Sommer Surfebrett i aksjon

Sommer Surfebrett I aksjon                       

Last week saw Saltstein produce some windy, fun little summer conditions in the knee to chest height range. It was great to see all the crew again, always plenty of laughs and good times when we get together!

Despite the crowds, to my knowledge there was only one minor mishap between two good friends, once they got over the fact they had only damaged their boards and realised they were both still alive, they kissed and made up.

Water temps were hovering between 18 and 20. Joacim Nyhaugen even managed to do a long session in boardies and vest! What a way to spend his birthday with good friends and warm water, Happy birthday again Mr. Nyhaugen!!

Photos by: Jostein Nilsen 

I had a mate named Kalle Carranza from Mexico / Finland in town for few days so I took him down to show him our local. It was impressive to see him rip the bag out of a few miniature waves. For those that don´t know Kalle is an ex-pro surfer and one of nicest guys you will meet. He rode for Reef for many years as a free surfer (the kind of job as surfers we all dream about). Kalle wrote a little piece on his Oslo experience, which I will post later today.

 

On to some board talk…

The thing I really notice when the conditions are so small and weak is that the guys riding the real bottom end boards seem to be having a bunch more fun than those on a typical grovel / stumpy shortboard.

I´ll break that down. A typical “groveller” or stumpy shortboard have a little extra volume than you would normally ride on your proper shortboard. This style of board performs well in most conditions small waves, fat waves even good waves that are head high plus….

Examples from CI include a Neck Beard, Weirdo Ripper, New Flyer, Lost have the Rocket, V2 Rocket, V3 Rocket to name just a few. If you look outside of what we stock the Hypto Kypto is a perfect example.

All of these boards are great, the reviews say it and they are right, they are good boards. The only problem with them is Lost shaper Matt Biolis and Channel Islands Shaper Al Merrik have come up with MUCH better boards for the very crappiest conditions, the smallest weakest days, or the guy that just wants to catch heaps of waves. Examples from Lost include a Bottom Feeder, RV,  V2 Stub the Lazy Boy, Couch Potato from CI the Average Joe, Sperm Whale and the Biscuit to name a few.

What makes these boards so much better you are probably thinking? They combine more volume in super short boards with very little rocker (flat), manageable rails (not too boxy), with super duper concaves both in the bottoms and particularly in the tails. It is the combination of all of these factors together that makes the flattest, widest, ugliest surfboards that make you go lightening fast in weak waves. Keep in mind it is with this speed that all turns come from, so all of sudden you can do turns you didn´t think were possible in such conditions. Case in point Espen

and Phil.

These boards also cross over to great boards to use once you have learned the basics on a longer board because they are wave catching machines, easy to paddle/ stand on and generate heaps of speed and turn like a shortboard not a 7´3. An example leaner board might be/depending on your weight) the RV 6´3 which is 48Litres (as much as a mini mal).

I am throwing out a disclaimer here: If you surf every day and you tear the bag out of it you will have no problems ripping on the typical groveller in the same conditions. Kalle demonstrates this by riding my Weirdo Ripper 5´8 x 19 5/8 x 2 7/16 @ 30.1Litres

Whilst I opted to ride my Bottom Feeder 5´5 x 21 x 2.38 @ 33 Litres.

Espen is riding an RV 5´4 x 20.25 x 2.38 @28.66L his groveller is a Fred Stubble which is 5´9 x 19 x 2 5/16 @ 26.9L

 

Phil is riding his V2 Stub 5´10 x 20.5 x 2.44 33.7Litres his groveller is a V2 Rocket 5´11 x 20.0 x 2.5 @32.7Litres

 

Jonas rides a Neck Beard 5´8 x 19 ¾ x 2 3/8 @ 29.6Litres and isn´t that keen on the bottom end boards just yet but we reckon he does well on the NB.

Lets hope the end of the summer produces more waves than the beginning.

If you would like some specific advice on what board would be best suited to you regarding models, lengths and volumes feel free to give me a call and we can go through your surfing history/ ability and recommend something that is going to increase the smile on your dial in the summer dribble :)

A massive thank you to Jostein Nilsen for all the photos your hard work is much appreciated!

Enjoy the heat and summer days,

Seamus

Surfshop.no