Is my board too long/thick/wide?

[dUg]

+1 for video. I should warn you though, best case it's a humbling experience. Harrowing may be a more apt summary.

[Davros]

Pictures are bad enough..video would be a heart breaking nightmare.

[philw]

^^ harrowing is about right.

i did martin dunn's coaching course with some mates a few years ago.

it was a good, if blunt reality check.

he didn't talk about board dims at all.

i surf better now, but i also ride bigger boards having seen myself on video....

[dUg]

^^ harrowing is about right.

i did martin dunn's coaching course with some mates a few years ago.

it was a good, if blunt reality check.

he didn't talk about board dims at all.

i surf better now, but i also ride bigger boards having seen myself on video....

what do you mean by bigger? longer, or more volume?

I got on slightly different boards, I'd always thought I needed hard rails ( especially through the last 1/3 ) but video revealed that notion actually was restricting me. Once I got on boxier rails I was forced to put more pressure on my back foot, forcing me to turn harder and rotate further. Another benefit was I tended to stop bogging rails and recover from situations that previously would have been wave-enders. Prior to that I struggled if I tried surgfing a longboard... now I can turn a performance 9'6 on a dime.

It would be interesting to have another video session now though. I have no doubt nurtured a whole new load of bad habits and style oddities.

Point is at any stage, riding something different can force you to re-evaluate your approach to the board(s) you usually ride, helping you to ride them better.

[Nick Carroll]

jesse,

you are making all this far too complex.

you need to spend more time in the water. Forget the video. Your mate filming you from the water won't do you any good at all. Neither of you knows what you're filming.

you want to get better, this is gonna take you years. I truly mean this. Just go surfing a lot, and begin thinking about it again in about six months.

[rmb]

jesse,

you are making all this far too complex.

you need to spend more time in the water. Forget the video. Your mate filming you from the water won't do you any good at all. Neither of you knows what you're filming.

you want to get better, this is gonna take you years. I truly mean this. Just go surfing a lot, and begin thinking about it again in about six months.

Agree on time in the water Nick but would it not hurt for him to set a camera up on the beach on an uncrowded bank whlst surfing and evaluate where hes going wrong on a sequence of 10-15 waves. I have considered doing this myself to see if I can improve on areas of my surfing.
Agree time on the water is the most important thing my recommendation Jesse is if you are serious on surfing make it a priority before study, work etc.

[philw]

^^ bigger boards - this was a while back, volume wasn't ever given for boards, not that I knew of anyway. I realised I was trying to ride performance boards when there were loads of basic things I wasn't doing well enough, and having a more forgiving board would give me a little more time on a wave to execute with more considered technique. Video definitely helped as well, it's easy to think the board is yr problem when really it's that yr a big, heavy-footed kook ...

[Beanpole]

Just on the volume thing. I've been kind of thinking about getting a new board so I have been looking at a few sights online lately. It seems to me that some shapers could make a lot more money by spending a little time on online presentation. Particularly given the Russian Roulette of finding realistic information at a lot of surf shops. If you look at Firewire online not only do you get Nev being silly you also get an online volume calculator with board suggestions based on age weight and fitness level. There are board reviews and testing from the US and UK.

Bob McTavish can be relied upon to do a good sales pitch with information about the relative lengths of different designs for different users. Jim Banks does a good job of describing his boards. Other sights rely on the potential customer ringing up.
Gee there is even detailed information on a stack of Indo Surf Breaks for Eurotrash Kooks >><< >><<
No wonder everywhere is crowded.