![]() ![]() I'm not as fit as I could be and have given a lot of thought to the pop up problem, I only have trouble when the waves are under 2ft. ![]() Now I'm riding a Simon 6'4" x 20 1/2" x 2 5/8" 35.76 litre and loving life, although I still spend the first half of the wave getting organized. Until recently was struggling on a 25 litre Merrick, the old pop up was getting shaky. So my question to the experienced shapers and surfers out there is at what size does a modern short board stop riding and feeling like a short board? ![]() My current go to board for fun waves is 5’10 x 20 1/8”, and 6’2” x19.5” for bigger waves but I often wonder if I might surf better or at least as well on a longer board. My quiver ranges from 5’3” to 9’5” and I like 32 litres or more to have fun in normal waves. I theorise that we only need a surfboard that performs well enough to allow us to push our limits, and anything more high performance is probably just making things harder. More are starting to ride quads as they seem to plane quicker too. They still have great technique, but not the POW. Age steals our paddling and explosive strength and I’ve noticed that by the time surfers are in there mid 50’s, those that had it, have pretty much lost that magic pop and explosive power that differentiates them from the rest. I’m 54, 80kgs and arguably my best surfing days are behind me. I often find myself watching a surfer thinking “you would be better off on a bigger board”. Radical old guys don’t surf like radical young ones! They tend to surf pretty much the same on most waves, and interestingly they don’t actually turn much more or less when riding different boards of similar sizes. I don’t just mean wave count, I mean the whole package. It’s intriguing how in 2 to 4 foot waves you can have two guys over 50 of similar ability, one on the latest shortboard, and one on a mini-mal or higher volume fish-style board, and the guy on the mini-mal or fish will often seriously out surf the short boarder. I’m lucky enough to live across the road from the beach and waste a lot of time analysing surfers styles, technique, and how different boards seem to go. But what is an optimal short board size range for surfers over 50? But how small is small enough, and how big is too big for an all-round shortboard? This normally comes down to ability, weight and wave quality. ![]()
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