WARNING TO NON-SURFERS: Those of you who don't surf may be put off by the following. I try to keep a number of balls in the air with this blog - daddy stuff, work stuff, pop culture, and the occasional political rant - but I am in deep with my new board obsession. So, non-surfers, I won't be offended if you skip today's entry. Although you might learn something. Then again, this might prompt you to move out here, take up the sport and the Life, and add to our population woes in and out of the water. So. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Engaged with Crusty (via email) on the topic of what makes the perfect noserider. An excellent question, particularly since my two big boards (we will not speak of the hybrid and the island board I once owned) have been "Modern Longboards".
Now, I used to be able to ride the Board as a singlefin; the side fins were removable. But I lost the screws that held the side fins in place, and replaced them with cheap ones that soon rusted over, thus permanently attaching the side fins in place. Hollingsworth designed the board off the Wingnut template, with a little more rocker and a slightly narrower tail. He put a little concave in the nose, though, and thus I'm able to noseride - almost. I can work my up to about a foot off the tip; any further than that and I invariably go ass over teakettle.
Let's go further back in time. My first longboard was a Dick Brewer, and to this day I've never seen another like it. A 9'2", it had three short, glassed-in fins, a narrow tail, and a thin, semi-pointed nose. A long funboard, basically; it turned on a dime, and was excellent in chest to overhead stuff. But the thing had its limits, namely, traditional longboarding moves - walking the deck, riding the nose. These were out of the question.
Thus, the Modern Longboard, the surfing equivilant of the Blackberry. It does a lot of things, none of them really well, especially in small surf. They tend to be light, and curvy, and this is a selling point to surfers who want a more responsive board. The trouble is - and I'm no purist - that this makes it too easy to ignore basic longboarding skills like cross-stepping and the drop-knee turn. (I speak from experience - having learned to surf on a Modern Longboard, I found myself playing catch-up when I opted to ride my board as a singlefin.) It's like buying a Harley with an automatic transmission.
Plus there's a lot to be said for style. Watch a GOOD longboard rider do his/her thing; it's like a dance, constant refined movement in response to ever-shifting conditions, a partnership between surfer and board. Not the frenetic ripping and thrashing one gets from watching the shortboarders tear up a wave (one exception: Tom Curren. That guy is smoooooooth - those long, graceful bottom turns and gliding cutbacks. Must be part dolphin.).
So in looking at where I want my surfing to go, my eyes are focused on the past.
