Guess that all it comes down to is discovering what works well for you on your own. Reckon the only way is to give the step up/over/around a try and see what your comfort zone is. 20 dudes and 20 different approaches. Then you get old and/or fat and it evolves again. Then you get to go on surfari. Part of the fun and the challenge is to assemble the quiv to cover your bases- hitting a moving target as it were. I f-n love it.
I have a 7'6" that I've ridden here a few times on big days. Easy to get into big waves, only problem is once you're on 'em, you're always wishing you had a shorter board to do more on the wave. It's a trade off.
Looks like this weekend I may be using that 7'6" gun after all, if MSW and SI ware accurately forecasting the swell to come!!
I have a 6'4" BONE step up that I love. I told him to shape it similar to a Rusty Slayer. This thing is meaty and gets the job done. I've made some bombs on it recently and I'm stoked. It's a hair under 20 in wide and 2 1/2 thick. I would get the same shape again but 19 1/2 wide and thin out the rails a touch, because the thing is hard for me to duck dive deep under the big ones. Thanks Scooter BONE Surfboards Rodanthe NC.
barry I believe the word u are looking for is "volume."....its not just the length,u need extra volume so u can get those good paddles in
This is true for me too. When I hit 40 (almost 43 now) it was a head game about my boards. The last 3-4 years I have been "transitioning" to more volume in general. Also, as we all are getting caught up in volume, it reminded me of a cane swell a few years back. I blew the dust off of an older but quality 6'7" pin tail narrow/thin etc. first wave bottom turn on a solid overhead wave and I "jerked" my bottom turn and got worked... After that I caught 4/5 good waves on it and had a blast drawing out my turns in some solid surf. I love experimenting. Come to think of it...that board has collected dust again.
