements from.
in NSSA (and maybe ESA, too)…longboard contest rules require that the board be 9’0", except in the little kids’ division…for them, it’s 3’ taller than the rider.
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The statement "it's not what you surf, it's how you surf" was to my brother from me. .
Sorry… like SharkCountry says…
This always reminds me of something that I saw skiing once…
i was just on alpine boards, before I started snowboarding, didn’t go much, but had fun when i did, anyway, I was in Utah camping, and it snowed, so a buddy and i drove up to the mountains. I was off by myself and fell in with a local, who started showing me good terrain…He was on telemark skis, with the binding that is only attached at the toe, what I’ve always thought of as the longboarding of the ski world…he ripped, but telemarking can have kind of a too cool aura in the states, complete with slogans, you’ll hear people say “I’ve been heel-free for ten years now…”. So we’re riding the lift, and the third guy that gets on our chair is a thin, scruffy kind of weathered wild-eyed looking guy riding those very short skis, 2 feet long, flipped on both ends, no poles, usually you see kids wearing them, he’s just in jeans and a beat up old rugby jersey…anyway, the local says to me, “you should free the heel, man.” and as we were getting off the lift, the other guy kind of giggles and says, “any way you wanna get down the mountain, man…” and pushes off. we watch for a sec, and the guy flips around backwards and starts skating down the hill, really pushing off, and crossing over on the turns (!!), just like a figure skater would, hands tucked neatly behind his back. he cut over to a ledge by the trees, still hauling ass backwards, and popped one of those fancy figure skating jumps off the kicker, like a double-axle or whatever, perfect crisp form, toes pointed, and was gone.
Any way you wanna get down the mountain.
(I think I got this from a sways post, not my photo…)
what happen to “Tanker”?
you guys can fool yourselves all you want…
when it come down to it
it’s just a piece of foam with some resin and fiberglass on it.
sometimes it’s wood most of the time its not.
the rest is just mind games to create an image of cool.
ledward answers “jus press” when asked what’s the secret behind his slack key playing
duke would probably say “jus ride”
the rest “jus image”
in the end WRGAF…
I have a 7’6’’ minimal. 16’’ nose ( fairly round ) x 21 1/2 x 14 1/4’’ tail. The widepoint is just in front of centre. It has about 5 1/2’’ nose rocker. I learnt on this board, but if it wasn’t so dinged up, i would still ride this board, it is a tonne of fun, it catches small waves, paddles great, turns as sharp as you can throw it, and steep waves aren’t too much of an issue on it. Also in bigger waves ( 1’ OH for me hahaha ) it feels stable. Its a board that goes where you want it to, if that makes sense. Its now sitting in my shed, the fin has started to come a bit loose ( glass on thruster sized centre fin, no sides ), but i refuse to get rid of it, even though there are dings all around the nose and rails. Im thinking of sanding off the fin, and glassing on a 5 x 7’’ fibreglass centre fin, and also toying with the idea of adding a 2’’ wide strip of 6oz all along the rail, to keep it rideable for a few more years.
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Surprised it hasn't come up yet - maybe its a good thing that this place isn't very competition-focused - but to be entered in a longboard division of a contest, a board has to be 9'0" minimum. Simple as that, for whatever it's worth...
So this is a longboard?
of course not…but you could surf it in a longboard contest. i can’t imagine why anyone WOULD…but you COULD.