Extended Mal riding ruins your short boarding? Thoughts!

[Nappy]

Ive got into Mal riding in the past 9-12 months or so, to the point where the shortie has been benched for long periods (3-4months). At first, when I choped and changed it felt like it helped my shorty riding as doing big carves on a solid mal certainly builds leg strength.

Now I fing myself riding the Mal when its solid for extended periods because I love it, which makes me feel like such a kook when I jump on the shorty. When you havent ridden a shorty for ages it feels like a friggen twig!!!!!!!!!! You have to be so gentle with it, like a tempermental woman. First thing you have to say to yourself is get that friggen back foot back, every thing feels stuffed till ya get a few waves. Which can be abit embrassing.

So my question is am I the only one who feels that? When you change regually it helps but when you do to much malling it ruins your shorty riding for a while? Make sense? disscuss your observations.

[Jimi]

I havnt longboarded for long enough periods to notice a difference. Just jumping on the shortie after riding a long board feels different, but I find after just paddling out and duckdiving a few its familiar again.

[sean--]

I know where your coming from there Nappy. I hurt my back in 95 and couldn't even surf for 18 months I was 33 then . Prior to that I rode a shortboard but had to ride mals when I got better and it gave me the confidence to get back into the water. I ended up riding mals most of the time got into a mal club and learned to cross step and nose ride which was great but got a bit bored with it and went shorter to around 6'10" and found it hard but just persisted with it. Since then I've always had a mal or 2 and just had midlengths and shorter boards with volume.
It is hard to go shorter though so I've found you have to mix it up to keep your hand in. It gets all the more harder the older you get as well.

[pridmore]

fish style boards are more stable and make the transition much easier

[mustkillmulloway]

i've lost my cat .....so i'm been walking the streets each nite asking strangers if there seen my pussy

i get some strange answers

re - mals vs shortys

yep....riding mals ruin your shorty surfing

i recken it's cause mal riding is just plain massivly fun

so when u get back on a shorty u got work hard

howeva u don't get the same buzz out of a massive hack like u do on shorty on a mal

too sum it up b4 i run out credit

if u like surfing a mal...u'll love a fish and vice versa

but jumping back too a standard thruster

u gonna feel messed up for a bit

p.s nappy next time u in surfers i'll give u a discount

[Shaunm]

More the paddling than the surfing, but that's me (nough said?)

[AlbyAl]

Well, somebody has got to say it ...

YES, spending time atop a mal is bad - a crime against nature in fact. Don't do it or you'll go blind. Even one surf can be injurious. I've seen perfectly good short-boarders switch to mals (I think after contracting BSE - Mad Cow Disease) and soon hair was growing on their palms, arms swinging loosely at their sides, knuckles forward, and drool coming from the corners of their mouths...

Remember those artist reconstructions of Neanderthals they showed you in high school when explaining human evolution? Well that's the look.

[Nick Carroll]

nappy maybe use the mal time to work on the subtler arts of mal riding, ie cross-walking, drop-knee cutties, hanging five and ten etc.

This will loosen your short board approach up a treat -- you'll find you let the board run a lot more between turns instead of tending to overamp.

Otherwise yeah, albyal is right, mal-riding is a foul crime against the natural order and over time -- just like masturbation! -- it will send you blind. Which is why mal riders seem to run over people so often.

[Beanpole]

I reckon its like if you drive a truck all the time you know what it takes to turn it and then you get in a gocart and do donuts

I am currently coming off my mal addiction and while its been hard and I still crave a mal when the surfs small I am down to a couple a month. Trouble is you surf more on a mal when its small.

What I can't believe is how f#*!ing heavy the thing is. I had got used to lugging this tanker around everywhere and now I struggle to drag it to the water. Like walking from a flat at the top of the hill at Crescent and back after a surf
Nose riding is the only reason to ride a mal I reckon.
I used to make it do stuff but in retrospect it could be done much easier on something smaller. The challenge is will Bondi crowds force me to resort to this craft more often and can I keep stretching over winter to improve my regular surfing?

[Beanpole]

And the answer after todays surf is.....put the seven footer away and get back on my 7'11" which I bought for this very reason. Must have been 100 guys in the water at that regional classic by 11.30 with nearly that many at Tama

[sean--]

And the answer after todays surf is.....put the seven footer away and get back on my 7'11" which I bought for this very reason. Must have been 100 guys in the water at that regional classic by 11.30 with nearly that many at Tama

The answer will probably be the same today

[Nappy]

nappy maybe use the mal time to work on the subtler arts of mal riding, ie cross-walking, drop-knee cutties, hanging five and ten etc.

This will loosen your short board approach up a treat -- you'll find you let the board run a lot more between turns instead of tending to overamp.

Otherwise yeah, albyal is right, mal-riding is a foul crime against the natural order and over time -- just like masturbation! -- it will send you blind. Which is why mal riders seem to run over people so often.

I got a reply to every ones input but im abit drunk at the moment so its gonna be later. But lol! Fong im meant man whoring for the old rich slags in surfers not guys...haha. Havent you seen duece bigalo?

[Nappy]

nappy maybe use the mal time to work on the subtler arts of mal riding, ie cross-walking, drop-knee cutties, hanging five and ten etc.

This will loosen your short board approach up a treat -- you'll find you let the board run a lot more between turns instead of tending to overamp.

Otherwise yeah, albyal is right, mal-riding is a foul crime against the natural order and over time -- just like masturbation! -- it will send you blind. Which is why mal riders seem to run over people so often.

I got a reply to every ones input but im abit drunk at the moment so its gonna be later. But lol! Fong im meant man whoring for the old rich slags in surfers not guys...haha. Havent you seen duece bigalo?

And yea im 32 and have ridden shorties since i was 10, so im not some learner on a mal or something.

EDIT I dont how the frick i quoted myself but yeah