If you keep the volume of the board as similar to a regular width board, how skinny can you go? Alaia’s are in the 15" range, if you increased the thickness of the board, could you ride a 10-14" surfboard? And more importantly, what would the ride be like? I’m guessing rail to rail would be so easy. Any thoughts?
depends on what its made of i guess...if you get the board too long it will snap...if you make it too skinny youll just roll off the thing
But skateboards are 8" and you don’t really roll off of them. And remember, it’s going to be thicker to achieve desired volume.
well skateboards are on trucks on pavement...very different...if you wanted to go that skinny...how long would the board have to be to float you? i mean it could probably work but if youre talking about going up to 10-14' i dont know how far the thickness would be from the board width...using the skateboard as an example...if you took an 8" wide skateboard still with 1 pair of trucks and made it 10' long...the board would have to be so thick not to break that it would be very difficult to ride...almost like trying to surf or skate with platform shoes on...but if you did find construction materials that allowed you to make an 8" wide board 10' long or longer without snapping...then it would take some getting used to but it would surf
I didn’t say 10-14 feet. I said 10-14 inches
hahahaha...my bad...doh
Ive tried boards with a width of 12 inches and its too thin, the boards bog, it feels like theres a minimum width required for efficient planing.
11 in was a disaster even though they were alaia (parralel sided) shapes. They just sat low in the water and my man-boobs hung over the sides and dragged while paddling.
14 felt like it was the lowest width that wasnt trouble.
Monkstar1,...Whats youre angle ?
Not really an angle, more like really curious. I’m imagining a fairly skinny 14" (or so) board that is thick. Like 6’0" x 14" x 3.5 or 4" thick. I’m picturing rail to rail would be so responsive. Just always wondered why boards were above 17" wide. I’m thinking about volume. Guys talk about very wide boards and I picture them skipping out or sliding out of the face. Maybe a skinny board would hold a lot more. I guess I’ll just have to try it to really see what it’s like.
You seem to be considering volume, but not planing area. Just ballparking it (ignoring rail curve), your 6’x14" would have a surface area of 1008 square inches. That would be the same surface area as a 4’11" x 17" wide board. And if you push the width up to 20" you would achieve the same surface area with a board only 4’02" long. So you might assume that your 6’x14" board would achieve planing as easily as 4’02"x20" board. But no, the short/wide will achieve a plane at lower speeds than the long/thin.
Moving on to volume.
A bog standard 6’x19x2.5" board will have a volume of 3420 cu inches. To achieve the same floatation with a 6’x14" board, it would need to be 3 3/8" thick. So, to return to the skateboard analogy, it would be responsive… but in the way a skateboard with loose narrow trucks and 2 inch risers would be!
It would be fun to experiment with, but I think it will need to get considerably longer to paddle into waves in a similar way to a more standard width board. And it’ll be pretty corky too. There are good reasons why most boards range from 17 - 23" wide. Going more than an inch outside that range and here be dragons.
Thanks for that breakdown. Makes a lot of sense.
What would be the point of going super narrow exactly? What I’ve found is when boards get too narrow they become harder to turn. Too wide and they have a tenancy to hang up and go over the falls. If a board feels good under your arm, chances are it will feel ok in the water too.
Barry Kanaiaupuni used to ride a 17" board. He freaking ripped on that thing. I couldn’t ever do skinny boards justice. With my now wider frame, I’m riding wider boards than I used to… but still in the realm of “normal”. My shortboards range from 18.5" to about 20" or so. My longboards are usually in the 21" to 22’ range.
If you’re thinking narrower boards are easier to get from rail to rail, and are therefore easier to turn… you’re wrong. Narrow boards want to track in a straight line and they are harder to get into turns… especially if they are full-volume. Think of surfing a telephone pole.
Of course, this is all just talk. The only way to really know is build some and test them out.