Author Topic: Tiny Waves  (Read 5150 times)

CaptainKook

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Re: Tiny Waves
« Reply #15 on: February 17, 2019, 02:38:07 AM »
I’m surprised the Aussie couple were doing so well on 33” wide boards. I’ve been looking for a ‘longer’ board for the same purpose, tiny waves, and wasn’t considering anything over 30”, now may have to change that.  NightWing, being rental boards they’re probably higher volume if they are 33” ?  Also as supsean asked, I would think a single fin would be better for tiny waves?  For the same reason most prone longboards have a single fin?  Wouldnt thrusters with angled inwards create more drag, at least at first?

Night Wing

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Re: Tiny Waves
« Reply #16 on: February 17, 2019, 09:19:34 AM »
I’m surprised the Aussie couple were doing so well on 33” wide boards. I’ve been looking for a ‘longer’ board for the same purpose, tiny waves, and wasn’t considering anything over 30”, now may have to change that.  NightWing, being rental boards they’re probably higher volume if they are 33” ?  Also as supsean asked, I would think a single fin would be better for tiny waves?  For the same reason most prone longboards have a single fin?  Wouldnt thrusters with angled inwards create more drag, at least at first?

This is going to be a long post so please bare with me, but since I'm a detailed oriented person, I think you'll find this long post an interesting read based on my observations.

I already had my 8'11" x 31" x 4" @ 140 liters Hammer to sup surf on and it is a very good at sup surfing moderate height waves (2'-6') with it's 5 fin boxes and the fin setups (and length of fins), but it wasn't the best for tiny waves. I guessed since I weighed 146 lbs, this was too much weight for the 140 liters. In other words, the tiny wave just didn't generate enough speed energy wise. Since I had my Hammer for sup surfing, I wanted my second sup for mainly flat water paddling and with the hopes it would surf too. So a second longer length board was needed. I was initially looking at 10'6" x 31" @ 170 liters Hammer with 5 fin boxes with chisel tail.

Then one day, "Lady Luck" came my way. While looking at the streaming webcam at a Palms Marina on Lake Conroe (which is not to far from my home), from looking at the streaming webcam, I thought it would be good place to flat water paddle. So I took a ride up there on an early Sunday morning with my wife.

http://www.lakeconroewebcams.com/palms-marina-webcam/

While I was at the marina, I saw two women on sups paddling towards the marina which was their launching point. One was tall woman on an long length sup. When I saw the logo on her board, I knew it was a Starboard sup. Long story short, the two women struck up a friendly conversation with me and my wife. Long story short, the tall woman on the Starboard told me her sup was a 2009 year model 11'2" x 30" @ 168 liters with 3 fin boxes and a rounded pin tail.

She also told me she surfed her Blend down at Surfside, Tx with a thruster (2 + 1) fin setup so she could easily turn her board right and left. But there were times she wished her Blend was 5 liters more in volume (which would have made it 173 liters so keep this number in mind since it will show up later in this post). During the conversation, the tall woman told me she was 5'11" in bare feet and weighed 145 lbs. I'm 5'8" and at the time, I weighed 146 lbs.

Since I was dressed in a ball cap, t-shirt, shorts, socks and tennis shoes; she asked me if I wanted to demo her 11'2" Blend around the marina. At this time I was recovering from major right shoulder surgery. My surgeon told me stay off of a sup for at least a year since the medical procedure I had, takes about a year to heal properly. He didn't want me to fall on my right shoulder from a flat water paddle or get pounded from behind big a big wave. But after a few moments of hesitation, I took the tall woman up on her offer.

After the demo, I had initially been looking at a 10'6" x 31" @ 170 liters Hammer, wide planing nose, with 5 fin boxes and chisel tail. But my thoughts changed to an 11' length sup. Since I liked my 8'11" Hammer, I started looking at a One World. A production make One World comes with these specs which are 11'1" x 30" x 4.6" @ 200 liters with a drawn in pointed nose, 3 fin boxes, one vent plug, two leash plugs and 3 mm thick deck pad which also includes a kick pad.

At my (at the time) 146 lbs, I knew 200 liters of volume would make the board feel "corky" to me. After looking at the One World, since I knew Wardog (Warren) could build me a custom One World, I got in touch with Warren over the phone (voice) and I picked his brain for his first hand knowledge and expertise.

