Author Topic: LongBoard SUP renaissance  (Read 14397 times)

jsb

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Re: LongBoard SUP renaissance
« Reply #15 on: January 29, 2019, 03:29:25 PM »
The conventional wisdom seems to be: “Shortboards are for young kids on perfect waves, while longboards are for the rest of us”.   And it’s easier to catch a mushy wave on a longboard-style SUP, for sure.

But one factor that I don’t think receives enough attention is that the kind of noseriding on display in the (beautiful) video posted by Area10 requires a very high-quality wave, that may not be available to “the rest of us", eg:  A long, peeling wave that gives you enough time to anchor the tail in the wave, and venture up to the nose.

My home break is a beach-break, with hollow, short-period waves that tend to close out quickly.  On these kind of waves (which I suspect are more common than the perfectly walled-up, 300-yard peelers in the Gong video), a good ride involves:

   1.   Make a hard bottom turn
   2.   Bash the lip
   3.   Do a floater as the wave closes out
   4.   Spend 10 minutes trying to paddle out the back again  :)

Here’s a video of an elite surfer (kiter actually) in the kind of non-elite waves I’m talking about:

   https://www.supthemag.com/videos/airton-cozzolino-sup-circus/

Maybe I just don’t have sufficient longboard skills (I don’t have any shortboard skillz either, come to think of it ;)), but for these kind of run-of-the-mill waves, I think a shorter board -- not necessarily a classic shortboard, but something you can throw around more quickly than a longboard -- is actually easier to manage “for the rest of us”.  Or am I missing something?

Would love to hear any thoughts on how to have fun on a longboard in crappy, short-period closeout waves, as I'm a relatively old fart who is always looking for the path of least resistance.  It's just that, in these kind of waves, it seems like a shorter board is the path of least resistance.

Badger

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Re: LongBoard SUP renaissance
« Reply #16 on: January 29, 2019, 04:12:10 PM »
I think we're getting confused with terms. When talking board shapes I usually refer to the prone shapes that have been around forever. There is the classic longboard shape with parallel rails and the classic pointy shortboard with curved rails.

Standup boards have a ton of variation when it comes to shapes. Just because a standup board is long doesn't necessarily mean that it has a longboard shape.  Many longer sups are a little like stretched out shortboards.

It's interesting that prone surfboards rarely stray from the two traditional shapes but standup board shapes seem to be all over the place in design. Not many standup companies even make a traditional longboard shape anymore like were very common back when SUP began.

There are so many variations in standup board design these days that it is almost impossible to define exactly what a longboard SUP is.


« Last Edit: January 29, 2019, 04:13:46 PM by Badger »
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jsb

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Re: LongBoard SUP renaissance
« Reply #17 on: January 29, 2019, 04:42:20 PM »
I think we're getting confused with terms. When talking board shapes I usually refer to the prone shapes that have been around forever. There is the classic longboard shape with parallel rails and the classic pointy shortboard with curved rails.

Standup boards have a ton of variation when it comes to shapes. Just because a standup board is long doesn't necessarily mean that it has a longboard shape.  Many longer sups are a little like stretched out shortboards.

I agree; the term “longboard” and “shortboard” sometimes get used as proxies for “hi volume” vs. “low volume”.  I was referring to a true longboard shape, not a blown-up shortboard.

More specifically the kind of longboard shape I was referring to was the kind of nose-riding board seen in the Gong video (B&B, etc).  By contrast, I have a 8’4” Sunova Flow, which is not at all a low-volume board (110L), but does follow a more-or-less shortboard plan outline (with blown-up dimensions).  The key distinction is that the Flow is easier to throw around, while it would be virtually impossible to noseride the Flow (even by a Gong pro).  My question to some of the longboard fans out there was whether it's possible to have fun on a longboard in crappy, short-period beach-break.

(BTW Badger, in the small world department, I’m pretty sure I’m riding your old Flow.  I bought it used from CR, and it has the custom handle mods that you described in some of your postings a few years ago :D).

Badger

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Re: LongBoard SUP renaissance
« Reply #18 on: January 29, 2019, 05:18:27 PM »
(BTW Badger, in the small world department, I’m pretty sure I’m riding your old Flow.  I bought it used from CR, and it has the custom handle mods that you described in some of your postings a few years ago :D).

Yup, that's my board. I wish I still had it.

I remember when Dave mentioned to me that the board had sold, he said you were okay with the handle change. I really liked the 8'4. Unfortunately, it wasn't stable enough for me to use as often as I would have liked so I traded it in on the Super Frank. On those rare occasions that we get a clean head high day, I wish I still had the 8'4.

