What size board for cyclone swell at granites?

How tall are you, drom"? and your weight? Granite, tea tree, and the pot are different types of waves, yeah all points, but subtly different. Not there for the last swell, but used to live there...
I had an all rounder "older style shape" that did the trick for 6 to 8 foot grunt. Seemed to work best at Granite and Tea tree... Not too bad at the pot (pot rarely gets over 6 foot anyway)...I'm 6'1, 13 -14 stone depending how much piss I' d been drinking ;)
6'5 x 19 x 2 1/2 single to double concave, curved swallow, rolled soft rails, std rocker, g5 back fin, g3s on the sides. Shaped by "stumpy"...
"True" Granite bulges off the outside point... Lots of water...... A little extra length helps deal with that, and with the crowd.... Plus you can really carve a well shaped loose 6'5 in solid cyclone swell....
Main tip - don't go too much rocker.....

TC was surfing a 5'6 Dick Van Straalen twinnie at Granites on Saturday afternoon when there were solid 6ft sets pouring through.

But that's Tom.

Yeah, I ran into Tom walking around and couldn't beleive the size of the board under this arms. He showed me the deep double vee and said it should go alright! 

I was like yep, I wouldn't make a bottom turn on that thing in solid surf (not that I told him that), haha!

Tom could surf a car door and make it look good :)

Yeah I remember TC paddled out Bellambi bommie back in the day on (I believe) the passenger door from an EH and tore it to pieces!

True fact, just ask him.

Hey, Ben.. was that 5'6 twinny bigger that Tom ;) That'd be an elephant gun for him lol

I was riding something like (the dimensions are covered by wax) a 6'6 x 18 1/4 x 2 7/8 pin/rounded pin. Fair bit of entry rocker, not sure about the concave, and glassed fins that aren't big. A weapon.

6ft bowly waves and 6-7 or 8? ft lumps.

This just seemed to be the best option I had, if it was going to be a classic, and I kept riding it for consistency. Had shorter, wider and flatter options; and a similar 6'10. This just seemed to fit a balance of extra paddle power to get right into the good waves; less concern for bunging up the take off with a shorter board; and not so long, flat or wide that I'm just shooting out to the shoulder.

On the few waves I surfed that were 'classic': It wasn't too fast (didn't pull myself into any barrels though :( ) and held me into carving turns without me having to even think about it, it just railed through top to bottom. But when I surfed lumpy & bumpy waves, I had to paddle hard under the lip to get onto any waves. It still drew & held turns, but it was a struggle.

I think if you wanna ride a smaller board, you really gotta have a good connection with it. Otherwise tiny bits of bump will throw you off, you won't be confident in judging the speed of sections, etc

Rocker is the key.... Alot of guys first getting into bigger stuff ( and alot of guys learning to surf) think that extra rocker will stop them nosediving.... It's actually the opposite..... Extra rocker will make a novice or intermediate surfer nosedive more.... Yeah, sounds like a paradox... You'd link a "banana nose" would help, but it actually gets you into the takeoff later, holds you up in the lip longer (strong offshores getting under the nose), and bam..... nosedive.... There were some ridiculous rockers going around in the late 90s/ early noughties.... Saw some horrific wipeouts..... Std rocker is the key......

Yeah SD makes a good point, that's why I struggled to get into the non-perfect (majority) waves.

Yeh, rocker is really important, I agree, the bananas are useless, water pushers, or even flat with a shitty/bump in the curve up front. But it must be along with flotation, planshape and rails. Any one of those can fuck up paddling/paddling in. For instance I'm 6'1" and around 105kg, and this board is 6' 8". I'm close to 60 in the shot, but was super paddle fit then, and the place makes Noosa Heads at any size look like a ripple in the bath tub. No shelf at all. Ridiculous currents and sweep. Mick Mackie shaped the board, and combined all those elements perfectly, so that it paddles insane. Not if I'm not surfing/paddling heaps though, as its small for me in size.

In real drains, the quicker you get the nose rails to bite and lead you in, the better, so it has to be a combo of nose planshape, rail, rocker and thickness. McCoy made me a 7'4" Larry Blair style model for blacks once that was amasing. Nose flip, just in those last few inches can be a life saver. A mate from Hawaii came over with a full quiver of Minami's, when he was the rage, and they looked so much like that McCoy Blair model, especially the rails. A local guy who ripped, Reece (Bricky), freaked when he saw them, went over and bought half a dozen customs back. He already ripped, but those Minami's took him to another level. He became so sure of himself in anything, and took bombs that he previously would have let go. That was the best I've ever seen him surf. They were beautiful boards, everything blended perfectly. That little flip done so well, not interfering with the glide. They all discintergrated under him, and he tried getting them copied, but, not the same. He told a classic story about Minami, about when he was checking them before glassing, and all the pipe chargers etc were in there getting boards. He reckons he said something like maybe they should be a few mill thinner in the nose and Minami picked up a sanding block, slightly grazed the deck of one and said, 'what da ya think, that should do it?'

Dromo, we could all keep chucking numbers at you, like, "I reckon you should get an all rounder for 4 to 8 foot surf, - 6'2 x 18 3/4 x 2 1/4 round pin......." But hey!!!! it's just gonna do your head in.... You haven't said if it is a flat deck or rolled... You'd be surprised how much foam is taken out of a board when the it's rolled..... Do you ride single concaves? Single to double? V's?