After giving Warren lots of parameters (size of waves, volume of liters, etc, etc, etc) my custom One World started to take shape (as they say). When I gave Warren my order, my specs for my One World came out as follows: 11'1" x 30" x 4.5" @ 173 liters with 5 fin boxes, thinned out rails, 2 vent plugs (gets very hot in southeast Texas where I live during the months of July, August), 2 leash plugs, narrow pin tail, deck pad with a raised kick pad.

I also ordered 6 fins which were: (1, 9") (2, 5") (2, 4") and (1, 2.25" nubster). I figured with these fins; "better to have them and not need them, than to need them and not have them" since these length fins should cover any wave conditions I might find.

Now back to your point of a single fin. If I choose a long 9" single fin to surf a small 1' in height tiny wave, it will work. But if I want to turn the board right or left quickly, the tiny wave might not generate enough speed in conjunction with a single 9" fin, to easily allow me to turn a 11'1" board quickly enough if need be (come up suddenly on a floating piece of debris) with my (at the time 146 lbs physical weight). My right foot would need standing on the kick pad to turn the board quickly in conjunction with my left foot on one of the rails depending if I needed to turn right or left. Quad fin setup generate speed better than single fin (in my opinion).....at least they do where I sup surf at.

So I've found when surfing tiny waves, my 11'1" x 30" x 4.5" @ 173 liters allows me to surf tiny waves with a 4 (quad) fin setup with fins sizes of (2, 5") (2, 4"). This fin setup provides speed plus makes turning the board easy without me having to step back on the kick pad to turn my long One World with my 144 lbs, which is what I weigh right now.

But I like to experiment too. I'm going to take off my (2, 4") fins which are installed on my 8'11" Hammer and replace my (2, 5") fins on my 11'1" One World with the (2, 4") fins from my Hammer so the One World will have a new 4 fin (quad) fin configuration of (4, 4"). Right now, my 11'1" One World covers every thing from flat water paddling, coastal cruising, surfing moderate height waves, surfing tiny waves and surfing bow tanker waves.

A person weighing between 175-215 lbs won't be surfing a tiny wave very well if their board is between 125-160 liters of volume (in my opinion). The board will feel like it is "wallowing in place". An analogy would be like a boat having trouble getting on plane.

So when it comes to sup surfing tiny waves of around 1'-1.5" in height if these types of waves you'll encounter a lot, you'll need some volume in the board if you choose a long 11' board (or longer) in length. And you'll have to take into consideration how much you physically weigh. Basically a compromise between performance and practicality.

Below is a drone video, which I'm going to use as an analogy, which I think you'll find interesting to watch because it shows some small kids learning how to surf on prone surf long boards in tiny waves. The point I'm trying to make in this video, the volume of liters on some of these prone surf boards is "less" than what some of these kids physically weigh when some of these kids are on short boards. The kids on the more volume long boards get the better and longer ride. This video was taken at Port Aransas, Texas on July 4th of 2018.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5CllWKhgFo


 



 














« Last Edit: February 17, 2019, 09:38:36 AM by Night Wing »
Blue Planet Duke: 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 Liters (2 Dukes)
Sup Sports Hammer: 8'11" x 31" x 4" @ 140 Liters
SUP Sports One World: 11'1" x 30" x 4.5" @ 173 Liters
CJ Nelson Parallax: 9'3" x 23 1/2" x 3 3/16" @ 78.8 Liters (prone surfing longboard; Thunderbolt Technologies build in Red construction)

Night Wing

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Re: Tiny Waves
« Reply #17 on: February 26, 2019, 10:33:19 AM »
I've been trying to find some tiny waves for sup surfing which shows what I sometimes encounter when the surf forecast height is "wrong". And I found a good one. The video below will show the Galveston Seawall near Pleasure Pier on Galveston Island. It is a 55 second video.

The sup board looks to be a Riviera rental board because one surf shop near the seawall has these boards in their rental fleet. Although the sup's length or fins aren't shown, I've seen these boards before. I'm pretty sure this board is 11' long with one long single fin. This board surfs a tiny wave well for a 11' sup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZD_eHarCQ8
Blue Planet Duke: 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 Liters (2 Dukes)
Sup Sports Hammer: 8'11" x 31" x 4" @ 140 Liters
SUP Sports One World: 11'1" x 30" x 4.5" @ 173 Liters
CJ Nelson Parallax: 9'3" x 23 1/2" x 3 3/16" @ 78.8 Liters (prone surfing longboard; Thunderbolt Technologies build in Red construction)

 


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