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Axis HPS 980 / PNG 1300
Sunova Flow  8'10 X 31"  119L
Me - 6'0" - 165lbs - 66yo

burchas

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Re: LongBoard SUP renaissance
« Reply #19 on: January 29, 2019, 05:37:23 PM »
My question to some of the longboard fans out there was whether it's possible to have fun on a longboard in crappy, short-period beach-break.

Some of those performance longboard sups are meant to do just that. A recent addition to my quiver is a 10x31x4 at 150L board, designed
specifically for those crappy beach breaks we have around here. Up until now been very happy with the way it surfs, wave count much higher than
any 8.6 i've surfed.

See below the design I went with for a general idea

in progress...

surf4food

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Re: LongBoard SUP renaissance
« Reply #20 on: January 29, 2019, 06:50:24 PM »
SUP came from longboards.  This vid has been posted several times on the zone so what's one more?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=On-LxsGpLBw

RideTheGlide

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Re: LongBoard SUP renaissance
« Reply #21 on: January 29, 2019, 07:22:04 PM »
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surf4food

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Re: LongBoard SUP renaissance
« Reply #22 on: February 03, 2019, 05:34:25 PM »
SUP came from longboards.  This vid has been posted several times on the zone so what's one more?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=On-LxsGpLBw

Wow- way back in 2002...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfing#/media/File:Synchronised_surfing,Manly_beach,_New_South_Wales,_1938-46_(6519242455).jpg

Looks an awful lot like a paddle...

Not really the same thing.  That was a surfski and you can see he's holding a double bladed paddle tethered to his vessel.  That was actually a sit down craft but a lot of those guys back then would stand up on on the skis AFTER they caught the wave.  There's even the famous clip of Duke doing that  in 1939 which you've probably seen.  That has about as much to do with the beginnings of modern day SUP as monkeys swinging on trees have to do with the uneven bars in gymnastics.   

surf4food

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Re: LongBoard SUP renaissance
« Reply #23 on: February 03, 2019, 05:53:33 PM »
SUP came from longboards.  This vid has been posted several times on the zone so what's one more?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=On-LxsGpLBw

Wow- way back in 2002...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfing#/media/File:Synchronised_surfing,Manly_beach,_New_South_Wales,_1938-46_(6519242455).jpg

Looks an awful lot like a paddle...

No one knows who exactly "invented" SUP but the overall consensus is that it came about because someone used a single blade paddle on a surfboard.  Maybe John Zapatocky after seeing Duke standing on his surfski in 1939.  Maybe John "Pops" Ah Choy doing this because of bad knees in the late 60s (on a Hobie tandem board). The John's sons quickly took that up and made it way to photograph tourists learning to surf.  Laird and Dave did this as sort of a random fluke in the mid nineties during a photo shoot in Maui, and they did it completely independent of anyone else doing it before them.  I tend to consider that the true birth of modern SUP, but who know?   

Area 10

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Re: LongBoard SUP renaissance
« Reply #24 on: February 04, 2019, 12:25:32 AM »
Yeah, there isn’t a single defining feature of SUP, so determining who “invented” it is likely to be a fruitless quest. Culturally however, there is little doubt that what we currently understand as SUP emerged from the Hawaiian beach boy surf culture, and the main reason why we are all doing exactly what we are doing and exactly at this time, is that Laird, Dave and a few other mainly Hawaii-based surfers-come-“Watermen and women” popularised it.

One thing is for sure, though. SUP as we currently know it did not come out of kayak or traditional canoe culture (and I don’t mean OC or surfski here). It was a board sport not a boat sport, and a related key elenent is that it is a stand-up sport (like surfing, windsurfing, etc) not a sit-down one (like kayaking, canoeing, sailing etc).

Bean

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Re: LongBoard SUP renaissance
« Reply #25 on: February 04, 2019, 04:52:53 AM »
Just to stir the pot a little, the first modern sups were tandem boards.  So the likely originator of the modern sup board is Steve Boehne (yes Dave’s dad)...you know, Infinity.

Ichabod Spoonbill

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Re: LongBoard SUP renaissance
« Reply #26 on: February 04, 2019, 05:43:29 AM »
I like this thread. It makes me on my huge, goofy all-around boards feel a little less... goofy.
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surf4food

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Re: LongBoard SUP renaissance
« Reply #27 on: February 04, 2019, 10:53:33 AM »
Even the beach boy history of it is not exactly what a lot of people think or assume.  The beach boy aspect of it was started by Leroy and Bobby Ah Choy AFTER their dad John (nicknamed Pops) construed using a modified canoe paddle so he could remain in a standing position due to bad knees.  Pops started this in the late 60s and by the time his two sons (who were beach boys) adapted it, it was now the early 70s.  Well into the shortboard period.  And yes they did do this so they could photograph the tourists they were teaching to surf, but the whole post war period of “beach boy” surfing thing is really a myth.  Perhaps some of their beach boy collogues adapted this also, but it really wasn’t a thing.  Ironically, they (Pops, Bobby and Leroy) ended up using an oar rather than a modified canoe paddle.   

