I also have an in-depth guide with more tips on how to take care of your surfboard which will help you to keep riding your favorite board for many more years! Fortunately, we now have removable surfboards, with FCS and Futures Fins at the forefront of the industry, although there are now many, many more companies making these fins.
So, if you have a board with glassed on fins, expect them to ding and for you to have a few less years of use out of it. With all of the points above comes a caveat. Generally, rogue waves would need to be big, powerful and land right on your board for them to break.
More likely, though, is an accident out of the surf. As some examples, I have seen surfboards come off roof racks , cars reverse over boards in the car park, or people just drop or step on a board on dry land.
As such, remind yourself that no surfboard is indestructible, so treating it carefully will give you the best chance of having many good years out of it.
This is the classic surfboard. As you might have also noticed, these boards come in with the shortest expected life span, along with the foam soft top.
This is because surfboard shapers can use heavier fiberglass for a stronger surfboard, but this kind of fiberglass also adds weight to the surfboard. The heavier glassing options are usually a 6oz. The lighter 4oz fiberglass surfboard will be better for doing turns and maneuvers given its lack of weight, while a heavier surfboard with a 6oz fiberglass layer would likely last longer in bigger, more powerful waves.
A PU surfboard with a 6oz. These dents come with general use of a PU board and can eventually lead to cracks and even the deck collapsing due to limited protection. So, PU surfboards with a heavier layer of fiberglass should last longer while extremely lightweight boards will only last a few years. Epoxy surfboard constructions are a fairly modern innovation in surfing and have come into popular use more and more over the last 20 years.
When Surftech, the main brand behind the first serious epoxy surfboards , first launched on a big scale, many people said that the boards were indestructible! That said, I had an epoxy surfboard made by Santa Cruz that I had a lot of fun on and, after 4 years of solid use did not have as much as one pressure ding on it! OK, so the wide range of lifespans on composite construction surfboards is because this is a bit of a catch-all term. There are so many hybrid construction surfboards coming out these days that it is hard to list them all here, but some of the main brands are Firewire and Libtech.
Libtech Surfboards are also becoming more popular for their durability and performance, with their boards using a special woven basalt fiber to keep them strong. Surfboards from these brands should last a long time, although some of the earlier Firewire models were light and not that well built, as I found out when I broke one while surfing in Bali!
The advanced shortboarder is downsizing his board length and style to tackle a very specific task. The Shortboard: The high-performance surfboard is the go-to anytime the waves are decent. For most of us, that time is far and few between. Maybe a total of a week out of every month, often sporadic and in short intervals. The rails are medium or tapered, the nose around 12 The Weapon Hybrid Shortboard. The Weapon is a swallow tail, fuller shortboard template with a single-wing swallow tail and added volume through a low rockered curve.
The wider tail provides heaps of speed off the back foot and a lower rocker and fuller rails allow you to surf it shorter, yet paddle and plane with less effort. The All Terrain Vehicle is closer to the feel of a standard squashtail high performance shortboard with a slightly more aggressive outline than the Weapon.
Medium-low rocker keeps the turning radius tight without sacrificing paddle speed and planing ability through flatter sections. Both of these boards love to get vertical and draw blistering arcs on chunkier wave shoulders. Because these boards boast a touch more volume than the performance shortboard, advanced surfers can surf them shorter, creating more agility in smaller or softer surf.
The Cloud Groveler Shortboard. T he Groveler: These select gems are built to keep in a board bag and never leave your surf wagon because they tend to work in almost all conditions. We call it the no-surf-check-needed board. Forget the cams, just throw on the leash and get after it.
A groveler is designed to make any surf session a better one by packing a ton of volume in a fast, nimble package. The wider, rounder templates carry the same or more volume, in a board length that gets through turns quicker and builds speed faster. We listed them earlier in the intermediate surfer section. The Cloud, the Codfather including the Keelfather , and the Bullet. Take advantage of this knowledge and come in to get tailored for the perfect fit on the perfect board.
A good fit on a more compact board will allow you to hone in on your evolving skill set regardless of non ideal surf conditions. This article should give you more confidence in your next surfboard purchase to finish out summer waves in skillful style! October 25, When you finally get to riding the board, a longer board will usually be more stable, again because there is more board beneath your feet to balance on.
To recap on the information provided above, here is the information on recommended first surfboard length in bold followed by a rider weight guide and estimate:. There are a couple of further points to mention here. Some learner surfboards will come with a rider weight guideline, so definitely have a look for those before you buy any as they may vary from what you see above.
For younger riders who are going to grow, or if you are buying a surfboard for a child, then you can think about buying a board that will allow for this kind of growth. You should probably expect to buy a learner surfboard to use for at least years before you or the rider will want to progress onto another board. Having a little bit more length in your first surfboard will only be a positive. To help once more with this, here is the information again specifically on first surfboard length compared to the height of the rider:.
The key point here, which I am sure you are aware of, is that a taller rider will not fit easily onto a smaller board. However, what this means in practice is that that person will struggle to learn since they will find that their arms and legs will be dragging in the water and that their board will feel a lot less stable.
On the opposite end, if a shorter rider gets too long a board, although it will be easy to stand up on once in the water, they may not be able to carry it. For instance, a 9 foot long surfboard is often 23 inches wide and 2. For someone who is just over 5 feet tall, trying to carry this kind of board down the beach or from their car to their home will be a real frustration and might put them off wanting to go surfing.
Now, on top of the surfboard length and rider height and weight considerations, there is one final thing to consider, which is the volume of a first surfboard. Volume is given in liters and gives an idea of how much float you can expect out of a surfboard. In short, the higher the volume of a surfboard, the better it will float you. Not all surfboard manufacturers give a volume for their boards but this is becoming more and more common and helps to complete the picture of how much float a board will give you.
One of the key factors about your first surfboard is actually the shape or template of it, combined with getting the right length for your height and weight.
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