Experiences with wrong board for the conditions. Let's hear em.

Nothing too crazy. Mostly riding my 8'3" single fin V bottom when the conditions turned very dumpy/choppy. Pearl city. No crazy stories related to it, though. Just not a fun experience.

Riding my 6'8" single fin mini-log in very stiff offshores. It has a VERY full nose, so if the slightest amount of wind gets under it while paddling, you're not getting in. If the slightest amount of wind gets under it while making the drop... well you're not making the drop.

 

Sometimes I take my shortboard out in the summer when I should longboard and I miss lots of little waves.

 

Sometimes I drive my surfboard to the beach and paddle out in my car.

 

ive got a good one.

3 years ago. summertime down in the obx. south swell with n winds in the am so i went to frisco to check it and was 3-4 and glassy. 5'10 RNF shape, really wide and really thick. Really good for frisco all morning and had a blast. all the sudden, i look at the flags and it switched dead west almost immediately.

i got out of the water and went back to the lighthouse. it was clean, easily 6-8ft with bigger sets at 1st groin. only had fins for my fish being futures so i had to go. mind that my fish has zero-very little rocker, i actually got a couple bigger ones but i had to take the big shoulders and not sit under the peak where you gotta take off. so its my turn to go and i paddle into a really steep one and attempt to stand up. there was nothing under me. my board drops all the way to the flats as i get pitched out and i am thinking, ****, i am in a sketchy spot here. i look down and see my board fins up and start to panic that i am going to sit right on the damn things and rupture my taint but somehow the board turned onto the deck right before i landed on it. It hurt like **** but i was way relieved getting worked under water that i didnt hit the fins first. paddled in after that one cuz the current was so strong i didnt want to even easte my time fighting it.

go to look at my board and there is a dent in the shape off my ass, as big as my ass on the deck. no cracks or glass broken, just a big ass-sized dent. people always ask me how i got that dent like that and its fun telling that story. coulda been a lot worse.

 

I've written this before. In 74, my first board was a Surfboards by Don Smith(my name) of Hawaii. I traded a couch for it. It was a 5'2" twin. I was 6'5" 215. It was able to float me enough to keep my head out of the water. I caught waves by letting it suck me up and over. I took a red hot awl, pierced the tail, and tied bungee cord for a leash. My next board was a 7'2" Secret Spot. Big difference.

 

got a 7'6" 22" wide rounded pin thruster set-up that has tons of float and can paddle in just about anything and catch anything...it's my super sloppy board, my step up, and my long board...it's pretty much never the wrong board. my only qualms with it (and it's probably my lack of power and/or the amount of float that it has) is it does not seem to be good for quick maneuvers. it glides beautiful top to bottom, can make pretty good top of the lip turns, and has a smooth entry, of can make that late drop when the offshores get goin and the waves stand up

the other board (got in to this late and at this point in my financial life it's only like 1 new board every 2 years) is a 6'4" swallow/fish 20" wide thruster...this thing, with the right conditions, anywhere from 3-6" and at least semi-glassy and +8 period launches into drops...it's awesome. it was an easy step down to this board, and it rips and it taught me how to cut back and make some more hacky top turns. i love it, but the conditions gotta be right -

brings me to the time i took it out in around solid 6-8+ this past jan or feb...whoa, was not prepared for that, i must have had at least half a dozen trips straight down the face, landing on my face before i made a couple good drops - could not get the timing in the bigger stuff - either i'd sit too deep and couldn't hit the paddle in because i didn't have enough float, or i'd sit too shallow and, well, the above...also had issues with it taking it to a lesser traveled bar-break (up here they're a lot of gentle beach breaks that i frequent most)...wave jacks (compared to what i'm used to) and closes and mostly goes right (i'm goofy) which makes it even more difficult...think that's more of a skill set issue than board issue though. although i'm curious how i'd fare with the 1st board that i mentioned (haven't taken that one out there yet).

that's about it though

 

so I'm on a wavejet sb by the jetty at Shinnecock east county park in the hamptons. Incoming tide with 6 foot faces with a ese swell and some serious longshore current. I'm sitting far outside because the wave jet let's me get into the wave real early. Suddenly the batteries die and I'm swept into the inlet. The current pushes me deep into the bay and 45 minutes later I wash up at Jackson's marina. I guess the conditions no longer warranted the wave jet short board, I should have been on the sup.

 

^ps just kidding; seriously though. Let's f some whores!

 

being undergunned (on 6'10 one time, 7'6 another, needed bigger boards) playing cat and mouse with swing wides. got wrecked a few times, luckily always good leashes and good leash strings.

had a too thin 6'4 out at marias and the swell showed up at 2+ MIS's tall mid session. too small board, late drop>yardsale>broken leash> long swim in. terrible.

