posts: 47631
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| post_id | thread_id | thread_title | post_number | author_username | post_date | post_date_iso | post_body |
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| 47631 | 518 | 8' boards | 58 | Salty | May 24, 2013 | 2013-05-24T09:26:42-0400 | The Shortboard Revolution, with Australians Bob McTavish, Nat Young, and Wayne Lynch (and others) at the helm, has given us a wide range of mid-length boards like the 9' Vee bottoms ridden by Nat and Bob at Honolua, to the 8'0 Tracker designed and surfed by Bob at Rincon, and finally the 7-7'6 double enders Wayne surfed at his home break. And then there were the various mid-length boards featured in the films Evolution, Innermost Limits of Fun, and the '68 Puerto Rican World Championships broadcast footage. And this list doesn't even include the Sunset and Pipeline boards that Dick Brewer was developing in Hawaii. All part of the transition from long to short. These boards are now seen as part of board design history and of course, no longer considered true performance boards. Today, both McTavish and Lynch will admit those boards didn't work nearly as well as today's boards and can't understand why anyone would want to still ride them. Bob even considers Al Merrick, with his current shortboard line, as the world's best surfboard designer. But how can we dismiss mid-length boards as just "beginner fun boards" or "do nothing well"? Yes, mid-lengths are easy to ride and good for beginners, but so are longboards. (What killed the mid-length in the public eye was probably the 8' "fun boards" Phil Becker (and others) made in the 90s, and he sold thousands of them – an egg shape with a thruster fin setup.) If anything, longboards, beyond their retro cool that Joel Tudor brought to them, could easily be considered beginner or fun boards and not able to do anything well, too. It's time we give the mid-length board some due respect. Mid-lengths have the ability to glide and trim like a longboard (some footage even shows surfers doing cheater fives) and yet "go vertical" (as McTavish and Lynch dreamed of doing). Seen in that perspective they don't "do anything well" but they do "everything" well! I'm grateful to shapers like Marc Andreini, Brian Hilbers, John Wesley, and others who have kept the Australian mid-length concept alive and well. And who knows? Maybe when we all have had a chance to ride them, we can end this argument and collectively turn the tired perception of the "fun board" into a "board that's fun" to take out on the days that require them. Peace. |