It's the device that either separates or connects you to the most profound of pleasures. Get to know it!
Go buy a surfboard. Yeah, of course!
It’s that great toy that provides such thrills for so little money. But how many of us have left the shop or the bay with a mixture of disappointment and a feeling of being ripped off?
You can’t blame the shaper. Unless you’ve been going to a total backyarder you’ll get what you asked for. So how do you get the surfboard you want. And need. Think a little and know that:
1. Volume is important but rocker is everything
Everyone’s hot for knowing their surfboard’s volume in litres. I’m a 28; you’re a 24. Life’s great. But knowing volume is no different to knowing your jean size but being unaware of rises and cuts and silhouettes and how tapered you want your legs. Me? I believe the key to getting a surfboard that’s going to skyrocket your confidence is in low rockers, particularly nose rockers. Curvy boards are like standing on rolling logs. You want stable. When you paddle you want fast. Sure, know how many litres are in your board, but start thinking about rocker.
2. Board design is a game of give and take
It’s physics. A curvy board won’t have drive. A flat board won’t fit a curve. I know, I know. You read the spiel about a model and they’ll say, easy to turn and with drive! It can’t happen. The theory is concave will deliver the speed while the curve in the rocker gives the turn. What you get is a twitchy speed from the concave but not drive which is an earthy V-8 kinda torque. All board design is about adding and subtracting until you find the happiest of mediums. The more extreme one aspect of design, the more it’ll lack in another. Which leads to…
3. What kind of surfing are you chasing?
It’s no accident that the smoothest and fastest surfers (think Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson) have shelved their air games. Both ride boards that are made for speed and drive and the most pleasing of real-estate gobbling cutbacks. Filipe Toledo, on the other hand, rides boards that… pop! Heavy tail curve! So apply it to your own game. If you want to paint trad lines, try variations of the Parko/Fanning boards; airs, try Filipe or Noa Deane.
4. Rails? Remember those?
Square or rolled, what’s it going to be? Rails used to be such a big deal and now we kinda take what we’re given. If a shaper is trying to squeeze your 28 litres into a 5’6″ you’re going to get a full rail; if it’s in a 6’1″, they’ll be rolled to the heavens. Maybe it’s time we stole some of our control back. You like basic, easy-to-ride boards? Go squared-up rails. You want volume but a thin rails and don’t mind a loss of stability. Roll ’em.
5. Team glassing
Just once in your life, order a board that is glassed the same as the pro’s. It won’t last, of course. But you’ll discover another of those semi-secrets: super-light boards are the easiest to throw around.
(Want to see the best in the biz? Listen here)
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Am I the only one who noticed the other guys in the video seemed to have no idea what Matt was talking about?
FOIL, its all about foil and rocker. Unless your Dane, then you can pretty much shred on a piece of driftwood.
That was fun. Low nose rocker but with some curve in the tail to help my old bones put it on rail. Single to double to vee off the tail. The wider the tail, the more vee needed for me. A little bump/hip seems to give a point to swivel off of / pump on. Nice post.
Round nose, pin tail single. One of my favorite boards ever. Currently experimenting with that same contour on the bottom of a pintail shortboard with a retro-type outline (wide point forward), set up as a thruster. Haven’t decided if I like it or want to make some changes yet.
Everyone gets hung up on numbers: volume, rocker measurements, etc. It’s all about curves – are they smooth and gradual or sharp and sudden? And let us not forget Biolos greatest quote about board design, on the non-existence of “front-footed vs. back-footed”: “You push hard or you don’t. You’re either Taylor Knox or a flicky little kid.”
yeah like Kelly is a front foot surfer , and his bds do not work for backfoot surfers , maybe that’s why Biolis is only a one trick pony , can’t customize bds for a surfers style or ability , maybe that’s Kolohe’s problem.
Did it work?
Flat bottom – slight vee out the back from in between the fins. My go to combination on my last few boards
Just made one kinda like that slight single into vee out the tail so good
The whole volume thing cracks me up, the amount of time I hear a guy say “I ride 28L” but they can’t tell you dims, what kind of rocker, and concaves they like, it’s just really funny to hear
fark reilly , 2012 mayhem video , are you taking the piss or just trying to get retro/hipster on us?
You don’t like the kooky fashions? The ancient expressions?
nah just the real lack of anything technical and lack of forward thinking designs , fark all the bds that are being surfed now are 15 year old designs , maybe thats one of the reasons the WSL has become so boring , and australiuan surfers are becoming jusy Journey men!