WTF is a Surf Mat???

circa 1977:

 

You should just go ahead and buy a cheap one. I would guess you could get a bargain basement price this time of year. Try to find a relatively light one and don't blow it up all the way. It won't be just like a 4th Gear Flyer, and it probably won't last forever, but you'll still have plenty of fun on it. I think Paul Gross is riding an old fashioned canvas mat in this video:

[video=youtube;RSx78iP4w6A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSx78iP4w6A[/video]

 

oh yeah, and if it comes with a tow rope, cut it off. You're just gonna hurt yourself.

 

I grew up on these in OCMD, similar to Pumps bud raft.


It seems the modern ones are better designed. We also did not have the current understanding to not inflate all the way as in the tutorial below. We had them fully inflated and you were driven where the wave takes you, not much control at al.. I think the current designs be fun, especially in shore pound.

Usage tutorial:
[video=youtube;0jyaxsL599g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=0jyaxsL599g[/video]

 

Man I honestly love the diversity of surf craft. So friggin suite.

 

Ok so I'm glad to see this come up...

about a year ago I charged down to Avon Pier for a random dusk session
it was a little over head, pretty deep, and just rippable as fu(k with the occasional dredger coming thru... NOONE OUT.

it was a south swell with a little current pushing north so I kept jumpin in right on the northside of the pier, catching a sick mid section right, and then walk right back up to jump back in...

and then out of nowhere, this dude paddles out.
not with a board, or a sponge, but a fcking MAT.

I'm just like ... ok?
dude was stoked though, and he kinda ripped it. I saw him catch a few good nugs on my walk back to the pier, and had to give him a hoot on one...
so when I was waiting on the set, he's paddling out and is just frothing, I'm like, you seem to know whats up... so whats the deal with the pool toy?
and he , verbatim, says to me... "ah yea I like surfing, but I can get more barrels and blast higher airs on this thing-" and he pulls his mat out of the water and shows it to me in the most genuinely serious of tones. I just laugh and said "Right on" to him and we kept sharing sets...

one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen, but given the stoke, and the fact that he was getting 100 yard rides out of the thing... i'll give it to 'em. but I damn sure didn't see any "barrels made" or "airs blasted" lol

 

Yeah no way in hell are you boosting any air with one of those things!

 

Indeed & right on.

 

as w/ most things, if it's good it won't be cheap & if it's cheap it won't be good.

 

bingo

 

Look up "4th Gear Flyer". If George Greenough swears by them, they must be legit.

 

Surf Mat? We called em rafts back in the 70s. I haven't ridden one since I watched Jaws at the Stone Harbor movie theater in 1977. Jaws ate Alex Kitner and they showed the remnants of his raft wash up all bloody in the sand. My kids and their friends still ride them. We call them Kitner rafts.

 

lmao!

 

Now is not the time to perform some half-a$$ autopsy of a fish and I for one am not going to stand here and watch that little Kitner boy spill out all over the dock!

 

So I saw a couple of these "surf mats" in action in PR this past week. To me they really aren't much different than a body board, just softer. Apparently only 30 or so people in the world ride them in "big surf". This dude and his woman were riding them and everybody was asking them what they were. It looks funny but they catch waves.

 

http://customsurfmats.com/phileas/2014/10/23/report-from-rincon-the-other-one

 

Yep that's him HAHA

 

Or is that you?

 

I wish