BrownSugah

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Re: LongBoard SUP renaissance
« Reply #28 on: November 08, 2019, 03:45:40 PM »
The conventional wisdom seems to be: “Shortboards are for young kids on perfect waves, while longboards are for the rest of us”.   And it’s easier to catch a mushy wave on a longboard-style SUP, for sure.

But one factor that I don’t think receives enough attention is that the kind of noseriding on display in the (beautiful) video posted by Area10 requires a very high-quality wave, that may not be available to “the rest of us", eg:  A long, peeling wave that gives you enough time to anchor the tail in the wave, and venture up to the nose.

My home break is a beach-break, with hollow, short-period waves that tend to close out quickly.  On these kind of waves (which I suspect are more common than the perfectly walled-up, 300-yard peelers in the Gong video), a good ride involves:

   1.   Make a hard bottom turn
   2.   Bash the lip
   3.   Do a floater as the wave closes out
   4.   Spend 10 minutes trying to paddle out the back again  :)

Here’s a video of an elite surfer (kiter actually) in the kind of non-elite waves I’m talking about:

   https://www.supthemag.com/videos/airton-cozzolino-sup-circus/

Maybe I just don’t have sufficient longboard skills (I don’t have any shortboard skillz either, come to think of it ;)), but for these kind of run-of-the-mill waves, I think a shorter board -- not necessarily a classic shortboard, but something you can throw around more quickly than a longboard -- is actually easier to manage “for the rest of us”.  Or am I missing something?

Would love to hear any thoughts on how to have fun on a longboard in crappy, short-period closeout waves, as I'm a relatively old fart who is always looking for the path of least resistance.  It's just that, in these kind of waves, it seems like a shorter board is the path of least resistance.

in those waves i think a longer sup maybe 9'6 is perfect because it allows the glide and stabilty to make a fast turn and still be fun and snappy ... i think SUP needs progressive longer boards not necesarily a full nosed old schoool potatato chip nose rider .....
ALOHA

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Re: LongBoard SUP renaissance
« Reply #29 on: November 09, 2019, 03:33:22 AM »
The conventional wisdom seems to be: “Shortboards are for young kids on perfect waves, while longboards are for the rest of us”.   And it’s easier to catch a mushy wave on a longboard-style SUP, for sure.

But one factor that I don’t think receives enough attention is that the kind of noseriding on display in the (beautiful) video posted by Area10 requires a very high-quality wave, that may not be available to “the rest of us", eg:  A long, peeling wave that gives you enough time to anchor the tail in the wave, and venture up to the nose.

My home break is a beach-break, with hollow, short-period waves that tend to close out quickly.  On these kind of waves (which I suspect are more common than the perfectly walled-up, 300-yard peelers in the Gong video), a good ride involves:

   1.   Make a hard bottom turn
   2.   Bash the lip
   3.   Do a floater as the wave closes out
   4.   Spend 10 minutes trying to paddle out the back again  :)

Here’s a video of an elite surfer (kiter actually) in the kind of non-elite waves I’m talking about:

   https://www.supthemag.com/videos/airton-cozzolino-sup-circus/

Maybe I just don’t have sufficient longboard skills (I don’t have any shortboard skillz either, come to think of it ;)), but for these kind of run-of-the-mill waves, I think a shorter board -- not necessarily a classic shortboard, but something you can throw around more quickly than a longboard -- is actually easier to manage “for the rest of us”.  Or am I missing something?

Would love to hear any thoughts on how to have fun on a longboard in crappy, short-period closeout waves, as I'm a relatively old fart who is always looking for the path of least resistance.  It's just that, in these kind of waves, it seems like a shorter board is the path of least resistance.

in those waves i think a longer sup maybe 9'6 is perfect because it allows the glide and stabilty to make a fast turn and still be fun and snappy ... i think SUP needs progressive longer boards not necesarily a full nosed old schoool potatato chip nose rider .....

I finished this a couple weeks ago, 9’2x 26, but have yet to have a chance to ride it. I’m not a cruisy, glidey guy generally, but I’m hoping this falls somewhere in between. I made a set of large twins kind of based on those AsherPacey fins and put in a 3.5” center fin. Can’t wait to try it.

 


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