so i have a longboard of my own, i picked it up at the local shop, and i absolutely love it but this was when i was first starting to surf about five or six years ago and i never really researched the product. so a friend of mine approached me at school asking what brand longboard he should get, a handshaped on, no pop-out's allowed, and i drew a blank, so i told him i'd put in a post on swellinfo. i need some help, any solid brands?
did you read his post? no popouts! patagonia is the only one of the 3 you listed that isn't foreign-made crappola. check out austin in va beach, tim nolte & scott busby in nc, & brian wynn in nj. then there's the big names, like bing, takayama, harbor, pearson arrow...there are literally as many quality longboard brands as shortboard.
Donald Takayama seams to be a legend. i hear great things about his boards and has a cool site. http://www.hawaiianprodesigns.com/ I spoke to Brian Winn..really cool guy and seems honest....he actually talked me out of paying an extra $50 for a wild color scheme and just go with plain white(cheaper). has come cool looking boards. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Robbinsville-NJ/BC-Winn-Surfboards/122914562268?ref=ts I rode a 10'4 Jimmy Lewis in Waikiki last month that can catch a ripple if you threw a rock.
I have ridden different types of longboards performance 2+1 setups , Single fin performance , Noseriders and Old school logs. It depends what they wanna do on a log and what they wanna spend Bing has been around for a long time and they have work with David Nuuhiwa and Donald Takayammi in the 60's and today with shapers like Chris Del Moro and Matt Calvani. They pretty much draw the line in longboard design. Brian wynn make a good log but a little to light for me . I just like my boards heavy and I am sure if I wanted one heavy he could do it but I bought a board off the self of his so it got his standard glass job. Jim at Legend Surfboards make great boards from short to long you cant go wrong with a board made by him . Great Quality and I can say enough good things about jim and his boards. And then there is the High dollars boards like Cooperfish. Gene has been makeing boards for a long time and is taking longboards to new places. His boards a working peices of art . Even his Coopdesigns line of boards are off the chart It really boils down to how much you wanna spend You can get a 500 dollar pop out or spend 2500 dollars on the top of the line Cooperfish
hey matt, great advice. i love all the stuff i've been learning since i joined the fourm. I was kinda on the fence about getting a custom fish made by brian, even though he was really nice when i spoke to him. I didn't know how reputable he was but i think i'm going to give him a call when i'm ready for something smaller than a 9'0 anyone else have any info on him? i just looked up Cooperfish surfboards and....WOW!! they are beautiful. i'd be too afraid to ride it
I second Stewart. I had a Stewart Hydrohull that was an awesome board. I don't have any boards from Wynn, but have heard great things about him. he's been at it a while, used to shape out of CA. Has a big glassing operation too. Glasses some other local shapers boards. I've heard his glass jobs are very good/strong. I think he specializes in retro fish shapes with resin tints and such, but can shape about anything.
i've worked w/ brian on a number of boards over the years & never had a complaint of any kind. the man's a class act...he learned the trade under stu kenson in california, but came back to nj to be closer to family (he's originally from vineland) w/ his own wife & kids. the man can shape you anything...my log (& it is a log...heavy as hell! but i wanted that, so...no whining from me) is one of his models, i've gotten countless bonzers from him over the years, a couple small wave jobs... & yes, it's WYNN, not winn or any other variation on the spelling. you'll find out when you order a board from him!
If you are in Howell you've got a excellent longboard shaper right next door in Wall. Tom Mahady of Mahady surfboards, http://www.mahadysurfboards.com/ http://mahadysurfboards.blogspot.com/ Prices are very reasonable. He just got a contract with Corky Caroll to make boards for his surf camp. Corky was five time US overall surfing champion, three times international professional champion, international big wave champion and named the number one surfer in the world by surfer magazine back in his day. He is also considered by many to be the first professional surfer. Pretty good validation for a NJ shaper if you ask me. He's shipping boards from NJ to the surf camp in Mexico.
Weird I have a handshaped Walden that I really enjoy. Also I guess I was misinformed about the surftech tuflite I never knew pop outs could be so strong and responsive. When referring to pop outs I usually think of Canyon, surfboards Austrialia, Challenger "crappola" like that. Not high quality epoxy boards or hand shaped fiber glass boards but thats just me.
To clarify you can definately get a Walden that is hand shaped in the US by Walden himself. But any of the GSI model poly or surftech are pop outs. I have an 8' Magic Poly that is a pop out i bought because the price was too low to pass on. Love the board it i sick surf like a shortboard and paddle like a longboard and you can nose ride it. But it is cheap in construction only had it 2 years and it is beat to hell no dings but major compressions all over it probably wont last too long. Just wanted to calrity though that you can get a real handmade in the US Walden but they are more expensive.
Longboards, Bill Stewart makes great boards. I've ridden the ESP, Collin McPhillips performance board and the Hydrohull and they are all sweet! I have a Takayama In the Pink that is also sweet when it's less than head high, but the lack of nose rocker slows it down a bit when you're trying to make a section. You may be able to get hold of a Ted Kearns (NC) shape. His boards from NC were glassed by Gale Force Glass. I have a perf. noserider that is sweet. If you are looking for a true log, and don't want to spend too much, check out a Ward. Heavy, hand shaped and sweet and maybe 700 new. Good Luck
ok big guy....didn't mean to offend anyone but there is more than one Brian making surfboards in NJ. there is Brian Wynn http://www.wynnsurfboards.com/ and Brian Winn http://www.facebook.com/pages/Robbi...bbinsville-NJ/BC-Winn-Surfboards/122914562268 so Brian Wynn seems to make some great stuff so i'll definitely be giving him a call when i'm ready but have anyone heard of the other Brian? (Winn)? sorry for the mix up guys
well...if you think a surftech is a pop out (and that would seem to be the case) then yeah those would also be pop outs. Just because Donald Takayama or Joel Tudor let their name get pasted on a board, doesnt mean it didnt get popped out of an assembly line
