"To me the mid-length represents a giving up, a throwing in the towel, a capitulation to nature, age, crowds, weakness."
The San Diego surfer Devon Howard, a “great style master” and famous for his non-sexual charisma, is the man credited with converting longboard hating Chas Smith to the use of the mid-length surfboard.
Chas admitted his apostasy in a post some years back:
“To me the mid-length represents a giving up, a throwing in the towel, a capitulation to nature, age, crowds, weakness. Quitters ride mid-lengths. Rebels ride shortboards, high performance, fishy-hybrids, twins while shaking a balled up fist at destiny and yelling, “I will NOT be undone!”
“Except…
In this interview, which may have been a pro qui pro for a new surfboard, Devon Howard describes longboarding as the punk rock older brother of the shortboard shredder, details the sublime joy of being hated and urges all surfers to break through the code of silence that is killing surfing.
“Silence is violence,” says Devon Howard.
keepin it real: John Peck rode a Ryder “Penetrator.”
Devon Howard; Ghandi amongst the Mongol Hordes.
LBers couldn’t give a rats ass if SBers get their share of waves.
stroke me stroke me~
nose rides. joel tudor? humbug…40 years earlier…pre WSL and pre NSSA and API…fuck corky carrol. Cotton’s Point redux, rookies~
ben dover…please report to the stage! where’s jack-me-off!
With Norma Stitz
either light up o’r leave me alone…
Get board ride board
get pissed get board ride board etc
home is where da heart is…board is under the house.
Beach Gritters ASSEMBLE! Mob mobilization activated! The People ™️ vs Luke Melby. What a cunt. Let’s all get Luke!!!
No lynch mob required thanks, but I feel there’s a base level of manners required in life when dealing with others and that should increase 10 fold when travelling in other countries.
from a capo beach resident: sorry for the stand up. having immensely benefited from undeserved hospitality by the australian peoples during my sojourns there, do let me chip away at my karmic debt and lend you a board next time you’re in town
Cheers Bud, New Zealander for the record.
As long as you’re surfing, it doesn’t matter what board you’re riding…
Well, unless it’s outside the 5’10-6’1 HP specs. Anything outside that should only be ridden with lackadaisical, knock knee’d irony, sans leash.
Side note, all waves ridden with HP spec board shall be ridden with maximum aggression vis-a-vis peak coke binge Peterson Rosa.
styrofoam lid covers. rinse off in the beer cooler. bonfire~
the hate for mid-lengths seems like a media circus , from frustrated surfers who find themselves surfing with good surfers on mid -lengths.
Yes mid lengths make it easier to catch waves as you might be older/beginner and or have health conditions that restrict you from riding a HP shortboard.
mine was cancer 3 x times where treatment knocked my physicality out of the park , with a dose of lethargy and a gaining weight everytime I even looked at food….so the challenge of going from a 5 10 shortboard , 6 3 step up…to having to go to a 7 3 x 22 1/2 x 3 midlength at first was daunting until you see the challenge to make mid lengths as just that …a high performance mid length that’s made for down the line speed but also super easy to turn…and eliminates the take off/crowded surf sessions……
As ya get older and still plagued by health issues , but still wanting to still surf…now have 9 0 and 8 0 ‘s that have tiny thruster fins, but still turn and plenty of speed to make any waves……the passion ‘s still there , but the body has taken a beating, so an opportunity to design shit that goes better.
once upon a time there were mini-mals which were shorter versions of longboards …now we have High performance Hybrid/mid lengths…which is just a natural evolution of surfing as the demographic is now soooo much older that 30 years ago…and getting older…….so hail the modern mid-length….as there comes a point …do you give up or evolve?
I feel there should be a medical exemption certificate or card we can carry in the water. “It’s ok, I’m not physically 100% and my doctor has prescribed me this mid-length, here’s my card. Don’t judge me..”
Hey Mo, what tail would you suggest for a mid?
looking for something that’s still got some good turning ability but can also handle a bit of power and smaller steeper waves. thinking something around 6-8 to 6-10.
after hitting the 6-0 the 6-0 just aint cutting it anymore.
I Like Swallow tails…or I have a version which is called a SWAT tail…which is a cross between a Swallow tail and a bat tail, because I don’t swallow anymore!!!
thanks Mo. was thinking on the same line….but wanted to check with the experts.
Personally from having a 6’’10” mid, version 2 would be 7’6”.
I guess the 6 footer is too close to my go to short board. And I feel the true mid-length experience needs more foam.
Thanks. good info. my only concern is how something over 7 will handle in steeper, tighter waves (contour wise).
what’s the width on the mids?
Mine was just under 21 wide, 43 lt. I surfed it a couple of times in fast barreling biggish river-bar waves and it went ok (just ok}. With the 2+1, wide nose and flat bottom they’re just not really the board for those waves, they don’t like getting high up into the steeper hollower sections and I felt like I had to milk/nurse my bottom turns a little.
On the other hand a little slower and softer waves on the local point break it went fantastic.
I thought it might’ve been the board for all conditions but the reality is when its really pumping my step-ups are custom made for those condition and beat the mid every time.
Sort of why I recommend getting a bigger one as it would really come into its own in those point break waves around here (big or small}. Big drawn out surfing and speed runs through the fatter sections.
thank you
sounds like you need a decent board?
Always!!!
a little tip all my mid lengths etc work as twins/Thrusters…I hate the 2 + 1’s as they are so limiting…HP = thruster!
thanks Mo.
how do they go as a quad?
Nobody asked for my advice, but if you’re buying a mid don’t go to short. It’s not a shortboard, you’re not going to do blow tail vert reo’s, so get some length and really enjoy the extra speed, longer rails and drawn out turns that come with them.
