14' vs unlimited

[burchas]

The construction side of things could be better as we're getting rip off and to many short cuts for our hard in money.

I was thinking the same thing. I know how the Canoes and Skies are laughing at us for
going so slow on our small & heavy crafts while they are passing us, as if we were parking,
on the their bullet proof lightweight constructed machines.

After seeing Naish minimizing their race lineup to only one board and  going second year
in a row with the same shape, maybe finally they realized this shape is here to stay so
they'll offer it in a bullet proof hollow molded construction at 15-16lbs.

I would buy that board in a second! even with the chop-shop paint job they chose

[UKRiverSurfers]

Bryce - Two words... Social Rank

3) The key difference between amateurs and elites is that I feel that amateur performance is heavily dictated by being a product of their lifestyle  .

[PonoBill]

1) I would argue that some of the more complex bottom shaping and concavities is what has ultimately allowed all of us (even pro's) to handle narrower than ever boards. We just didn't have that a few years ago. You could argue it was a psychological breached but I personally don't believe so.

Actually, I bought an 18' Penetrator many years ago (more than ten, I think) that had a rounded hull that was 22" wide with my weight (230#) on it. The hull flared sort of, or at least continued it's curve so if you tipped it the hull would get wider on the side it was tipped towards and gave a lot of secondary stability. It was ridiculously fast with lighter people with good balance--Jeremy Riggs was astonishingly fast on it. With a length/width ratio of nearly 10/1 it made nearly no bow wave.

Unfortunately, I unwisely took it on a Maliko run and let a friend try it. He got too close to the infamous Spartan's reef and got tagged by a huge breaking wave. The hull got folded and was never the same despite repair efforts. Didn't have a chance to do the testing that I planned to do.

[Pierre]

4) sure UL means everything longer or different than a 14' monohull,
the length IMHO depends on size & weight of peddler. a light paddler on a 15' x 22-23" can gain as much speed than a heavy one (over 220 lbs/100 kg) on a let's say 18' x26" as such long board is semi-planing hull type (concaves and such work well on shorter boards, when you go longer there is not much hull speed limit anymore... my rounder hull 14' board is incredibly fast on a medium DW, it's just a bit too tippy to hold a choppy water long distance run... my 18' x 25" with angular rails but rounded bottom is SO fast in DW,,, a bit too long for me;17' should fit better... the more weight and power,lhe longer you can afford!
Other aternatives are multihull ( a surfs hull with outriggers and foils for example???),,, it can be nearly as fast as a OC2 or surfski... I build such craft (16'8"with stabs, need improvement to perform on DW, on flat it's just awesomeas SO easy
last option is foil SUP. Can somebody hold speed on a long distance? quite physical IMHO...except elite if really good DW conditions?