Alt Shape and Mid Lengths

Kanman, plug your phone in quick!

I've been thinking about getting into the 7+ range but most things I see seem like a funboard. The takyama scorpion is an odd shape that has always caught my eye.

 

Midlengths?? That is my department--been surfing mid lengths mostly (along with shortboards and longs, but NEVER a SUP) for 45 years. Sizes 7'2 to 7'10. I own a G&S Magic Roundpin 7'8(best board ever for East Coast), A Harbour Drifter, 7'8 and a G&S Egg 7'10. Own a few more but too lazy to list them.
Recently got rid of my shortboards as I am age 65.
Seems as if the marketing of surfboards has reached a dead end with shortboards, now it is back to selling the herd mid lengths. Baah, Baah, Baah!! From the article, I quote, "I would avoid gimmicks. I think there’s a very big trend in alternative surf…or whatever you’d like to call it…of a lot of people making boards that are pieces of **** with trendy logos and color jobs on them.". I have been saying that for years, even here online, hey, coffee cup owners???

Bottom line--there is nothing you cannot do on a mid length that is done on a shorty, except!!.....catch a lot more waves a lot easier, and surf much more gracefully with style.

 

Iv mentioned this board on here before. But I had a 7'8 single fin. I don't remember the dims but it was pretty small for a board that size. Really foiled out. Rails and tail were like something you'd see on a SB, but the overall shape was a mini LB outline. Pulled in tail. That board was awesome. It wasn't a fun board at all. A mid length with performance built in.

The board was a blast in bigger lined up surf. You could whip it around no problem, super fast, and liked steep drops. In smaller stuff it did work also, but I preferred to ride it in bigger stuff.

Got another 6'3 single fin that is big and beefy. It's like 2 7/8 thick. Fishy outline but with a round tail. Iv ridden it in big stuff but prefer it in slow rolling waist high stuff. It had like a delay to it. You need to anticipate what the wave will do, whereas with my 5'8 I see a section and can just put the board up in the lip. The single fin has a slow reaction time but it's a good feeling. Diffrent style. But could deffinitly still pull off solid turns on it, and it's rewarding when you do.

 

Bass, years ago, I started to order my mid lengths with 2+1 fin set up, made sure rear rails were turned down, and I have never looked back. When I want to do something different, I take the side chips off and put in a 7 1/2 inch center fin. It's a blast for me. Normally, however, I am riding midlengths with the 2 side chips and a 6" center fin, not much different than a thruster; allows the board to hold real well in deep bottom turns. As you infer in your post, different boards for different wave conditions is what rules.
My 7'10 G&S Egg, needs a larger center fin once waves are bigger than waist high, otherwise, in deep tuns it spins out with the quads. On Sunday, we had 6-8 faces here and I put an 8" fin in with side fins, and despite 30-40 MPH offshores, I was catching waves to exhaustion, and getting very long roller-coaster rides. Had not had that much fun in at least a year.
Anyway, so much for my adventures with mid lengths.....

 

I've built and ridden several midlength hull designs... full on hulls, with S decks, bellied bottoms, pinched rails... and find them unsuited for our local beachbreaks here in NJ. I've also built and ridden a couple of Scorpion knock offs, but of the short "alt shape" variety, and also found them not really suited for our waves... simmons type boards and fish work much better.

Then I've built and ridden a few midlengths with simple bottoms... flat to rolled vee... with a thruster setup and modern shortboard rails, and think they're really fun, but more of a bigger shortboard feel... not a vast departure from how you ride a shortboard.

Then there's the "funboard" type of midlength, with single fins, or like Barry said, 2+1 setup. They feel very different as a single, IMO. The approach to how you ride a wave is necessarily changed because they just don't turn and generate speed like a shortboard... at all. You're really using the energy of the wave, and putting the board in the right place on the wave to ride them well. Personally... I don't like riding a 7'6 like that. I'd much prefer a 9'6, 'cause you can noseride it. But you can approach the wave the same way... you have to use your wave knowledge way more than a shortboard, and can can get a beautiful flow going and surf with smooth style and... yes... power too. I can't surf like that, but a good friend of mine is a midlength single fin devotee, and he's got more style than anybody I know around here. Everybody who's seen him surf wishes they could surf like that.

Then you got your, "modern singles," with concave bottoms and pulled in noses and tails. I've ridden a handful of them, and find they don't come alive until the waves get into the medium size... belly to chest high and up. And if the waves are like that, I want to ride something else... a fish or a groveler.

My two cents...

 

I have a bunch of sticks but basically surf two. One a nose rider the other a mid length. Both single fins. The mid length is used for better or steeper surf while the LB is reserved for small or mushy days. I am old so I luv the glide and positioning possibilities of the single fin set up. High pocket trimming is the goal. The midlength does turn but I tend to employ corrective turns vice ripping off the top. As I've aged my style and tastes changed. I have seen guys (and gals) ripping on alternative shapes but round here those boards tend to be shorter, wider, thicker versus longer.

 

Frierson shapes

Bill Frierson shapes some great boards and I have surfed one of his midlengths (it is 7'2" hybrid) for years. I first bought it from him to surf in PR and it was great in both beach break mush and nice 8' reef break. I still like it a lot and will try to attach a picture.

 

PS - The picture was taken in December of 1999 just prior to me paddling out to a reef break in San Juan known as Parada Ocho (Bus Stop 8). The paddle out is pretty long (probably about 600 yards), but the break is well worth it! The 7'2" Frierson handled the paddle out beautifully and I had some great rides. Bill Frierson shapes some awesome boards!

 

Mid length singles are fun when the waves have quality and are easy to ride. Kind of suck in less than quality and don't make tiny waves more fun like a MS or fish does. Typically they have narrow tails and don't make speed on turns so well off the back foot to beat sections so they can get boring. Mid length multi fins are fun especially in bigger more fun sized surf but the lines are more lateral and you have to move around a lot on the deck to hook it and set rails hard- less hips & knees and more positioning on the deck and wave face. Mid length=condom, Hi Perf shortie=bare back. 9'2" log (dry hump), 5'6" mini sims(ribbed for pleasure), 6' fish (thin w/receptacle end), 6'6" thruster (magnum extra duty, purchased @ truck stop) for surf trips for now.

 

I love me a mid length single fin board. I have had a couple, but most recently had a 7'1 that I shaped myself. I had pretty sharp rails and like bigger days. It could handle pretty steep drops, but needed to be turned off the rails rather than the tail if you didnt want to spin out on the drop.
I had the board out most recently at one of the points around here in NH and ended up snapping it two on my last wave heading in. Just a simple tap of the lip last maneuver that took me down and when I came up the board was in two pieces.

 

Nice lol

 

I agree, every board has their place with the right conditions.

 

The dome of the Capitol building is in the background. Stop 5 is behind you, Stop 2 1/2 is in front of Capitol Building, and you are facing El Escambron beach on the other side of the large reef along which is the "take off" point. Stop 8 is where I spent a lot of surfing time as a teen, and even finalized in a couple of contests held there (1968, 1969). Nobody surfs Stop 5 or Stop 2 1/2 anymore-- too hard to go out. But there is one old guy (aged 65) that insists on going out at Stop 5 dragging his old friends with him.......
Yup....I know the place........<grin>

 

Haha, nice but you forgot SUP (raped in the ass) and body boarding (jerking off)