Mid-Life Dims (40+)

I just picked up my new custom Mystic 5'11" x 20 x 2'3/4". The rails are foiled out though so it doesn't feel 2'3/4" thick. Im 45 6' 175lbs. I've only had it in the water twice this week but it goes great so. The rocker is relaxed so it gets in waves early and the tail is pulled in a little and seems to allow better turns.

 

Bingo. I am getting to 64--7'6", 7'8' 7'10" and two 9 footers. Am going to order a 7'2" this Spring.
Conditions rule.....yours, not just the waves!!

 

Looks Sweet bro !!! You should gettin real early on that...

 

Looks like the logo bled down the stringer on the deck side.... or is it the pic?

That's one heck of a hip in the tail.

 

It must just be the picture on the logo part. Yes there is a pronounced hip but I think the design on the rails make it appear more pronounced than it is in that picture. The shape is based on a Superbrand vapors.

 

Wow. This has been the most positive vibed and actual surf related thread in quite some time now, and it's 5 pages in! I gotta say I like it. Good topic and good info being shared here. This should be in the training manual for SI's "what a thread should look like" page.

 

Yep No Douche Canoe BS (morons)...

 

it's more about how often you surf/what conditioning you're in than your age. There's a bunch of surprisingly good 50+ shortboarders in my area...but they surf a few times a week, year-round. Most of them ride fairly standard looking shortboards.

I'd say you're on good track with "lil' chunk". You might not want to go much farther, because the chunkier they are, the chunkier they ride.

The only true "groveler" is a longboard. Despite how longboarders think they look, it's all about paddle/glide in horribly small/weak waves...not performance.

I do think a rounder nose helps paddling (slightly), but can dig in steeper/hollow sections. Although I don't like wide tails, if you do ever go that route, quads are the way. The rest, imo, should be left fairly standard (not too wide, not too thick, rocker not too flat, hippy squaretail, tapered rails, etc). After some major failures with local shapers, I've learned to leave that balancing act to the big names.

 

About nose width... you really have to look at the planshape, and not just the numbers. The curve in the shoulders tell you what's going on more than just the measurement a foot back. A good shaper knows how to sync nose width, planshape, entry rocker, and bottom contours... even nose rail shape... to give you a combination that meets your needs.

 

Make me a board LBCrew

 

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!

 

Soon, brother...

 

Hey bro if you want to just shape the boards and markout the fins Ill glass the boards if that helps move things along??????

 

Don't go wide on the nose! Unless you like to try to duckdive and get pounded repeatedly. One thing I don't think was mentioned as far as a performance/cheating feature for a groveler on small waves for an old fart: Make sure the wide point is north of center. This is also true on shortboards for bigger waves. It will help you paddle over the ledge on good waves, and on the crappy reforms a groveler is made for, it also helps you get down the face in mushy surf, and get some momentum in a forward direction.

It also gives you volume under the chest, and if you have a pointy nose, this will make the difference in catching the wave earlier. You still need a decent entry rocker so you don't pearl on juicy sections, but lots of flat planing area under the chest to belly for speed. So you can still duck dive. And surf small bowls as well as mush. You can thank me later.

 

This is good advice. Always try to get some flip in the nose even if the rocker is mainly flat throughout the rest of the board. Then, use concaves to offset the flatter rocker under the belly and out back.

How do you find the board turns with the widepoint pushed forward compared to easier turning with wide point back?

 

nose flip is important...if not just to help keep the nose out of water while paddling, it helps a flatter rocker board not pearl in steeper faces.

Unfortunately, shaping flip into a close tolerance blank is relatively difficult, so local shapers never put it in and even most bigger name shapers don't. That's one of the reasons I just ordered a couple of Roberts...he's one of the only shapers that's been flipping consistently for decades.

You'll notice most shapers also don't ever put the widest point north of center...even on grovelers. Last local shaper I went to discouraged it because he said it throws off the balance of the shape. Any supposed paddle gains are outweighed by how much more difficult that makes the board to turn...or something like that. Gotta pick your poison, I guess.

As far as duck diving a wider nose successfully...totally doable. Comes with practice

 

A few thoughts based on what's been said in this thread so far...

Nose width has to be taken into consideration with nose foil when you're talking about ease of duck diving. It's no secret that less volume in the nose makes duck diving easier, so shapers balance width and foil for good results.

Nose rocker and nose width have much more to do with wave catching than wide point location. Wide noses with lots of rocker push water when paddling. So you can get away with a narrower nose and more rocker, but wider noses need relaxed entry rocker for good wave catching.

Nose flip... that acceleration of rocker in the last few inches of nose (4" seems to be a happy number for most people), does good things for wider, flatter noses, even on traditional fish shapes. For about the last 6 or 8 years, it's caught on, and lots of shapers are doing it now. Backyarders can do it too by buying a bit longer blank and taking length off the ends... it allows you to add (or not add) as much flip in the nose or kick in the tail as you like.

Concaves FLATTEN rocker, so boards with flatter rockers to begin with tend to have shallower concaves... the rocker is flat enough already. Boards for better, hollower surf tend to have more rocker overall, so they can accommodate deeper concaves.

Pushing the wide point forward of center elongates the curve behind it, making it straighter, all other factors held constant. The straighter the rail is between your feet, the faster you go, especially in weaker surf, but the stiffer the feel, which not really a problem at the lower speeds attained in small weak surf. You can compensate for that by adding hips, bumps, wings... usually at the rail fins (hips at the leading edge, bumps and wings at the trailing edge). Tweaking rocker helps loosen up those straight-railed templates, too, but the cost is slower speeds... again, especially in small, weak waves.

Back to paddling... every board has a sweet spot where you paddle from, and it's based on the balance of volume fore and aft. As we all know, the big factors affecting volume are foil and planshape. When you're paddling from that sweet spot, your board is in perfect trim, and drag is minimized. Too far forward, or too far back, and you lose that trim efficiency, and increase drag. That's why shifting your weight forward as you paddle to get into waves earlier doesn't work. It makes no sense, yet people believe it does. The same thing can be said for pushing volume forward... why would you want your board to be more buoyant up front? All that means is you have to paddle from a spot more forward on the board to find that sweet spot, which does nothing for catching waves earlier.

 

All this talk about paddling and volume reminds of a borrowed board I rode for a few waist high waves the other day. FW Sweet Potato never tried one before, and the conditions were right for a quick spin. Don't know what the dims were. One thing I do know is it had MASSIVE amounts of volume. Big round tail, and rails that felt like they were 3" thick right out to the curve. For all of that volume, it didnt really paddle that well, and kind of felt sluggish. The wide point seemed pushed towards the rear, and the rails really soft. Sorry if off topic, but it might actually not be all that off topic because it seems like alot guys 40+ are riding these things to allow them to ride a short board in small waves. I expected to like it more than i did.