Surfing
Five things to consider when buying a surfboard
Volume, sure...But never lose sight of a few 'other' crucial variables.
Got sleds. Jordy and a few friends in West Aus
© Ryan Miller/Red Bull Content Pool
“Hey bro, what volume surfboard you riding?”
“Dude, what’s the volume of your board?”
“Have you heard that all Mick Fanning’s boards are 26.38 litres!?”
Volume volume volume, it’s the current trendiest word in the surfboard world and many seem to think it’s the be-all and end-all of surfboard design. Like you need to know a board’s volume before you dare even consider surfing it. Don’t get us wrong, volume is a crucial ingredient but how about turning down the volume on volume and let’s look at five cheeky factors to consider when ordering your new sled from a crafter of flow-foam.
A sum of its parts: Ouline, rocker, rail, etc etc
© Cyle Myers
Rocker
Rocker is the bottom curve of the board from nose to tail, the curvature of a board from the side angle. Wanna paddle in with speed? Want more stability? Yeah, sure more volume will help, but think rocker. Because flatter boards – boards with less rocker – will give you more paddling power, more stability and more planing speed. Having a board with lots of rocker is like standing on one of those rolling logs, you never know what’s going to happen.
Outline
So you’re about to order a board, you’ve done all the necessary research and the review of your desired model reads something like: Loads of drive coupled with tons of manoeuvrability. And, now what we have is an oxymoron, a conundrum if you must. A board with a curvy outline will be exceedingly manoeuvrable and lack drive, while a surfboard with a straight outline will have copious amounts of drive while lacking manoeuvrability. So deliberate over what style of surfing you’re after. You wanna do tight arcs and big airs, think curvy board like Filipe Toledo, you wanna do long drawn out carves, think a straight rail like Adriano de Souza.
Rail
Back in the dizzle, rails were considered a principle factor when ordering a new board, now we’ve kind of forgotten about ‘em and roll with what we’re given. But my dear friend, don’t forget about your close ally the rail. Perhaps your local beach break is flat and powerless like Muizenberg, consider a full rail with the forgiveness of a loving hippie father. Your local break has power for days, maybe go with something more pinched. Pinched is strict and lacks forgiveness but there ain’t nothing wrong with strict, it gets you where you wanna be in life and helps you hit the lip tighter when there’s more power.
Jordy could make (just about) anything fly
© Ryan Miller/Red Bull Content Pool
Glassing
You been wondering how the pros throw their boards around with the greatest of ease? Like they thought ‘air reverse’ and boom, they just landed one. Well yeah, obviously they’re super talented, but pick up one of their boards and feel the endless joys of light glassing. And discover that lightly glassed boards are just that much easier to surf. And break…
Give and Take
At the end of the day, surfboard design is all a game of give and take. You want a lightly-glassed board, it won’t last long; you want lots of drive, you lack manoeuvrability. It’s pretty much like most things in life, you want a job that pays well, you lack time to surf, you wanna be a hippie that just chills, you’ll have no money for new boards. So basically it comes down to, what life do you want to live and what surfing do you want to do?