Messages

16

SUP General / Re: Surfboards (Longboards)

« on: May 20, 2023, 05:14:58 PM »

Another update. This one on a third pop-up style which involves "rotating the hips". It  can be seen in the video below.



So I went down to Quintana Beach to try out this new pop-up for me.

Details: I'm 5'8", 144 pounds, age 73 (at this time).
Longboard: CJ Nelson single fin 9'3" Parallax in Thunderbolt Red construction.
My Style of Surfing: Finesse
Regular Footer: Left Foot Forward.

Quintana Beach's waves on the upper Texas cost are wind driven since the water is very shallow there. The best waves to surf are when the wind direction is from the west or southwest. These type of waves form organized waves.

Depending on wind speed, if the wind speed is between 8 to 12 mph, the waves are organized where many times they are rolling waves where they do not break over until the waves are about 15 yards from the beach. Basically, a line of unbroken waves rolling towards the beach.

I always check the wave forecast and also check the streaming webcam down at Surfside Beach before I go to the beach.

Quintana Beach is about a mile south of Surfside Beach at Surfside Beach's southern end. And as a slight bonus, since the water is deeper at Quintana beach, the waves are slightly higher than at Surfside Beach on the same day.

So the day I went surfing to try this new pop-up, the wind direction was from the west at around 12 mph with a 7 second period between waves. Wave height was about waist high (based on my height). Perfect conditions for trying out a new pop-up.

On this day I finned my Parallax with a Flying Diamonds 10.5 Parallax fin with the fin placement set at the front of the long center fin box.

The first wave I tried, my left front foot was not on the center line stringer of the board. It was placed too close to the left rail and the wave tipped me off of the board and into the water.

I was also a little bit too slow in my movement to do the pop-up. Once burned, lesson learned.

On the second try I was able to do the pop-up, but it wasn't what I call "graceful looking". But on the third, fourth and fifth pop-ups, the "swivel the hips" worked perfectly. I also looked and felt better at doing it. And my surgically repaired lower right back experienced no pain what so ever.

I surfed like this for 35 minutes according according to my water resistant watch (to 15 meters depth) which I always wear while I'm longboard surfing or sup surfing.

After that time, I went back to my truck to rest for 30 minutes and hydrate myself with lots of Gatorade.

Then I went back out and did some pop-ups that I copied from Haley Otto and Brian James since I wanted to compare their pop-up styles to the rotating the hips pop-up.

I surfed doing the Haley Otto/Brian James pop-ups for 20 minutes. Then I rested on my board for 20 minutes out on the water. Then came another 20 minute session doing the rotating the hips pop-up.

All three pop-ups caused no problems for my surgically repaired right lower back and all three pop-ups are easy to do.

But I did notice one difference. As I got tired energy wise, the Haley Otto style of pop-up was the easiest of the three pop-ups. So right now, I favor the Haley Otto pop-up.

Then I called it a day, packed up all of my stuff and drove back to my home.

17

SUP General / Re: Surfboards (Longboards)

« on: April 19, 2023, 07:26:27 AM »

I ran across two videos which some of you may like to watch.

The first video is of CJ talking about his 8'3" Parallax mid length board using a Flying Diamonds 10.0 Parallax fin and where he places the fin in the long center fin box depending on the wave conditions. After finding this video and choosing the 10.5 Parallax fin for my 9'3" Parallax longboard, my choice was spot on.



The second video is shot from a drone and the video is in slow motion. It shows the guy doing his pop-up many times which is very similar to my modified pop-up. BTW, the beach where this video was shot from is on the south part of the country known as Bali.

Also, I do not do any nose riding because my Parallax is not designed to be a nose rider because of it's rounded pin tail. And I do not do any "hot dogging" on my board like "sliding down the face of a wave tail first".

18

SUP General / Re: Surfboards (Longboards)

« on: April 14, 2023, 03:07:21 PM »

@ Dusk Patrol

I did make one error in my last post. I began longboard surfing in 1965 when I was 15 years old. Not in 1968. Looks like I had a "senior moment".

@ Bean

Brian James video for his tail heavy pop-up looks great. And his video is about one month old now when he posted it (at this time). If I had to take a guess, it looks like Brian copied Haley's pop-up.

I know Haley has been doing her tail heavy pop-up for the last four years. Haley is real smooth when she does her pop-up. She makes her pop-up look easy and effortless. As they say, "Practice makes perfect".

And I want to thank you for posting Brian James video since it is a new video being one month old at the time of this post. It's much appreciated by me. I'm going to add his tail heavy/pop-up video right under Haley's video in my surfing videos collection (bookmarks/favorites).

