laurie said...
I'm suffering from a wanting shorter board..
But..
From my windsurfing days, I saw people go from having wicked fun on bigger boards to tweaking and tweaking their gear down to "sinkers" which only perform in 600 knots of wind.
I remember a day when out on my 120 litre windsurfer watching the guys with the 60 litre boards standing on the beach hoping the wind would pick up so they could play too.
Somehow, somewhere, I also got bitten by the "performance" bug, and ended up being that guy standing on the beach with the hard-to-get-planing board watching others windsurfing.
Would be pox for that to happen with my SUPping, but I see the cracks starting already..
Does anyone think you can get
too caught up with performance, and that one day, it's you who's cursing in the lineup because you can't catch any waves?
Interesting comparison in sports, I was in those windsurf years & did exactly what I am doing now, exploring the limits of what can be used & still have fun.
The only reason I have gone a bit longer with my board is because I found a new suplier of EPS whos sheet length is 8'2" instead of 7'10". The diffrence in length at this size board made no change in performance.
The trick is the width over all, & having a tail that is suited to your weight.
These short boards are much easer to use in a lineup than all the so called high performance boards I have made in the past. (9'x27"or so)The reason being stability, we dont have much fun wobleing around on narrow boards trying to jocky for waves. Short boards can spin very quick to turn & sprint for the wave, minmising that critical period. They ride ripples like nothing else....here in Vico we have had nothing but for most of winter so far. With longer heaver boards your basicly able to cruse around like a mal. Because of the width & lack of swing weight & board weight overall the short SUB's ride like a short surfboard on a jucy wave.
I have been surfing the 8' 2" about 3 to 5 hours a day since it was made a few weeks ago, I can't think of anthing better to make, I could never go back to any previous board.
Could I go smaller again? I dont think there is any reason... what could be more fun? I went smaller reluctantly mainly because of the attitude I think a lot of other SUP'ers have imagined, that it would make things more difficult, the fact is it's easer in waves. I thought nose riding that I love to do would be useless, but it nose rides faster & more stable than any other board I have, even allowing 10 over on a pulled in nose.
The only negative, slower paddling, I have been meaning to put the GPS on it and compare to my fast padding 9"4", I would think it will only be a k or so, instead of 8 it may be 7 or so? (I will post one day)
Going smaller on a sailboard did minimise its wind range & hence fun potential...going smaller on a SUB produces the opposite....try it....if you are a surfer.
oh just had a shower,not itchy anymore lol.
