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| 288883 | 16537 | Learning to accept that you don't rip | 1 | Warchild | Aug 5, 2023 | 2023-08-05T19:53:58-0400 | New to this forum so I thought i would kick things off with a bit of a chat about ability, board choices, and celebrating where you are at in your surfing life. Been surfing for 40 years now (6.5 230lb), had all kinds of boards, and have done the whole 80s thruster to 90s blade to big guy tri, to ride everything combo of bonzers, singles fins, logs, fish and so on. This is where I have landed: No one cares what board you are riding when you catch a nice wave. No one, not ever. Pull in at Desert Point on a surftech Stewart Hydro Hull with a go pro mount and get absolutely barrelled. Who cares what board you have. But that wave you got - that is something people get excited about. So applying this to my own intermediate ability, I've learnt that bespoke bonzers, single fins and whatever else felt groovy and made me think I was super in touch with board culture, but that Stewart Hydro Hull would probably work better in most conditions, as would most contemporary board designs, for an older surfer. The goal is ultimatley the wave, so my board choices need to reflect that objective, and often they haven't. Board and fin dimensions are important in relation to your weight, height, ability and what kinds of waves you surf and boards you ride. But there is a very rapid law of diminishing returns. When you start debating 2 litres of volume, or whether to go 7.8 versus 7.6, whether a greenough 4 A will work better than a flying diamonds yada yada, that may well be valid in terms of what you are feeling from your boards. But get someone to film you surfing and you soon discover you look exactly the same on whatever genre of board you are riding (unless you actually rip, and some here will!). So much as I love my artisan logs and banging on about the merit of flex patterns in volan fins, the truth is that two plus one longboard I sold a while back was just as good as everything I own now. Time to take a step back the next time I start thinking I need board x or board y. I really don't. Anyway, thats where I'm at. Keen to hear what kind of rabbit holes others have gone down and what other come to Jesus board revelations you might have had? |