19

SUP General / Re: Surfboards (Longboards)

« on: April 14, 2023, 09:26:31 AM »

@ Dusk Patrol

If you're getting older and you wanted a board a little easier to handle than your Walden 9'6"x24" Mega Magic and decided to sell it so you could buy a Starboard Longboard 9'x26", that is a wise move on your part. Someone will get that nice Walden board.

When one gets older and doesn't want to give up what they enjoy doing, sometimes one has to compromise to keep doing what they enjoy and love.

As for me, I started surfing in 1968 when I was 15 years old. When my lower back started to act up, when it got to the point I knew I needed surgery, I bit the bullet and decided to get it done. And after seeing the MRI since I know how to read an MRI, I knew the risk I was going to take since the nerve canal over the L3, L4, L5 nerves was collapsing. And there was a bone spur pressing down on the L4 nerve.

My surgeon told if the bone spur has grown into the L4 nerve, the procedure could go "south" leaving me with a partial paralysis of my right leg or a total paralysis of my right leg. He told me he wanted to let me know the danger this procedure could produce since I could end up in a wheel chair.

I told him I choose the danger since I was not about to give up my water sports or archery hobbies. Besides, if I didn't have the surgery, the collapsing nerve canal would eventually put me into a wheel chair within a few years from now.

Since I had lots of time to recuperate, not only did I do research on longer fin lengths for my Parallax longboard, I also wanted to see if I could find another video showing in explicit detail Haley Otto's pop-up which I now call a "step-up". The main problem was, there aren't many videos of Haley Otto on YouTube or Vimeo.

But I kept searching for one and I finally found one three weeks ago and it is below which shows her pop-up in detail. The video below shows her pop-up six times. Since the first video I posted previously in this topic thread was shot from a drone, this video below was shot from the beach and it shows a much closer view of her surfing.



Since my lower back has been repaired, I feel like an "old surfer with a brand new lower right lumbar back". Now I have the option of going back to the pop-up I had been doing for decades or staying with Haley's pop-up. I'm staying with Haley's pop-up because it is easy to do and takes less energy to do than my old pop-up. And at my age of 73, I "need" easy without expending a lot of energy which keeps me surfing longer time wise during my surfing sessions.

20

SUP General / Re: Surfboards (Longboards)

« on: April 09, 2023, 08:25:20 AM »

Thought I would give an update on what I've been doing with my 9'3' Parallax single fin surfing longboard. This will be a long post but it will be an interesting read for those who started out surfing on surfboards when they were young.

On Nov 16th 2022, I had a partial laminectomy over the L3, L4, L5 nerves in my lower back. Long story short, the procedure was successful, but I was told in no uncertain terms to stay off of my sups and my 9'3" surfing longboard until Mar 16th 2023. Since I had lots of time on my hands, I decided to look at over finning my longboard.

To recap, I have a CJ Nelson 9'3" single fin surfing longboard, with a 17" tail, 78.8 liters of volume in Thunderbolt Red construction. It is "not" a nose rider. More akin to performance longboard with 60/40 rails.

I have two fins for it and they are from the same company which is Flying Diamonds which is owned by CJ Nelson. Those two fins are a 9.0 Involvement fin for tiny to small waves and a 9.5 Involvement fin larger waves. Now, keep in mind concerning the 17" tail.

Most people start out by placing their fins in the center of the long fin box of the board. The further the fin is placed back in the fin box, the board is very stable, but it can be too "tracky" making the board hard to turn if one is not surfing off the rails. Too loose if the fin is placed at the front of the fin box so on a large wave making a tight right or left turn on the wave, the narrow 17" tail will "skid out" causing loss of control of the board.

Again, I had lots of time on my hands since I was waiting for Mar 16th, I wanted three things and they were:

1) Drive
2) Looseness
3) Having the fin placed right at the front of the long fin box

In order to achieve all of the above at the "same time", I knew it was going to take more than one fin. So my hunt for the above began. Let me begin by saying I'm 5'8" in height and weigh (at this time) 144 pounds.

Wave height is subjective depending on who is doing the measuring. A Hawaiian 3' foot wave is at least head high on me. So I measure wave height according to my height. A tiny wave is ankle high to knee high. A small wave is knee high to waist high. A medium wave is waist high to shoulder high and a large wave is head high and above.

CJ likes to measure his fins with one third of the fin over the rail. If I put my 9.0 and 9.5 Involvement fin at the front of my board surf a large wave, the tail end will skid out on a quick bottom turn. So I went looking for videos for a 9'3" Parallax to see where placing their fins for this board. Alas, there weren't any videos.