Also a middle finger shout out to Luke Melby from Capistrano Beach, California for fully ghosting me on FB marketplace over that Timmy Patterson 7’6″ Mid I thought I’d be riding over summer.
I’m not the girl who finger banged you in the dog kennel in the back yard of that shit party when you were 16 and drunk and didn’t want to deal with the consequences. It’s all good to just say I decided not to sell it or whatever, instead of ghosting me on like 5 messages.
based on your height, weight, years of surfing and your astrological profile, I suggest riding the 2nd revision of the Morey Camel…leash not included/
Too much curve in the middle. Try again.
sooooo. the original camel…more humps?
I have a family member that has given up and gone full mid length. Good surfer and only in his mid 40’s. Sad to see anyone go that direction at such a young age. Been hard to process.
I think it depends on where you surf. On high performance waves you can, and should, surf a high performance board. In gutless junk, you just start to sink unless you can go full athletes mode to avoid middle age spread.
when my old man (a very good surfer who competed at Bells) got to his 40s, he got sick of having to wiggle on 90s thrusters. Asked Greg Brown to shape him a high volume shortboard single fin and Browny refused! Wayne said he would make him one, but only with no stickers to identify it (!) Says a lot about that era as nowadays every shaper has something like that.
And as I reluctantly say to my dad: you were right!
dad’s are like that!
“No stickers” was a crash course on The Short Board Revolution. Longboard shapers and sales were slow to respond.
When you get older, and most do, its adapt or quit.
Thoughts and prayers Sean, And some more prayers for good measure
Thanks Ric. Just hard when it’s your own blood.
I echo Ric’s sentiments. Stay strong brother ✊🏻
1st middie was a sawed off Rick Surfboard ridden by Rick that was reduced to a 2/3rds size: The Stubbie! The board was so loose I did a bottom turn to an off-the lip. Board flipped over and the fin gave me five stitches to the lower chin. Blood, brother! There was no harm to the 10-inch fin. I passed that board on to other youngsters and started riding 7’6″ ‘s like Jay Riddle.
join the fight~ money is a crime!
*This video has been brought to you by Channel Islands Surfboards.
Channel 11 is not a deep, deep state…Main Street~
One’s shortboard foundation and water time benefit greatly from the process of learning traditional log technique when the waves are small.
I wish I’d learnt to surf on a longer board. Way better to get the fundamentals right than jump on a high performance board when you’re 14 and get bad habits.
That’s a seaside myth. You’re born with bad style it’s not learnt. Kooks be kooking and posers be posing.
Nature or nurture? Great question. One case study: third world locations I’ve been last few decades. All learn on shortboards. Could 99% have been born with bad steez?
Nature. Nurturing in surfing is mostly coping others peoples styles.
Those groms you talk of were traditionally not exposed to surf media and had to learn really quick with in good waves. Basically the waves surpassed their abilities. Most “western” groms start in the whitewater at some shithole beach break with no one watching and had magazines and videos to help with the imagination/visualization process. By the time the western groms get to good waves they’ve put hundreds of hours in at shit waves to iron out those flaws.
So those who may have been natured with good styles were un-nurtured by your above (and excellent) points?
Offttt heavy! maybe!?!
Style and technique are not the same thing though. There’s been some absolutely radical surfers with bad style. Christian Fletcher. Richie Collins. Stuart Bedford Brown. A bunch (most?) of the brazilians.
Style is very subjective.
plumb o’r dive…into real estate? my rentals are better than my…
I’m being told that Hunter Biden would get meth sharts, and then bounce on a fine art canvas with his drawers down. Then finish it off with some nice brush strokes of his doo’, across the piece*
Sure, “longboarding” has a place in this World….
Goat Boat for the Win!….
Long(read). Bored.
but the first time you got a board that one could knee paddle into the line-up w/o getting hair wet? groovin’
the never ending summer?
https://www.thegatewaypundi…
9.0 earthquake in Oregon. all is fine. accolytes and memories…oysters&adboloirs/
Unless you’re old enough to be a grandpa, you shouldn’t be riding a longboard or a midlength. No HamSammish for longboard crutchriding kooks.
Geez dude as if anyone on this site is not old enough to (technically, at least) be a grandpa.
Mid lengths are just the millennial version of the mini mal. Not a bad option of you’re coming back from injury or a long time out of the water. Forget about being able to hit the lip though. And not a good look to just hog all the waves (though usually that’s the hipsters on 9 foot logs being assholes).
I reckon just get a perfomance shortboard and Max out the volume is a better way to age gracefully.
There’s been some great boards over time that work, like the CI biscuit. But you have to be careful with some boards as they don’t all just scale up, especially with the trend to ride sub 6 foot boards.
I think that’s where we are going with the reintroduction of the stinger. Keep the volume high but narrow the tail so you can still turn the fucker.
I have a 7’5″ MR under the house that I inherited from my old man. Hardly ever use it but when im out of shape it’s the thing to get some strength in my arms. Then it goes back in the rack for a few months.
What is all this legitimate surf talk bullshit? This is beach grit don’t you know!
send flowers to your loved ones
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few years ago, buddy of mine let me ride his 7-0 “fun shape”.
thing actually turned really good, lip smackin’ fun.
kids think g’pa is weird. ..ecentric shit stuff
Sting. Not stinger.
https://www.instagram.com/aipasurf/reel/DCpY8DFRa6V/
The biscuit was a great board. I had a magical one I got used for cheap off some guy that “found it” in the bushes somewhere. It was definitely hot. Spray painted it to hide the evidence and rode that thing till the wheels came off. Ordered a custom when it did but wasn’t the same.
check out the xyrian swhwaraa. they got the beef!