Weight to Litres

Hey guys. Im 85 kgs and am looking for a board that's easy to paddle but still has a bit of manoverability. Ive been riding a 9'0 sideways board for the past two years. I wanna get something that can move around a bit more but I don't wanna be sinking when im standing still out the back either. Any suggestions?

parliament house?

Actually, you should take into account the whole weight: you, but also board, paddle, (wet) wetsuit... For your 85 kg it means you will sink on less than ~ 100 liters in winter. (a wet wetsuit is quite heavy).

Add volume to this to get:
- paddling speed: a low volume board sinks deep and displaces a lot of water and create a lot of drag.
- speed and thus manoevrability in weak waves. On the opposite, it will become cumbersome in powerful / hollow waves
- rest: a low volume board will need constant attention to be balnced, thus is more tiring.

What is a manoeuverable board depends on the kind of wave you ride (weak waves will need boards with volume), and your technique: if you are able to put your rear foot on the kicktail, a wide tail will be awesome, but if not, you will need a pulled-in tail and some tail rocker to assist your turns. Plus never forget that speed is the fuel of the turns in surfing, so board should be fast for the conditions they are designed for.

I guess that a mini-longboard (aka egg) shape in 8' - 8'6" could be the solution: wide nose, not too long, wide for stability, good tail rocker and somewhat pulled in tail. I would avoid the new wide-square nosed shapes, depending on your abilities. The intermediate SUPers I have seen on them were ruining their surfing (seen it again yesterday), because the nose was killing their speed when touching the water, and they did not have the mastery to keep the nose from going up, stalling the board. Better use a (semi)round shape for both stability and hydrodynamics. Good SUPers can manage them, but my opinion is that they are geared for very good SUPers, that can ride then in the intended length of the concept: ultra short, you do not need an aircraft carrier deck up in the nose, the goal is to have less nose, not more!

There is a reason why the Hypto Krypto is the most selled surfboard: www.haydenshapes.com/surfboard/hypto-krypto/ A SUP in the same spirit will be 100% joy 0% hassle. In the Gong line for instance, the NFA 8' is the board I would recommend to all good/intermediate SUPers gongsupshop.com/epages/box1707.sf/fr_FR/?ObjectPath=/Shops/box1707/Products/GON6SUPNFA8

Hi Colas

The popularity of the Hypto Krypto could be argued that it was clever marketing. I bought one after shoulder surgery trying to keep my shorter surfboard aspirations alive as the concept sounded great.
I didnt like the board though and I have spoken to other surfers who have divided opinions on this board.
I thought the design concept was good and looked for a similar style of board and was recommended and bought a JS Ghetto Cat:
www.jsindustries.com/AU/Surfboards/x-series/ghetto-cat-1
I still have this board for those few days I prone surf (unfortunately not in those hollow barreling waves as the advert suggests but it is versatile with plenty of paddle power and suits my style of surfing)
I am not sure if the Ghetto Cat model came out before or after the Hypto.
My point is, I would never have bought this board reading the description of their add.
Its a great board and does the job for me better than the Hypto.
Unfortunately there werent any boards to demo prior to buying.






I basically agree with your other comments and I have learned a lot about SUPs, shorter SUP board shapes, styles and riding techniques from your posts on this forum and always look forward to reading your posts







HI Joseph
As always demo if you can.
There are a lot of great boards out there at the moment and Colas's comments on the SUPs are spot on.
I personally would lean towards a more refined semi-pulled in tail shape with some tail rocker and a more conventional or rounded nose.
If the tail is too high performance it will be too unstable out the back.
I am of average ability at 80 Kg, I have demo'd the wide-square nose shapes with pulled in tails and I quite liked the Fanatic Stubby, which I think would be similar to the Speed (which I havent demo'd)
I recently bought a 7'11' Fanatic Allwave instead because I wanted a shorter SUP and it fitted into my quiver (10'6" Nalu, and an 8'10"JP Surf Pro) If i only had the Nalu I would have bought one of the Stubby's as the tail is more high performance than the Allwave. The 8'2" Stubby is less stable than the 7'11" Allwave and the 8'6" Stubby is similar in stability.
I didnt like the wide-square nose and tail Tomo style SUP's though. I had enough ability not to catch the nose but I preferred the carving, surfing feel I got from the refined pulled in tails. I demo'd a JP Slate and I thought the rails and tail were too thick for me to dig a rail in, it was fast and skated around. I really had to move my feet to the edge of the board to get any leverage on the rail and jam the tail to turn it, which I thought negated the shorter board concept/feel i wanted. You could pump the rail down the line and generate heaps of speed though.
I think you have to look at what waves you are riding, what style you like and demo as much as possible an dont drop too much volume or you will be swimming a lot.
I am fortunate enough to be able to have a quiver. If i had to chose one board I think I would lean towards the Naish Nalu, Fanatic Stylemaster (these are Mal shapes but have performance tails) The 8'3" or 8"5" Allwave or dependant on your ability something smaller like a Stubby or Speed as they would keep you on the water most days with a maximum wave count.
We are really spoilt for choice these days which is a great thing.
Good Luck

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Kami said..
Hi Flying High, thx for your good report following Colas comments and your suggestion to Joseph question.

As a designer I focus on what you say :" If the tail is too high performance it will be too unstable out the back". So you are very right to point this ...because this the master drawing parameter designing a SUP with less ratio of liters to weight.

In search of less ratio weight/liters shortest most stable board, having the gut to go down the line and the fun to swipe the wave face, I think the solution can be on fins position.

Twinzer can be this solution because twinzer dress the SUP wide width allowing a higher fin off the tail like thruster front fins set up and get a strong back fin to drive the bottom turn like a single fin board.

Hi Kami

I have never designed a board so I don't have your expertise.
I think your idea works provided the thickness in the tail is factored to the person's weight. I have had a quad fish surfboard which worked great (it obviously didn't have the centre fin but it was wide in the tail and it performed very well, it was fast and had no issues turning but the turns were flatter)
There are so many variables that change stability and performance and every change interacts.
I like the slightly more performance tails as I feel I get more of a surfy drive turn with the rail digging and engaging. So its a feel thing which is different for every person.
I didn't achieve this with the Tomo style SUP's I tested.
That was my point of the original post, work out the style of SUPing you like and buy a shape and size that fits that style.
I would love to have a go of one of your 'small larger boards' to see if it works for me as I think your passion is driving you to develop good designs.

To achieve the minimum ratio weight/litres in SUP's you have to be a very good rider or find a Tomo/Mignon shape that works for you and yes I think fin position/size would have an enormous effect on performance and stability.

Unfortunately I wasnt able to demo a lot of these style of boards but the few I did or could compare, had very thick rails and tails which for my weight and style were too thick for me to engage a rail easily.
I also think that a custom board from someone who has been experimenting/making these designs for a while would be a better option than some of the large manufacturer's designs. The large companies generally have only just released these style of boards and I am sure the in the next few years they will refine their shapes and I will revisit this shorter style of board and probably add one to my quiver in the future.

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Kami said..
I think the solution can be on fins position.

So true!

Wide tails become very versatile if move back the fins. And they are still quite easy to ride, because we can keep balance on the paddle while moving the rear foot around, much easier than on a prone surfboard.

I found out that fins in "traditional" place (too forward) made my Simmons turn too early before the rail rail could dig in properly, and the front rail clear the the wave surface.