Mate..... here's what you should do re' a board for big QLD point surf.... Take your FAVORITE small to medium wave surfboard into your closest favorite shaper..... When talking to him, don't over complicate the issue.... Just say "I love this board - it rips in stuff up to 4 feet, but I'm looking for a good allrounder that will handle 5 to 8 feet...
He'll take the dimensions of your board and shape something along the lines that you are already used to...
If you are on the sunny coast, beware of one outfit whose glassing and sanding leave alot to be desired...
I can recommend a few blokes that are good, and know these waves like their own houses - Peter "stumpy" Wallace and Marty Simpson used to shape down Kawana way, but think have moved on... You could find Marty via Coolum boardriders or Chris at the Coolum suf school. God knows where Stumpy is, but worth asking around..... shotgun surfboards up in Noosa aren't bad either...

Short answer is yes.

I'm still going through the same thing as you Dro (started this process maybe 3 years ago. I have mates who live in Byron and took 5'7s to Lakey's Peak, and then mates who don't surf as much taking that as supporting evidence of all the "Kelly can ride shorter boards, I don't need a longer board", or "Queensland never gets big" calls), except I'm about 75kg and 185cm. Have you been surfing in 6ft already with any boards already? How did it feel?

I think the main thing about starting to surf in 6ft+ is that when you take off and go down the face, you gather much more speed than you're used to. So much so that you end up mainly planing a top the face (then there's bumps to contend with). And if you're not comfortable on the board, whatever size and shape, you are much more likely to just skip out as if you've stood on a banana peel.

So a longer board will start to lift your tail into the wave earlier, making you match the speed of the wave easier and the take off earlier. Then you can more easily setup your feet to really gouge the bottom turn, etc. once you get that right, it seems much easier than surfing small waves cos you have time. People still rip on bigger boards, so if you get good on it, so can you!

I've owned about a dozen boards in the last few years, and surfed more. I just get boards from gumtree, cashies, 2nd hand board racks, people who move away. It's really good, you notice what's going on under your feet much more when you surf different boards on the same day, then you can experiment and figure out what's going on.

Not matter how solid the waves are in QLD the only reason id want some length for waves up there is not for actually catching waves or surfing but paddling when any of the QLD points are solid its the sweep thats the killer had sessions at places like Burleigh where its looked perfect, offshore, real solid but surprisingly uncrowded got out there and the waves are perfect but the sweep just pulls you away from the waves and down the point so frustrating.

dromodreamer05 wrote:

I guess my question is really, would the fact that the board is 3/4 inches wider and 1/16 thicker equate to the same as if i just upped my 6'0 x 18'1/4 x 3/16 to 6'6 x 18'1/4 x 3/16 or is that extra length really needed no matter the width?

From my experience I would agree with the recommendation you have been given above DEPENDING upon which type of waves you like to ride when it gets big.

Sounds like your 6'1 has more float = less paddling resistance and hence ability to get into the wave earlier, which is important for bigger swell, so you aren't plummeting from the lip! Keeping dimensions close to your shorty will allow you to manouvre easier on the face, so if you are surfing granites, you will get into the waves easily enough, and the manouverability of a shorter board will help you keep close to the pocket on a fuller wall like granites. A longer board is going to draw out your turns so it will take some intricate work to keep it in the pocket! Other plus of a wider board is that it feels steadier which will help you if you feel out of control with the speed you get on a bigger wave.

but if you are keen to surf hollow, barrelling waves when it gets big, a short, wide board is the worst option IMO. What you need as the fellas have said above, is something that bites into the face during your drop. In my experience the optimum width is actually narrower than my standard shorty, and the tail is a pin or rounded pin to really maximise the length of rail behind your back foot, where you're wanting to hold into the face.

So my suggestion would be to keep the 6'1 for big Noosa, if you want to surf beachies around there when it's over 4ft I would definitely look at something along the lines of an indo spear as well. You can never have too many boards!!

lol, let us know how you go this next swell

Dromo... mate..... Just fork out the cash for a custom when you can.... As I said, take in the "small wave board" you rip on the best..... In the meantime, get out in the short swell slop, duck dive.... and duck dive....and duck dive.....and duck dive.... deliberately paddle through the toughest spot to get out the back....
If you are talkin' Beck up at woombye, yeah, he's pretty good.....
But for me, Stumpy or Marty are "the boys"
And the last tip I'd give you is a tip Nick Carroll wrote years ago about surfing reefs...... "When surfing reefs or big stuff, Hunt the wave.... Don't let it hunt you.....

Have to agree, the gun shaper is your best mate, find one, let him do his job. You'll learn heaps at the same time, and catch waves. But the best board in the world isn't going to make up for paddle fitness/time in the water, in testing conditions. You'll never bluff the ocean.

Indo dreaming. Here's a tip for ya' re' sweep -http://www.swellnet.com/forums/code-conduct/76776

Gotta say I used that technique so many times over that last week of swell at Noosa, and on the Saturday evening at First Point I was doing laps, getting wave after wave and paddling out towards DI and back at the top on the lineup while everyone else got jelly arms.

I couldn't believe no one caught on, but ah well, the less that know the better :)

Good to hear, Craig :)

Uplift.... You write "You'll never bluff the ocean."

So true.. It's a love in here today ;) Duck dive... and duck dive.... and duck dive.... Surfing 3 - 4 foot 8 second garbage is a fantastic workout. It's also great for reflexes.... Having to duck dive, then spin around quickly to catch a late drop chunky chop..... Next clean swell it all seems so easy.....