All the rage this past year or so has been for high performance boards to get smaller and wider. And I mean really small- Kelly rides a 5'9" in competition, Dane freesurfs on a 5'7", and Wilko likes a 5'6" to skate on. My 6 year old rides a 4'11" INT Blackball Beater and I used to laugh how small that thing was. Maybe he's on to something. The theory is volume. Basically if you keep the same amount of foam as your 'normal' 6'2" but just squash it into a 5'8", it will still float you, you've got a shorter board to whip around in small waves, and it's wider so it skims over those flat sections.
Really the small board craze started with Curren back in '94 when he rode that 5'7" Fireball in big Indo. Once everyone realized that riding a 5'7" in 12' surf was better suited to Curren than mortals like us, the small boards were adopted to small waves like they should have been in the first place.
And just like Curren who was off the tour and had a lot of free time on his hands to experiment, Dane Reynolds recently has decided to tinker with boards and saw off tails, shape his own weird outlines, and blow minds in knee high surf. Which brings me to today's blog "Boards for Summer: Small is Big!" I've never been a big fan of big boards in small surf. Functional yes, but not fun. Why then when surf gets small should I have to give up shortboard performance? That's why the tiny boards this past year have been a blessing- speed in small waves and performance to boot. So here's some info I've found on boards around town that should keep your small wave shredding alive in knee high surf. 'Cause you know knee high surf is coming this summer...
Ahh, the Channel Islands Neck Beard. If Dane rides it, then everyone must buy it. Not really, but man has Channel Islands been the king of selling these small wave boards. Channel Islands actually has 3 of these types of small wave performance shortboards this summer in their line-up (the Neck Beard, the Dumpster Diver, and the Motorboat). From what I've heard, the Neck Beard generates a little more speed than the Dumpster Diver due to it's wider tail. And the 'new' Motorboat this summer is a refined version of Machado's small wave board from last summer (it looks more like a surfboard this year than last year's 'boat'). As mentioned above, the Neck Beard has a WIDE tail. 15 1/2" to be precise. So you'll glide over those flat spots and generate a lot of speed when you pump BUT... expect it to be squirty with all that planing surface off the back. Hansen's has got a pretty good selection of them right now in the low $600's so have a look at them this weekend.
Now if your Neck Beard feels a little squirty because of your wide tail (that sounds a little weird) then maybe you need some bite out the back. Take for instance the 'Deep 6' from Chemistry. It's got a wide tail for speed but a little more bite than your normal tri-fin set up because of the deep 6 channels. Made popular by Allan Byrne back in the 80's for tube chasers, the deep 6 channels are making a comeback for small junky waves with Chemistry's experiment. I haven't seen them in shops yet but give the boys at Chemistry a call. I heard they have heaps of drive off the bottom.
The Aussies have got their own small wave rock and roll board called the, um, 'Rock and Roll'. JS's new summer series model was "developed to overcome all small wave conditions under 3 feet. A small wave outline that is a fuller and curvier than all other summer series boards in the range. Super flat rocker with deeper single to double concave to V / double concave out tail, fuller nose, slightly wider swallow tail creates planning speed, drive and a ‘rocking’ rail to rail feel." As with most of the boards shown above, they're around the 5'6"-5'8" range, 19 1/4"-19 1/2", and 2 3/8" thick. The JS Rock and Roll is also a pretty good bargain at just under $600. Check it out at Surfride.
And last but not least is one of my personal favorites- the Mini Merk from the Campbell Brothers. From the top view, it looks like a normal shortboard, but flip that bad boy over and gaze in amazement on the bonzer set up. Normally I see bonzers in the 6'6" to 7'6" range but a 5'8" would be a blast to ride. So much speed and flow. Awesome. Surfy Surfy has one in stock but call them quick as it's one of a kind and will be gone as soon as the sun comes out- which happens to be today. Give JP a shout at Surf Surfy to put it on hold!
Regardless of what you ride this summer, just aim for that little stubby chubby thing under your feet and go rip!
