What is the right surfboard? To answer the question you have to ask another question… What type of surf are you going to use it in? Actually there are a few questions to ask when you want the right surfboard.
What is your preferred surf spot, or most frequented?
How often do you get in the water?
What is your body size?
What is your physical conditioning?
What level of surfing are you at?
Along with surfing level, are you a tail surfer or a rail surfer? Or maybe another way of asking the same question is… In your surfing style do you use your upper body more or your lower body more?
What would you like the board to do under your feet?
Long board or short board?
If you say you’d like a good all around board you’ll still need to answer the above questions. For me… I had a nice all around short board I used on Kauai. At 5’10” and 148-150lbs, ok conditioning, level of ability and age it was a 6’10” X 20” X 2 ¼” tri fin. The board was good for surf from 2ft to 6ft. ( Hawaiian ). Now that same board here in Ventura? No can, not enough juice plus, I wear a wet suit which adds a few lbs and cuts down on physical response. A 7’2” X 20 ½ X 2 5/8” would be a better all around board for me for Ventura surf. But I’d only like to surf it in waves about head high or better. Under that and it’s a tanker. Or I probably wouldn’t go out. If the surf was small with some juice to it, then ok but, there’s not much juice in the small wave of Ventura.
All around boards are good to have, they’re reliable. If you take it to the beach you’ll most likely have an ok time regardless of what the size and condition the surf is. But, if you want to dial into specifics you really need more than one surfboard.
For me the all around board would be good with a nice single fin long board as a second board. Why a single fin? Because I like single fin long boarding. If I had to travel some to get to the beach I could take both boards. The 2 board quiver, a nice all around set up.
D.R.
1 comment:
Dennis,
I enjoy reading your blogs when I get the chance. I've taken both boards I got from you out a few times this past summer and tend to favor the Penetrator. I had a great all around board a few years ago. It was a 7'0"x20 1/2"x2 1/2" fun shape. It was the 6th board that I shaped and Bonzers were sort of making a comeback (the early 90s). Rawson, Minami and some others were putting the double barrel concave on their thruster shapes and raving about them. I tried putting one on a 7'6" mini tank and liked the feel. The next board I did was the one I'm referring to and I ended up just riding this board exclusively for a couple of years. From small mushy Ewa Beach to the biggest waves that I felt comfortable in (1 1/2 OH) I never felt or wished I was riding anything else. It actually looked kinda crude, flat deck, square boxy rails, a 15" nose, 14 1/2" tail. That board was so much fun to ride. It was right before I got back into riding longboards so it paddled great for me at the time. I had two great sessions with that board on different trips to Kauai. One at Pakala and the other at Horner's. I guess I'll remember the session at Horner's because I've hardly ever seen it good. Although it did everything pretty good, I'll always remember the figure 8 round houses I was able to pull off. I've never had a board that did those so well. Pump it out onto the shoulder, reset to the outside edge and bring it around back to rebound off the whitewater. I outgrew that board and kept it for a friend to use when he visits from Cali. He broke it on his last trip here and its sitting on top of my patio fridge waiting to be mended. Like you mentioned, I have to travel a bit to get to the closest beach so I bring two boards, a 6'0" fish and a longboard.
Aloha,
Derek
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