He can do whatever you want really, he may recommend another shape that you haven't even seen yet, since they are working on stuff all the time. On this one I went with the smooth finish vs. the "Kick" / Dimpled finish. I didn't ask for anything special other than the color choice and 5 fin converter box. I let him do the rest. It's EPS / Epoxy and vacuum bagged. It's very light but not in a bad way. Zeroevol has ridden it before, if he's around here, he might add to my post.
I should add that in the pictures I post JOB was riding a 6'4. He's a pretty tall guy so I'm guessing he's riding 3" longer than his height wearing full winter wetsuit gear.
Talk to your shaper about the length. There's a big difference between a 5' barreling wave and a DOH barreling wave, and I think that blue Coil will work in the former... not so much in the latter. Short, light boards get pretty squirrely in big surf, but will work very well in smaller, but still hollow waves.
+1. Also, looking at what guys like JOB ride may not be the way to pick a board for us commoners. We used to do this back in the Curren and early Slater days. I wasted a ton of waves riding equipment the pros rode (thin, narrow potatoe chips).
I broke too many boards in that era... and gave up on the design completely until EPS/Epoxy construction changed the game. I never went back to the full on banana rockers and 18" widths, but I did go back to going thinner.
Funny you mention broken boards. I haven't broken a board in years. Back in the 80/90's I would go through 3 or 4 in the summer alone (remember- I live in mid Atlantic so we rarely get board snapping quality waves in the summer)
I actually think that doesn't happen much these days. I think with the modern board being wider, sometimes fuller nose and lower rocker.... people realized not to ride what pros ride. They might ride similar outlines but super thin and modified dims. I have and will ride a board that's 2 1/4 thick. But in all honesty i don't really see a need to go below 2 3/8. Alot of big brands even have average joe and pro dims for their models now. Not saying it doesn't happen but seems like people have strayed away from trying to ride pro boards compared to the past
Nobody rides those potato chips anymore, but they had an effect nonetheless. Pretty much all shapes have been thinned, with much of the volume having been evened out through the overall shapes nowadays
Actually the boards JOB was riding are far better suited to the commoner than most if not all of the other "Barrel Boarts" posted in this thread. Volume, length and rocker are your friends when its overhead and breaking top to bottom. Can you do it in a wide board that is shorter than you are tall? Perhaps but the commoner will have an easier time on a board that is a few inches taller than your height.
I bought a used Kechle step up and took it to my shaper to fix a few spots and he said the rails were too soft, that Kech is a kook, and the boart is a POS in good surf. It hasn't been ridden yet by I and I. When I bought it on the cheap ($200) it looked like a big swell was on the way, then it turned to meh, and it's been meh ever since. I'll sell the damn thing for a loss ($199 are you out of your mind?) to appease the Surf Gods and get some good waves. It has a good template, nice concaves and a good rocker, but he's right the rails are soft, and I didn't notice it till he pointed it out.
I’m 5’9” so my 6’ M-80 and 6’4” Flashback Fish both are perfect for me I feel. The 6’ seems small to some people but it’s got some foam under the chest and paddles and handles better than expected. My 6’4” is pretty beefy under the chest too and is what I ride when there is a bit more water moving around and need some extra float. It’s more challenging to duck dive though so there is a trade off.
I'm 6'1, 190lbs, and 55 years old. 6'0 fish (under head high) 6'4 shortboard (chest to a foot overhead) 6'6 step up (HH+ and barreling) 7'0 east coast gun (as big as it gets)