But I did fin a few videos where people reviewed their 9'6" Parallax boards, but they didn't say what make of fins, length of fins or where they placed the fins in the long center fin box.

CJ surfs his 9'6" Parallax with a Flying Diamonds 10.5 Parallax fin, but he never said where he placed the fin in the fin box. But this was clue number one. I did run across another 9'6' Parallax video and in this video, you can see where the 10.5 Parallax fin is placed and it is basically in the middle of the center fin box. And this was clue number two.



Since there wasn't any videos for the 9'3" Parallax, I had to switch gears so to speak. I went over to CJ's website and looked at all the models of longboards he designed looking for a similar board to my Parallax and it was the Outlier which you can see at the link below.

https://cjnelsondesigns.com/surfboards/

The Outlier comes in lengths of 7', 7'6", 8' and 9'. I went looking for a 9' Outlier, but again, there weren't any videos. So then I went looking for any videos for the 8' Outlier and there were some. Then I ran across one of CJ's videos where he explains what size fins he uses for this board and where he places his fins in the long center fin box depending on wave height and power of the wave.

CJ states he uses a Flying Diamonds 9.5 Parallax fin for smaller waves and places this fin at the front of the center box. And when the waves have more power (juice) in them, he uses a Flying Diamonds 9.5 Involvement fin, but I was not sure where he placed this fin in the center fin box. I thought if the wave was double over head, he would place the 9.5 Involvement fin a littler further back in the the fin box. But I don't surf double over head waves.

The video is below and you can skip ahead to the 3:35 time mark of the video which gave me clue number three.



After seeing the video above, I went over the Firewire website and ordered me two fins. A Flying Diamonds 10.5 Parallax fin and a Flying Diamonds 10.5 Involvement fin.

When the ordered arrive, after Mar 16th came, I went down to Surfside, Texas since I have a good friend who lives there and we both worked at the same maritime company for 6 years. We also talk with each other, over the phone, once every two weeks. When I told him I was going to spend 5 days and 4 nights at Surfside to experiment surfing my two 10.5 large fins at Surfside Beach and Quintana Beach, he told me to stay at his home which I did.

During those 5 days, I encountered every wave condition height wise, power wise, wind direction, wind speed, etc. I'm a regular footer which means I surf my longboard with left foot forward about one foot from the center of the board and my back right foot, the arch of this foot straddles the stringer of the board.

With this setup with my 9.0 and 9.5 Involvement fins, not placed at the front of the center fin box, I could turn the board by rotating my hips left or right in conjunction with my shoulders. This did not work with the 10.5 fins.

By trial and error, I found surfing the fins on my longboard, when I wanted to turn left, I had to place the back right foot's heel close to the left rail of the board and when I wanted to turn right, I had to place the my right foot closer to the right rail.

Suffice to say, my experimentation worked for over finning a single fin performance longboard, with 60/40 rails as long as the board has a 17" wide tail and is not a single fin nose rider. The 10.5 Parallax fin and the 10.5 Involvement fin are now my "go to fins" for surfing my longboard for anything, surfng wise, down at any beach I encounter whether it be Surfside Beach, Quintana Beach, the Horace Caldwell pier down at Port Aransas or at the jetties down at the extreme tip of South Padre Island (at the jetties near Brownsville at the Mexican border)........all in Texas.

21

Sessions / Re: Just One More

« on: March 30, 2023, 02:20:07 AM »

@ Cookie

Nice video. Glad to see you surfing with your repaired right shoulder.

Those waves are just a little too difficult for me to paddle out in my 10'5" x 32" wide Duke board. I like waves "just a little bit easier" to paddle out.

Thanks for sharing the video.

22

Gear Talk / Re: Paddles! Surf vs flat water...

« on: February 12, 2023, 11:06:55 AM »

I'm a male with a small skeletal bone structure. More akin to a female in bone size.

I've just turned 73 years old and I'm 5'8" in height. My weight bounces between 140 pounds in the summertime to 145 pounds in the wintertime.

I'm right now at 145 pounds since I'm sedentary right now because I'm recovering from spinal surgery on my right lower back. (My spinal surgeon told me I'll be good to go for anything I want to do on Mar 16th.)

With my bone structure and weight, I'm not a fan of the "men's" regular diameter paddle shaft. With my small hands, I gravitated towards a "woman's" smaller diameter paddle shaft.

With the above said, I have two sup paddles. They are both designed for a woman. The paddles are a two piece Naish Alana adjustable paddle with a 75 square inch paddle blade.

