Messages

1

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.

2

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.

3

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWNFs-mME-4

4

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.

5

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddtTX9sRzts

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).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSLAO7zxS2M

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

6

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.

7

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.

8

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dcuw4xGLaNk

9

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?

10

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.

11

Random / Re: Cover songs.

« on: July 15, 2022, 08:47:42 PM »

I ran across this YouTube video while looking for some surfing videos. I recognized the cover song in it. The original song was performed by the band named "The Church" and the song is "Under The Milky Way".

Eskimo Joe - "Under The Milky Way (cover).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zKq6rU10OE

12

Sessions / Re: Some room to play

« on: June 28, 2022, 05:14:47 PM »

@ surfinJ

Real nice video. I really enjoyed viewing it.

If you don't mind me asking, what is the make and model of the fin (since the look of it reminds me of a hatchet fin)?

13

SUP General / Re: Got some nice waves last week!

« on: June 27, 2022, 08:03:11 PM »

74 and and so thankful for every day, every wave!

I'm with you on that. At 72, I get the same feeling. Gotta love it!

14

SUP General / Re: Surfboards (Longboards)

« on: June 19, 2022, 06:24:07 AM »

The DT Halo center fin was originally designed to make sups turn easier because back in DT's day, sups were pretty long length wise. DT modified the Halo fin for surfboards.

A Halo center fin makes a single fin surfboard, in my case a longboard, turn easier and it generates drive/speed for slow small waves. The kind of waves I normally encounter at Surfside and Quintana beaches. And you trim the board from the center of the board. The YouTube video below gives more detailed info.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNoM2f7x8YA

Moving on.

Before I bought my single fin Parallax, there were plenty of good reviews for the Parallax, but the there were "no" videos of it where someone was actually riding it when surfing waves.

So I looked and looked. And eventually I did find a very short video of a person riding a Parallax. The rider was CJ Nelson himself. The Parallax he is riding in this video is a 9'3" Parallax, the same length as mine, at a surf/wave ranch.

The only thing not given was the model of the fin used and it's length. But CJ does have a Parallax in his stable that he rides and he prefers a 9'6" Parallax with a Flying Diamonds 10.5 Parallax fin.

 In all of the longboards CJ has, he places the fin right at the front of the long fin box since he likes a looser and lively feel for his longboards. Basically, he over fins his boards since he is a powerful surfer. In my view, CJ does not surf a wave. He attacks a wave.

The fin I use the most in my Parallax is a Flying Diamonds 9.5 Involvement fin. The reason I use an Involvement fin instead of a Parallax fin is because the waves at SanO where CJ surfs at in California are different than the waves I normally encounter at Surfside and Quintana on the upper Texas coast.

Now comes the sticky part. The video below is an Instagram video. And to see the video, one (supposedly) has to have an Instagram account and be logged into Instagram. I don't have an Instagram account.

But I have a Jamboards account and as long as I am logged into Jamboards, even though I don't have an Instagram account which means I am not logged into Instagram, I can view the Instagram video which is embedded in a Jamboards topic thread in the sub forum, Longboards.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B33lRRbCFk8/

15

Sessions / Re: Adios Spring 2022

« on: June 18, 2022, 02:29:57 AM »

Looks like the last days of May were good to you. I always like seeing your videos.

Just checked our water temperature for Surfside and Quintana beaches on the upper Texas coast where I surf and the water temperature is between 83-85 degrees F. depending on day or night readings. No need for wetsuits.

https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=fpst2