Surfing's
New Wave:
...The Long
And Short Of It
BY ERR CARLSON
Autumn brings two things to
the waters off the South
Brunswick Islands: better
fishing and bigger surf.
If you spend any time on our
beaches, you probably like to watch
the surfers at play in the waves
(even if you have no desire to join
them). Veteran surf watchers may
have noticed that there seem to be
two different approaches to wave
riding these days.
Most surfers, especially the
younger ones, ride racy little boards
called "thrusters," which are just a
bit taller than they are, with sharp,
pointed noses up front and three
small fins in back.
These riders aggressively attack
every wave, slashing quick turns,
throwing sheets of spray into the air
and blasting through the curl as the
wave folds over. Or at least they try
to.
Then there are those other
surfers ? many older, some not ?
riding surfboards that seem gigantic
by comparison. These boards are
usually wider, with rounded, blunt
noses and nearly parallel sides.
Some have three fins at the tail, but
many have only one.
Long board riders take a different
approach to wave riding. They
seem more relaxed, turning in long,
smooth arcs and stepping to the
nose for a leisurely cruise across
the wave's face as it races to the
shore.
This latter style might remind
you of the way surfers used to ride,
hack in the days when the popular
movie "The Endless Summer" in
troduced the sport of surfing to all
those folks who live between the
Atlantic and Pacific.
What you are seeing has come to
be known as the "long board revo
lution," a return to a style of wave
riding that was almost totally re
jected in the early 1970s as surfers
began experimenting with smaller
and smaller surfboards.
For centuries, surfers rode
boards at least 9 feet long and
sometimes twice that size, primari
ly for two reasons: First, they need
ed big boards to ride big waves like
the ones in Hawaii, where surfing
as we know it originated. Secondly,
early surfboards were carved from
wood. And it took a lot of wood to
make a vehicle capable of floating
its rider.
All that changed with the coming
STAFF PHOTO BY ERIC CARLSON
SHARING A WAVE at Holden Beach, Jon Tennant (left) rides a nine-foot "long board," while his
friend Cane Faircloth prefers a six-foot "thrust er. "
of polyurethane foam. This easily
shaped substance provided a lot
more flotation (and a lot less
weight) than an equal amount of
wood. While early foam surfboards
continued to be made at the tradi
tional length, it wasn't long before
surfers and board builders began
exploring the possibilities of shorter
surfboards.
For the next 20 years, typical
surfboard lengths fluctuated be
tween five and seven feet. Shorter
boards allowed surfers to turn much
more quickly and to ride areas of a
breaking wave that were previously
impossible to explore.
The old nine-footer became a
museum piece, and anyone who
rode one was considered to be out
of-touch. Still today, the vast major
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ity of surfers ride thrusters with an
average length of about six to six
and-a-half feet.
But then a strange began to hap
pen. Older surfers ? who had given
up the sport when new versions of
their favorite boards disappeared
from shop racks ? started paddling
out on their old "logs" to catch a
few waves. As more of these "old
timers" showed up in the water,
surfboard manufacturers took no
tice.
Board builders started applying
what they had learned in the previ
ous two decades ? about lighter
foams, hvdrodynamic shapes and
advanced fin technology ? to the
old nine-footer. Almost overnight,
they launched a revolution.
Other than its size, the modern
long board bears little resemblance
to its 1960s ancestors. Weighing
about 20 pounds less, these new hy
brids are much easier to turn (and
carry) than the old boards. And
while they will never be as maneu
verable as a 6 foot, 5 inch
"thruster," they do have certain ad
vantages over short boards.
Because a long board spreads a
surfer's weight over a larger surface
area, it floats higher, paddles better
and makes it easier to catch waves.
Long boards also move more
quickly across the wave face, al
lowing the surfer to stay farther
r
ahead of the white water for longer
rides in smaller surf.
On the other hand, even a mod
ern nine-foot board can't turn as
quickly as a short board in small
surf. So you won't see a longboard
er carving as many (or as tight)
turns as a short-board surfer.
Which suits most longboarders
just fine. They tend to be a bit more
laid back about their surfing, shrug
ging off the "radical" moves of the
short-board set in favor of that
long, fast glide only nine feet can
provide.
Though most younger (and more
energetic) surfers tend to prefer
short boards, more and more are
adding long boards to their collec
tions ? especially for use in small
surf. And while some rivalry exists,
longboarders and shortboarders
seem increasingly understanding of
each other's preference.
Take Holden Beach locals Cane
Faircloth and Jon Tennant, for ex
ample. These two 18-year-olds
have been surfing together for years
and can be spotted at the Holden
Beach Fishing Pier almost any day
the surf is up (and often when it's
not).
They recently returned from a
10-day surfing trip to California,
where they caught waves up to
eight feet high at such famous
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