From the article: "What we really need is three boards. Three. Tres. Trois. Lucky for you, we’re about to go all service-magazine on you and tell you what those three boards are: 1. Small wave board, 2. Standard board, 3. Larger wave board..."
Three is a magic number. I've had some success with 1 scotch, 1 bourbon, and 1 beer.
But my quiver is full of a bunch of logs and a short-ish board. I won't count the half-finished homemade monstrosity...
3 covers you, but there are definitely smaller days when I prefer my fish to my longboard, and there are definitely bigger days (i.e., >50% of the days this winter), when I wish I had something bigger than my current 7'2" minigun.
I've got 4... I want 5... :)
I also agree that three is enough. But sometimes you just have a penchant for other things, other experiments, sometimes for no good reason at all, save your fancy. Looking at you @tcannon LOLLLL
I whish I only needed 3 boards. I currently have 8 boards: 2 longboards; 2 mini-guns, 2 shortboards, 2 fish-style boards. All of them get used as they are all unique and fit a certain style of wave. I sell the ones I don't like. I figure if you are using the boards there should be no limit to the amount you can justify having. My wife may think otherwise though.
I could live comfortably with 2, because my 6'0" Stretch F4 can handle a huge range of wave shapes and sizes. 3 is enough. But somehow I have 5.
ommmmmmmmmmm srs congruence there over_the_falls :D
I couldn't agree more, really :)
Kinda like an ice cream sundae. I mean who NEEDS it? :)
I remember in Santa Cruz I only needed 2 boards when I surfed the Lane everyday. Same wave, same conditions, same long rides, nothing too surprising. Now I have about 6 active boards and I still feel like I need yet another one... an actual full length Gun. I surf OB and Linda Mar and the Jetty and other spots and they all require different amounts of Foam and they're all pretty different day to day.
I currently have 4 boards in my quiver. I surf them all regularly based on conditions. 1 long board, 1 funboard, 1 fishy quad thing and a 6'10 thruster. I don't feel I have any real gaps in my quvier just gaps in my confidence and ability to ride bigger stuff. It's geting there.
OB 4 is best. 2 shorties, one step up, one gun. Snap your shortie, and you still have another to ride instantly. Step-up is what you should have been riding when you snapped the shortie, and the gun is for about 5 days out of the year; the last addition to the quiver is usually the gun.
fish, regular shortboard, step-up, semigun, backup shortboard - with the regular and the step-up getting the most action. also need to get rid of a log that sits unused in a friend's garage.
Shhhhhhhhh, I'm just getting back into it and only have two. I don't want the wife to know I only need one more. I'm going to have to delete Stoke report for a while now LMAO!
Time for another edit box poll:
Where do you get your boards?
a) Craigslist
b) retail
c) friend/soul shaper, direct from source no middle man, and possibly little to no CNC :)
d) loaner transmigration
e) other / all of the above.
right now, all craigslist.
However, I'm going to see Ward Coffey in the near future. First new board is in the near future. :)
I'm riding the craigslist waves constantly. Their RSS doodad for search results is handy, but you didn't hear that from me. I occasionally look at Swaylocks store too. I'll save up for some esoteric Cooperfish or GP thing and buy from the maker at some point.
I had a Coffey board that was magic, and then got him to make me one that stunk! Same size and everything! Just beware, I think he's hit and miss.
I've had the last 3 boards made from a guy named Tim Reda. He works in the Arrow factory in SC. All 3 are magic! He makes a great longboard, and some fun betweeners. Shortboards are more precise but I'm pretty sure he could do a good shortboard as well. But seriously... he's awsome!
Craigslist is always the best deal... but you aint' gettin a magic board unless you're extremely lucky. No one gives a way a magic board that they love...
MAGIC BOARD!
I got lucky with Craigslist. Unridden, unwaxed Stewart Hydrohull a dad bought for his daughter who is my exact size. Full disclosure, I spent from Nov-June looking at Craigslist every day and freaking out over almost perfect boards I couldn't afford. Happen to come into exactly what the board cost the day it went on craigslist. Fate!
I love that 9'4 hydrohull so much. Yomg.
I'd use it for everything if it wasn't a little bit dangerous in rougher conditions. (Partially because it seems to be magnetically attracted to my head and partially because I'm so afraid of snapping it in half I don't charge when I need to charge on more agressive waves even though I've seen people do it with the same board)
The other 3 boards I've had have been permaloans from fellow stoke reporters and other surfer friends.
Right now I have a 7'4 round tail (hi frankiekim!) and a 6'8 Jeffery Divine Rocket.
I had a 7'0 Al Merrick Tufflite KBoard (I think) which I just gave back to a friend who was looking to sell it.
I take the shorter boards out when I'm feeling like taking abuse for the sake of practice. Their only conditional requirement at this time is "day that I wouldn't take my longboard out". I eventually want to be able ride a shorter board and as long as I've got loaners to work with, I can keep experimenting and throwing myself down wave faces.
I'm using frankiekim's board to practice paddling for waves without getting frustrated, and the Rocket for practicing being really really frustrated.
I'm going to add a fish to the line-up for the summer. Anyone have perspective on the performance/feel differences between glass on twin keel vs. quad? Any recommendations?
@tracey keep at it. 3months of self-skunking and continually thinking I would never be able to surf again when I made the transition.
@H20MansLibrary: I only have the Rusty piranha 6'2 working which you're welcome to try. So I have no perspective on the diffs yet. I think this weekend I may try to fix the twin keel fish delam!
My quad keeps me a lot higher on the wave face, which has its pluses & minuses... sometimes I get caught up there & then take a beating when the wave is ready to break. Other times, it lets me take a really high line & have better control up & down the wave face.
LOL come on man...for now! Few more months on that LB, and you'll be shoppin!
