suggestions

Firewire Sweet Potato....I'm about the same weight/height and picked up a 5'6". I ride it with the K2.1 quad setup.

 

Im about your height and weight and have been riding bing dharmas in the 5'6" - 6'0" range. They are great boards for small mushy waves I actually have a 6'0" im gonna be selling in a few weeks. I have recently gotten into Firewires and I am really impressed by them. After hearing so much bashing of these boards I was hesitant but I was getting tired of seeing my friend on a Dominator catch twice the waves, I went and bought one and really love it. Not sure if it is the shape of the board or the EPS epoxy combination that I like but I am really into them now. I just ordered a timber tech Baked potato in a 5'9" for the summer mush. Im imagining it's gonna be great if it's anything like my Spitfire.

 

nah, man...I'm telling you...the first time I took mine out was in 1-2' conditions, every other person in the water was on a longboard, caught a hella-ton of waves and had a blast.

They are a little pricey, though and don't come with fins...

 

yeah i have to say the sweet potato is fun its great in mush but held up in head high conditions . i would not call it a groveler but the hypto krypto is a fun board too i have ridden it in thigh high junk to over head .

 

Was recently introduced to Bing's short board line...both dharma and swea'pea would probably be something u may be interested in. I recently purchased the board below...grovels pretty well and is fun for the smaller days--i wouldn't say there are many boards that have an HP feel in the mush, but works well enough. its Called the "rude boy."

 

^that's a hot little board

anyway, supa76, I'm about the same height/weight as you and had some eps boards in the same size range as what you're riding...and they were all way too buoyant (one might say I shoulda learned my lesson after the first 2, but I was trying different constructions, rails, brands, etc). The over buoyancy makes duck diving difficult, makes the board try to track up the face of steeper waves and bounces the board around in anything close to bumpy conditions. Now, if you got those same dims in a poly board, it would work.

Bottom line, you gotta go much shorter/thinner with eps...and you gotta get them hand shaped so you can ask for more glass to counterbalance the lightness of the foam. Poly is infinitely easier to get a well balanced board...and much cheaper

 

I like that board! I had a Sweepea and really like it but felt like I needed a change (in a rut) and purged myself of all my bings. I would still highly recomend them, Matt Calvani makes some great alternative shapes.

 

go to your local shaper. you'll get a board fine tuned towards your specific needs and the waves you get in your area.

 

Any more info on the Bing rude boy above? Dims? Doesn't seem to be on their website. Wonder what niche this is supposed to fill. I have a dharma which is great, but I sometimes wish I could turn it a little harder. Was thinking a bing musket might be the answer, but this looks like an interesting alternative.

 

Yea supposedly Bing's updating their site...I'm about 5'11"x165lbs+-. Rude boy is 5'6"x20 1/4"x 2 1/2"--this one was OTR...got a good deal on it. Board is big for my size and different from what I'm used to...but fun in the small stuff. I find that you can really whip this thing around fairly easily...prefers to be ridden off the tail. If you have a dharma...I would say this would be right up your alley...

 

Definitely with koki barrells, firewire sweet potato.

 

To add more fuel to the fire, Brian Bulkley is back in Cal shaping. He makes amazing boards, he has several small wave models and he does excellent customs. Google his name to see his experience - used to ride quads @ Pipe in the 80's
I have had 2 customs from him in the past -he is great to work with, (and excellent prices)
Email and talk to him
bulkleysurfboards@hotmail.com

JTS

 

I have been looking at Bing boards recently as well. The Dharma looks like a wave catching machine. Zippy was there are large difference between the Dharma and the Sweepea? What did you find were the major differences? Thanks!

 

The Sweepea had a more arching turning radius than the Dharma. The dharma was really fast down the line but was relatively difficult to turn hard other than pivoting off of one of the square corners. I found that the dharma could loose some speed if you wanted to drop in and fade into a bottom turn to come verticle (which I like to do). These were all issues on smaller surf, bigger stronger surf, even rounder big waves were fine, maybe even great on the Dharma. The Sweepea seemed to keep its speed off of the bottom a bit better but was not as fast down the line without input from the rider. I rode the Dharma in El Salvador on some well over head waves and it was fun, I would have liked to have the Sweepea down there although I did try my little 5'6" Dharma on the first day in El Salvador in head high surf and it was almost impossible for me to catch a wave on it. Not sure why but it was tough and I ate it a few times on what would be considered huge waves around here, lol.