 

for obvious reasons, the worst thing you can do is use a bungee cord as a leash (learned that the hard way)...but, sadly, those were the first leashes.

for a long time, the only board I had was a Rusty Piranha. It was actually shaped by Rusty (not a ghost shaper) and was the most beautiful board I've ever had. It paddled incredibly and I loved surfing it in the weak onshore slop my old break always got. One day, it actually got hollow and the first wave I caught was a solid overhead peeler...the med-full nose of the Piranha dug right into the face of it and sent me flying.

I've moved to a place where the waves are much better, so I now carry a groveller and a nautical lambo with me at all times.

 

Yup. After a ****e summer a few years ago, I got so tired of long boarding I hucked my longboards and went on a voluminous groveler quest to keep me shortboarding on the smallest of days. The best thing I found to counter the long board was a Lost Couch Potato. The entry was still pretty late compared to a long board, but it would float me on ankle biters.

I live 2 hours from the water and though I surf every week, I usually take a groveler and a HPSB with me at all times. Today I just brought the Puddle Jumper. I settled for Rye because I hate the wall at incoming tide (I get anxiety that I have to get out soon and feel rushed----anyone else get that way at the Wall?). Rye got real small real fast, and WEAK. It was a waste of time. I went and ate Chinese food by myself and played this game with a buddy where we try and find the most disgusting crack-hoe ads on backpage and send them back and forth.

What I do bring a lot of is FINS. I bring tons of fins with me to the beach and I'm almost always making boardrobe changes (add that one to glossary).

Dude thats what Im saying....

 

riding a fish in unexpected pumping swell and being on the critical edge of losing it several times made for breathtaking rides. or a longer midlength or longboard in unexpected pumping swell can be awesome.

it is the worst when the opposite happens, weak and gutless and i'm trying to rip on a board for when it's pumping.

good thread. I learned something. I like critical on the edge borderline out of control better than pathetic groveling.

moral of the story?

well, I still need a semigun shortboard when it's really good.

 

I am so over getting skunked lately that I brought my big heavy ass 3 stringer log out in head high, dumping, barreling, closing out waves a couple weeks ago because I was like "head high, yeah, I bet it is..." Caught a lot of waves, ate a lot of sh*t. A whole lot of sh*t. That feeling when you are on a 40 pound longboard in a barrel with no exit...

 

funny!!

 

5'6" twin on the biggest waves I've ever surfed or seen at Cape Hatteras. Slip slidin' away.

Flurida, if you see a red ford escape in the water that would be me.

 

When i surfed Playa Hermosa and Boca Baranca I was either over gunned or under gunned. The conditions went from 3 ft to 12 ft over the period I was there. I used my 7'7 fish hybrid.

 

I was riding a Mini Simmons with almost no rocker in knee high mush, falling half tide, having a good ol' time. I took a break, had a few beers, watched the wahines for a while then saw a friend of mine who, is a much better surfer, paddle out. I was all stoked about my Mini Simmons session and was going to show JD my "skills."
I was just above King of Kook level surfing at this time (my second full year of surfing) and hadn't realized, AKA didn't know, that a falling tide will make waves steep and hollow, plus add three beers and stoke to the occasion. I got lucky on the first wave and got a nice ride. The second wave, not so lucky... Big, steep, hollow. Pearl dove, Supermanned, ragdolled and then leg whipped across both shins by a three inch thick, heavily glassed board shaped like a tombstone with a super stretchy performance leash (because I didn't know any better).
My friend gave me some advice on board selection and tides that day...

 

I usually bring two boards to the beach, a fish and a shortboard, or a fish and a longboard, depending if its big or small. If its choppy I bring a fish and a shortboard.

One day at the Juno Pier, I had my longboard only. It was a hplb with a thruster fin set up (futures). I had it wired in knee to chest high surf, and I checked the cams and the buoys and the reports, and it said chest high, so I figured the Pier would be the spot to get some long rides. It looked solid shoulder high from the street, but that was the only board I broght, so I paddled out. I must have looked at it between sets, because when I paddled out a set broke out past the end of the pier on the south side. I set up and took a bomb. The board was 9', and there was wave under it and above it on the drop. I bent my back knee very slowly to bottom turn, and got slotted. I have never gone so fast on a surfboard in my life at that point. What a rush. It sucked getting into barrrels on the inside and never makeing it out.

Another time I had my fish, which I just made, and took it up to Hutchinson Island on hurricane swell, and I slipped a$$ on every bottom turn, got eaten up by not making pitching sections, and left perfect waves with no crowds to go south to Hobe Sound where I cound manage the surf. Now, after having spent time on the board, I think I coukd have handled it better, but that was the second time out on it, and I didn't have a feel for its fat rear end. For some stupid reason I didn't bring my shortboard, maybe because I was soooo stoked on the fish and though it would be less than shoulder high - it was overhead and pitching brah!