Louie Egan throws a Monsta 2020 through the roof. There are all sorts of abilities and a big chunk of surfers that just want to be able to put a board on rail and catch more waves. I work with guys like Occy and Luke Egan who are bigger guys and I’ve always been able to make that elite level big guy board but I’m now making boards for bigger people in the general population. It’s been something that I only fully realised when I had my own experiences with injuries. It seems like a massive oversight from the shaping world. There are all the benefits of extra foam without it looking like you’re riding an 8-foot mal. They paddle easier, have foam hidden in all the right places but they’re still a nice foiled out surfboards with nice low rails. We’ve started building a lot of our most popular models in what we call ‘ Easy Rider’ dimensions for bigger humans. If so many of us bigger guys are on the wrong boards, what’s the solution? JS on hiding foam to keep those rails spicy. I’ve had a lot of guys ask me what volume their boards should be and I get them to use the volume calculator when they choose their board and they come back and tell me “This is the best board I’ve ever had.” We have a volume calculator on our site that factors in your ability, height, weight, age, etc and we played around with the formula for a couple of years getting the math right and I reckon it’s spot on. If you’re going to spend the money, be as honest as you can because you’re going to get the right board. There’s a whole combination of things that go into finding the right board but you’ve got to be honest about your ability. Surely someone’s ability is the biggest factor? You rip though, what about volume as it relates to ability? I hear people ask other people how much they weigh and then recommend boards based on this info alone. So I made another board and went to 30 litres and I was still having a horrible time and then I moved up to 33 litres and then I was instantly like “I’m back!”. Before the injury, I was riding 28-litre boards and when I tried to ride the same I was thinking “This board sucks!”. I had a knee injury and I was out for maybe three months and I went from 83kgs and I came back at 88kgs. What 5’10, 90 kg guy doesn’t prefer to say he’s 80kgs? Bigger humans don’t want to admit that they’re bigger humans. There’s probably a little bit of ego there.
I thought it might have been related to people’s ego? There are many reasons people end up 5’10 and 90kgs when they should be 5’10 and 80kg and I’ve found myself needing boards with more volume now. Then there’s not surfing as much, drinking too much, having kids and just life in general. I’m in my late forties now and I’ve been surfing since I was 5 but I’ve had knee, hip, back and neck injuries and I’ve put on weight. There’s a lot of brands that don’t cater to the bigger humans. So why is we all keep buying boards that are too small for us? I’ll watch people getting ready to paddle out in 6 ft surf with boards that aren’t meant to go above 3 ft, but yeah, a lot of the boards you see under people’s arms are just too small. Yeah, volume is a big one but a lot of people will also choose the wrong model for the conditions. Some days I’ll be watching 200 guys surf D-Bah and only 10% of them will be riding the right equipment. I watch some guys that might only surf okay but they’ve chosen the right volume board, they’re going fast and doing good turns for their ability. JS: I can see when someone has the right board under their feet. Stab: When you’re watching the general public surf, what’s the one thing you notice people are doing wrong with their board choices? It’s some complex surf math most of us aren’t equiped to tackle on our own, so I got one of the world’s most respected genies on the phone to find out where we’re all going wrong. If you’re not following this metaphor, my point is finding the right surfboard for you ain’t easy. We’re all just Aladdins looking for own perfect little slice of Persian fur to fly on.īut what happens when Aladdin starts to get a little chubby over the years and the dimensions of his original magic carpet don’t seem so magic anymore? What does he ride then? And then what about the rest of us that have never even come close to owning a rug we could describe as ‘magic’?
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