Shortboard-Longboard Transition

[soulman]

Freshy Boy raised an interesting subject:

"I think the transition from longboard to shortie is difficult but makes you very versatile what do you think? (That's a general question as well)".

From the Forums, it seems like quite a few of us ride both short and long. I agree that making the transition between the two is difficult, but does help make us more versatile surfers. A couple of us, who are older surfers from Maroubra, found that consistent shortboarding kept us at a higher level of surf fitness than if we only longboarded. When we rode the mals, the transition was fairly easy- our paddling, reflexes, and overall performance was good. What we did have to work on, though, was footwork and finesse. However, I've found that if I spend too many weeks just on the longboard, that I do find it hard to jump on the shorty and perform well. So my basic approach is to keep shortboarding as the foundation, and longboard when I want without leaving it too long before I get back on the shorty. A friend in Port Macquarie takes another approach. He carries both his short and longboard down onto the sand. He rides the longboard for half the session, then swaps over to the shorty for the remaining time. He said it was hard for about a year, but then the transition all came together. He rips on both short and long, as he has for decades...

Do you have any insights?

[Longygrom]

i find hard for me cause i surf traditional on my mals and try to surf progressive on my shortys but it dont work
i end up doin cheater fives onmy 5'10 LSD. but after bout 1 week its cool
but gettin onto a mal is easy cause i like my boards to feel heavy and it doesnt bother me at all

[_cant_touch_this]

going from a mal 2 a shortboard...well iv never thought of that, i always thougth it was the other way around. oh wait, no theres a kid in my year who has given up shortboarding and is seemingly stoked on longboarding.

[Nino]

Yep, its hard to transition from Long to short. Much easier from Short to long.
Find jumping on short after a few surfs on long, short feels like a fence post, mainlypaddling wise (This effects your watch catching ability also).
Fair call considering the volume, length and thickness of the long board.
If you can handle having to readjust (I find I'm OK after an hour or so),
then OK, but if times not on your side with regard to number of surfs
you can get to, try getting a shorty closer to at least the width and volume
of your longboard.
Works for me, might work for you.

[hogman]

I reckon mals are great for getting back in sync on your short board ,they smooth your lines out getting you back into carving rail turns instead of pissy wiggle turns you get back on a shorty and really drive through turns

[PB]

I find it pretty easy to move from one to the other

After a longboard, the shortboard feels really loose (like a skateboard)

After a shortboard, the longboard feels really easy to paddle and pick up waves on

I liken it to a mate of mine's opinion on shooting pool/snooker

He'd often hit an RSL club, just to practice on their big snooker tables

He felt it improved his pool playing no end

[Simple Ben]

I reckon mals are great for getting back in sync on your short board ,they smooth your lines out getting you back into carving rail turns instead of pissy wiggle turns you get back on a shorty and really drive through turns

Exactly hogman. There is nothing like riding a plank to smooth your style out some. It teaches you how to pick the most efficient lines and as you say, makes you shortboard surfing so much more clean and powerful.

This is one of the fundamental reasons for jumping on as many different boards as you can. Maybe not all the time but often enough to learn how everything works.

[theboat]

Yeah when the surf was smaller on a trip, a couple of my shortboarding mates had a ride on the mals.... when the swell came back up, watching them, you could tell that they were getting more drive through their turns and just were just glidng really smoothly along the waves.

[soulman]

I just read the "Summer Fish" forum topic in "Shortboarders Only". It sounds like making the transition between a fish and a normal shortboard has similar problems to the shorty/mal transition.

One of you mentioned that if you're in the water every day, then you're more likely to make the transition between boards much better than those of us who can't surf every day.