Since both my right and left shoulder joints have been surgically repaired, the Alana 75 paddle works great for me whether I'm surfing one of my sups or flat water paddling one of my sups.

23

SUP General / Re: Surfboards (Longboards)

« on: December 26, 2022, 07:12:47 AM »

Thought I would give an update on this topic thread. And add a little history since my last post in this topic thread.

While some sup people have picked up foiling, not me. I went back to my roots which is surfing a longboard. But my cranky lower back finally caught up with me.

With my lower back issue on the right side, I had to modify my pop-up to stand up on my longboard to catch a wave. So I copied Haley Otto's pop-up which is basically a combination of a pop-up and a stand-up.

While surfing my 9'3" Parallax longboard last October of 2022, I started to get an "electrical jolt" on my right lower back right above my hip bone when doing my modified pop-up. Since I took some anatomy classes when I was in college, I knew it was a problem with my L4 nerve and I suspected a bone spur was digging into the nerve.

Make a long story short, I went to see a spine surgeon at the Woodlands Sports Medicine complex in the Woodlands, Texas. This was the same place I had both my right and left shoulder operated on. Told the surgeon what I suspected and he ordered an MRI which showed the canal opening where the L3, L4 and L5 spinal nerves were located, the canal opening had narrowed and a bone spur was pressing down on the L4 nerve.

So I had a partial laminectomy done on the L3, L4 and L5 nerves on Nov 16th of 2022. The procedure was "textbook", took 90 minutes and I'm now recuperating at home. I will be able to go supping and surfing on March 16th of 2023 and not any sooner per my surgeon's "orders".

Back to the subject on hand.

With lots of time on my hands, I started watching lots of YouTube videos about longboard surfing and how important longboard fins are placed in the center fin box, how long fins are in length and the different shapes of center fins.

I'm old school and back in the day of 1965, the rule of thumb for a center fin for a single fin longboard was; for every foot of a single fin longboard, one inch of fin is needed. So a 9' single fin longboard needed a 9" fin. That does not hold true for today.

My board is a CJ Nelson 9'3" single fin Parallax longboard with a rounded pintail. CJ is an excellent surfboard designer and a very good surfer. Since he had designed lots of single fin longboard models (Apex, Sprout, Haven, Neo Classic, Parallax etc), he also designed fins for these models. CJ's fin company is Flying Diamonds which he owns.

CJ is a power surfer so he "over fins" his longboards. As an example, when he surfs his personal 9'6" Parallax, he uses a 10.5 Power Flex, Parallax or Involvement fins and all these fins are placed right at the front of the center fin box.

For small waves in height, I like a Flying Diamonds 9.0 Involvement fin and for larger waves in height, I like a Flying Diamonds 9.5 Involvement fin. I like to have one third of these fins over the rails so I place these fins in the center fin box so one third of the fin is over the rail.

I wished CJ would have made a YouTube video just for his fins. And he did. And I found it since I have lots of time on my hands while I'm recuperating.

At the video below, CJ explains in detail why he places his fins where one third of the fin is over the rail and how to measure it. But he also explains why he "over fins" his longboards and this is because he likes a loose feeling longboard that can be steered from the center of the board where he doesn't have to have a foot on the left or right rail when he wants to turn left or right.

The video below can be viewed in 1080 high definition. But the picture quality is "not the best" since it was taken with a smartphone over a Zoom call. So watch the video in full screen mode.

Getting back to the video, CJ states for his models of boards, he designs his boards with a tail width of around 17". I went out to my garage and measured the tail width of my 9'3" Parallax and it is right at 17".

With that said, I went over to the Firewire website, which carries CJ's Flying Diamond fins and saw the 10.0 Involvement fin and the 10.5 Involvement fin were available in Volan material and green in color so I ordered each and they are now here. I have already put the 10.5 Involvement fin right at the front of the center fin box so my Parallax is now "over finned".

My surgeon told me I will be "cleared for any activity I want to do" on Mar 16th of 2023 so when the water temperature reaches 66 degrees F, which is my minimum water temperature so I don't shiver from hypothermia since I don't wear a wet suit, I will test out the 10.5 Involvement fin down at Quintana Beach which is close to Surfside, Texas.

BTW, I do not do any nose riding since the Parallax is not a nose rider longboard. But if the waves have quite a bit of "juice" in them, with the 10.5 Involvement fin, I think I could do a nose ride.

24

Gear Talk / Re: Rail wear options

« on: December 19, 2022, 07:55:10 PM »

I've got four standup paddleboards and everyone of them has RSPro rail tape on them. I recommend it.

