round nose boards in heavy waves

[marcus]

gday guys
been noticing greg 'ox' out s.island sometimes rides a round nose board on heavy big days.
i havent had a chance to ask him about it yet, but was wondering if there was a reason he would ride a round nose on those days, besides just enjoying riding that board.
would it be easier to make drops and not have the nose pearl and dive?
i havent noticed any other surfers using them.

[marcus]

was that a dumb question?
just interested, my brother 'guard' was commenting on it at xmas, but i dont know as much about fibreglass boards as him or you guys.

[buzzy]

marcus, I had a few McCoy nuggets although haven't got one at the moment. Even though there's heaps of foam in them I never popped the fins or had them slide. With heaps of foam they got into a wave earlier than a standard board. And, with the rocker on them, they seemed to take steep drops well. I never "pearled" to use an old longboarding term once.

I replaced the last nugget with a locally made egg, which in general goes better for it's intended purpose than the nugget but;

* it has less rocker, so does late drops less well.
* the fins do pop and slide on occasion.

Since it's just a small wave board...basically a mini, mini, mini mal, that doesn't bother me too much. When I first got it and surfed it on a sucky left in a rip the first few waves had me nose diving until I adjusted.

This is a long way to go about saying I doubt the nose volume is significant one way or another for gnarly waves. However, the rocker and volume can help in gnarlier waves by getting you in early and/or allowing you to make your bottom turn on a late drop provided the fin setup is right.

[buzzy]

Sorry, just to add marcus the "importance" or lack thereof of the nose is illustrated by the McCoy Lazer Zap that Cheyne Horan and others (such as me!) surfed. It was called a 'no nose' board. McCoy's theory was I think that the nose does little to aid performance. And notice all the groms who surf just as well on a board with the nose snapped off. Mostly the nose is out of the water.

[barstardos]

Had a conversation with George Greenough once about noses on boards. He was rabbiting on for hours (as he does) about the pointy noses on boards being purely about marketing and aesthetics. He reckons pointy noses are useless and bloody dangerous and we would all be better off if we rounded off the tips of boards so they were wider than an eye socket (for obvious reasons). If you have ever been out the Pass on a good day and seen how stupid the crowds get, safer equipment starts to become very sensible. Same goes for serious waves like the island i reckon

[mad]

Its not so much about nose shape but point of entry of where the front of the board touches the water, which gives you more paddling/wave catching ability. Ya need less rocker in the blank to achieve it.
Just thinking about late drops, its good to know pointy nose boards will hit the bottom of the wave on the rail and push through, dunno what a round nose board would do on a late drop (don't see many taking them).

[marcus]

thanks guys.
ill ask my brother for the details of the board as he's taken more notice of it and get back to you.

[zzz]

never really thought about it, but if what bastardos says is true then maybe it would be a good idea to round off the nose of boards. I know that when I wipe out inside a backhand barrel I often come close to getting impaled by my board if I don't manage to get out in front of it (down the line).

Seems to be the situation where I'm most likely to cop a board in the head or face (and the precursor to my recent neck injury was exactly that - copping the board in the head wiping out inside a backhand closeout).

Is Ox a goofy? (i.e backhanding on the island?) - if so that might explain it. (feckin legend if he is btw, be hard enough on forehand ).