I've been chatting to a guy named John from southern california on ning who shapes extra wide SUP's, up to 36'' wideHe loves them and sold twenty of them last summer. Here's what he replied to me when i asked him why he build's them so wide........

Heyy Danny,

I started standup on a 12' Mickey Munoz tandem board. It was barely 26" wide, surfed nice but between waves I was getting killed by the chop. Even going outside the break I would constantly fall off my board. Nothing wider was out at the time, though I had heard rumors that Surftech was going to bring out a real SUP.

So I decided to try my hand at building a board. Had quite a lot of talented people around me to give me advise and a hand on the first few boards.

The feeling then amoung surfshops at the time was anything over 27" wouldn't surf.
My first board was a 10'6x30x5. Everyone back then thought I was nuts to go that wide. I was told over and over "That's too freaking wide dude!"
I found out later that they wanted to use up their stock blanks which weren't that wide. Also CNC machines weren't set up for that much width.
Also they were thinking prone paddling would be difficult when it goes wider than your shoulders...but we standup guys know that's not a problem when we are standing and using a paddle.
I have a friend that builds huge Catamarans and sails them to Hawaii. He told me he often surfed giant swells on his way there from California. Got me to thinking that width wasn't a problem to surfing these boards. I'm the kind of guy that likes to try things for himself so I went ahead with my plans to build my wide board.

I bought an eps blank from a construction co. in San Diego and had a local guy CNC the basic shape for me. My friend Wayne, showed me how to finish and glass the board. It was a heavy board, 40lbs and I think I lost a few inches in height carrying that board to the beach on my head.
It paddled great, I didn't have a traction pad so I used those suction cup grips for bath tubs on the first try. They worked in flat water but boy those cups released quickly in choppy water hahaha
Anyway I got a real pad on it and went to surf it....it was great, It didn't even need me on it....it just surfed by itself. (whoa this is getting to be like a book, I'll get to the point:)

I found the 30" width really helped the stability and kept me out on the water longer...no fatigue from trying to stay balanced.
I wanted to try going even wider so that beginers could enjoy standup without having to worry about balancing. That way they could concentrate on paddle techique and just have fun right away. That's why I thought "Hey I'll go 36"wide and see what that's like!"

The first time I threw the 36"er into the water and stood on it....I knew I had something that anyone could ride straight away.
I took it out in open ocean and found it was fun riding without feeling I might fall in. Then I started taking chairs and ice chests with me, it was like a little boat really cool.

Here is a video surfing the 8x33"x5 and 9x34x5 boards at San Onofre.
http://southcountysurf.com/sanO.htm

John

He's a cool guy who unfortunately has had a run in with cancer and is on the recovery road at the moment. But he has told me he'll be back on the water in a month.......Way to go mate.

Danny

Isn't there some rule about waterline length minus beam width equals speed....doesn't really amtter to much for surfing I suppose....sports pretty new so I reckon it could be a few ye
ars or decades until we have it dialled

Got called into work mate(ah the beauty of the pager)...looks like I'll be here until about 3'clock in the morning...have you had a look at Lorne point...looks pretty tasty on the cams

I can see 36" for folks that are interested in "chairs and ice chests" and nothing necessarily wrong with that. For fishing and maybe as a dive platform or similar uses but personally I think 30" is plenty stable enough for anybody that wants to use the board for surfing or distance unless they are really, really big. I say that because if I can do it just about anybody can. I started doing standup as therapy for balance problems caused by a brain tumor. I'm 6'-4 and at the time was 290 lbs...a big guy that fell down a lot even on dry land. Today because of standup I'm 240 and my balance is almost normal....usually.

I'd steer people away from such a wide board for general use because they won't get the workout benefit that some initial instability brings. If I go out on my 12-6 x 30 in anything other than crazy, wild, wind and chop today I never fall. That's part of the reason I've moved down to less stable boards. I'm still trying to improve my balance and want the workout a bit of instability brings. That constant minor adjustment to maintain balance is such a great part of the workout. Get rid of that and all your doing is paddling.

hilly said...

Well put Stoneaxe, I am 115kg or 253lbs use a 10 8 X 29 JL which is very stable. I do it for the challange and exercise I don't need a boat.

Good work hilly, I dont feel so bad now being 103kg on a 9 6"

I designed a 9.8 x 33 and made it- IT RIPS.
Im not sure what the fuss is on all this
I dont even ride my Naish 10.6 x 28 anymore -
I mean my purpose is to ride waves not ride a bucking bronco.

My mate 98kg was on a Starboard 12.6x30 and was falling off a bit so i got him on my 33" and he relaxed and got on with the sport of SUPn

Ive been out on a howling sideshore chop and hardly fall off.

It just means that you can get into trickier situations and eg MAKE THE BARRELL or end a wave and turn into the foam whilst staying on the board.

go 33ers!

While I agree that wider boards are more stable, [just check out my stuff mostly around 29.5inches (750mm)] you have to add volume into the mix. That is the ability of an object to float its own weight and a riders weight. I currently think that volume is the KEY to good board stability, too little and the board has a sinky feel and is unstable as the rails keep on dipping into the water, too much and the boards centre of gravity is too high and the board feels unstable because it feels too corky, too floaty.

The one thing that SUPA boards are doing to surfboard design is rewriting what widths are usable in bigger waves. 5 years ago it was unheard of and totally scoffed at that any board over about 19inches wide could handle power surf. We now know that 28-29-29.5 inches can and does handle double overhead faces. Whats more these boards carve off the bottom just like modern short boards and carve tighter turns than most if not all mordern longboards, the paddle allows us to do this.

I currently think that 32inch wide boards and over, especially in longer lengths are too wide for performance surfing that is carving bottom turns and vertical surfing thru the lip with snaps under the lip. It is just not physically possible to get enough pressure onto the boards rail to get them to carve properly thru turns.

I have on my current drawing board a set of boards that I call easy riders that start at 32 to 33 inches wide and upto 35 inches wide, this leaves just enough glass for a reasonable glass lap when making the boards. My thinking on this design width has been influenced by John's boards when I came across them early last year.

The Idea is to make it an easier starting point for non surfing, people who want to get into the sport for health and fitness reasons. It is much easier to get a SUPA board on and off a car roof than a canoe.

Just touching the subject of width and stability.

Rod