25

Random / Re: Cover songs.

« on: November 25, 2022, 06:57:05 AM »

I'm going to do a "2 for 1" post today. I'll explain below.

Besides sup surfing, I went to back to my roots when I learned to surf at the age of 15 in the year 1965 on a 9'6" single fin longboard. Right now I own and ride a CJ Nelson 9'3" Parallax single fin longboard (78.8 liters with 60/40 rails).

To make a long story short, I watch a lot of longboard surfing videos and just about every video has some nice background music in them. I ran across a nice YouTube video featuring a 9' AQSS Soultice longboard with a shortened cover song, named "Counting Stars", in it.

The band who originally came out with this song was a band named, One Republic. But in the video below the shortened song is a cover. (Hope you like the longboard surfing video.) And watch the video in 1080p HD and full screen.



However, I have an extensive music library on all of my 5 computers (2 desktop towers, 3 laptops). So I recognized the song in the video and I knew I had the full, not shortened, "Counting Stars" song in my music library. And the cover song for Counting Stars is below.

Alex Goot, Chrissy Costanza, KHS - "Counting Stars" (One Republic cover).



BTW, if my memory serves me correctly, I think Chrissy Costanza is the female lead singer for the "Against The Current" band.

26

General Discussion / Re: Should this site be renamed the foil zone?

« on: November 24, 2022, 06:53:55 AM »

When I first started to find a forum dedicated to SUP, all I found was two sites which are the Standup Zone and Seabreeze. Since Seabreeze (in my opinion) is geared to sup surfing, I came here.

If you change the name of this site with a Foiling name, how many people looking into getting into SUP will come here while searching for SUP on the internet? If it was me and all I saw was a foiling site name; I probably wouldn't visit this site, with a foiling name, for a look see.

I still sup for both freshwater paddling and sup surfing. As for foiling, I can't remember the last time I was in the Foiling section on here. I don't foil.

Besides sup, I've went back to my roots so to speak. I went to back to surfing (which I learned at the age of 15 in 1965) and I really enjoy surfing the waves with my CJ Nelson 9'3" Parallax single fin longboard in Thunderbolt Red construction. My old surfing spot was at Surfside beach, but now I've discovered Quintana Beach which is my go to surfing place for both sup surfing and surfing my longboard.

As for surfing, I became a member of the Jamboards site earlier this year. But at my age of 72 with a bad lower back, I finally had to bite the bullet and go see an orthopedic spine surgeon because I really couldn't do a pop-up or the modified pull-up on my surfing longboard anymore.

After an MRI, I found out I "had" a bone spur pressing down on the L4 nerve in my lower back. To make a long story short, on Nov 16th, I had a partial laminectomy to remove a section of bone over the L3, L4 and L5 nerves. The operation took 1 1/2 hours time wise.

And this coming Monday, Nov 28th at 10:00 am,  I will have the staples removed which closed the incision in my lower back and then with some physical therapy, I will be able to surf my longboard again and also, it will help with my four standup paddleboards.

I'm rambling now, but getting back on topic, I'd be careful about changing the Standup Zone name to a foiling name. For the simple reason foiling might mature just like sup has and then there might be fewer people coming here.

If that happens, if some newer water sport becomes "hot", will the foiling name get changed to reflect the newest trend in watersports?

I'm not a fan of the "change for the sake of change" trend. If a poll was held, like the rebel I am, I would vote "no" to change this site's name.

BTW, even though I do not post on here very much, I visit this site mostly "everyday". And Admin can confirm that. If I find a topic on here that interests me, I will post a reply to it.

27

Sessions / Re: Chilly early morning high tide session in Northern NJ

« on: September 29, 2022, 08:35:10 AM »

Nice video.

Seems as it got later in the morning, time wise, the waves got bigger.

Thanks for sharing your video.

28

Technique / Re: favorite SUP Surf videos?

« on: September 20, 2022, 04:53:27 PM »

I've always liked the way Laird Hamilton rode a large 10' sup. Laird always made it look so easy with his style of riding.

29

General Discussion / Re: Keyhole

« on: August 08, 2022, 06:46:06 AM »

Nice video as always.

I'm just curious. Why did you go with a twin fin setup?

30

The Shape Shack / Re: Deck pad

« on: August 07, 2022, 08:02:55 PM »

I'm with PonoBill on this one.

I too have RSPRO cork hexagonal pads on my CJ Nelson 9'3" Parallax single fin (prone) longboard for surfing and it hasn't gotten slippery either.

I've had it on the board for one year.