take a real surfboard with you and leave the7s behind

Hi Surfydad
I'm looking at the 6'8" Superfish XL.
I'm nearly 90kg and not the strongest paddler so looking for something to get me in nice and early. Just thinking the width is too much for sucky waves?

Thanks SD, your'e right.
That help me make up my mind, I'll buy a 7S for my crappy metro waves.
...Anyone want to lend m a 7' gun to take to the maldives in March?...

The 7S is terrible on sucky waves.

Too much width.

Ok if you just want to go straight, but forget about doing any turns.

doggie said...
I thought that you would luv a 8.0 supa fish in barreling 6-8tf surf DL, perfect!

I took mine to Bali earlier this year & surfed impossibles between 2 & 6 Ft. I was blown away by how well it handled such a fast down the line wave. I am amazed by the versitilty of these boards!

answer is no.....send em back to china were they belong

oh and to the ignorant people slamming the 7S for being machined and glassed in china....grow a brain before you spout off ignorant crap. or go turn in your Al merrick as well, it was made in china on a CNC machine. if you try busting on al merrick then i know your a kook or just retarded. a bulk of every board bought today was not SHAPED its machined. supply and demand eventually will push out any small business or shaper. the surf industry is following simple economics. i dont agree with it but i cant change it.

No slinging mud Arkgee - you make rice burners (no really it's one of his models)

Not hav'in a stab - site and boards look really nice, like the look of the GT.

Balsa boards look sweet too - solid/chambered/hollow?

Cool - still haven't quite figured out how you guys wrap it so nicely around the rails. (every trades allowed a secret)

JHawaii said...
ive personally taken it to 12-14 foot faces on the North shore in hawaii where i live.

12 foot face?

I though Hawaiians measured from the back (like we do in Australia).

Jhawaii, I've just bought an Al Byrne 6 channel totally hand shaped and he isn't going out of bussines, in fact from talking to him he is going very well indeed. Alot of shapers mite use a machine to do the hard work, intact alot do, if you read Murray Burtons website he uses them all the time and he finnishes them off. What is the problem with that? Chinese boards have a place inthe market and if u think that 7s will go ok at pipe well all the power to you, please get sum footage of this when it happens cos I'm thinkin your mate (who the hell is he anyway) is gonna need some medical attention after that session.Lol

arkgee said...

well JHawaii, I'm the only one who mentioned china so I guess you are refering to me....your the one with the frontal labotomy sunshine....I'm not ignorant or a kook (with a contest record to prove it)...nor am I retarded (maybe just a tad) next year I'm celebrating 50 years or surfing and 40 years of shaping....I dont even have a profile machine let alone a cnc...I hand shape every board and I'm not going out of business.....unasailable credentials I think....the more people that know these things are coming out of china the better....look whats happening!!...some one is shaping and laminating for a bowl of rice, and has probably never seen a wave let alone ridden one...if you want that bloke building your boards....your the kook buddy....Terry Fitzgerald once said "all boards go...but some go better than others. and another thing...why on earth would you want to ride 15' plus on a 6' fish, your not only a kook your retarded as well...you would be the bloke who would take a knife to a gunfight....oh and hawaii for gods sake....some of the best shapers on the planet live there and you take a rice burner!!....go figure.

nah nah not you in particular, ive seen alot of people slamming the company itself for manufacturing the boards in china. Al merrick does it and i will go online and check out the other WORLD reknown shapers that do it as well. i was jsut readin SURFER the other day about this exact topic..i will try and dig it up. im just saying its economics. the money makers got their greedy fingers into it ( better,faster,cheaper) and now the little guy and even big handshapers are getting hit hard. i dont agree with it...but it aint gonna change. and the epoxy version of this board is made VERY well. fiberglass.....not so much. i also own 4 fish type boards and 3 are made by local shapers.


hahaha the lobotomy comment i have to honestly say im gonna steal and i promise i will give you credit. thats some original sh@@ right there my friend, aussies, zealanders and english people are about the funniest people at coming up with one liners. half my repotoire of one line jokes comes from you guys. somethign about how you structure the language is hilarious.

6' into 15' foot surf? ...my question is, why not? i will tell you im not the greatest surfer in the world. nor even in the top 1000 of MY TOWN hahah. but i think its fun to push the limits of your equipment. The day i did it in particualar was accidental. i dont know if youve ever surfed hawaii but it can jump very quickly if you paddled out and didnt do your research before hand. it started out as a 6' day....in three sets it doubled....i paddled in shortly after surfing a few 12-15 foot waves and it continued to get bigger. i just got lazy and didnt paddle in to switch boards. but...i had a blast surfing that board..... jsut to see if i could surf it semi-effectively...the board held its own...all though my biggest complaint was that it was too fast. i wasnt used to a board being that fast on that size wave. getting vertical heading to the lip was a crap shoot on whether i would turn fast enough to NOT to slide along the lip or over shoot my target.) i jsut wasnt used to going that fast. used to having more time to react...like i said im no pro or even advanced. ive since been able to surf that board in that size surf way better, but yes i usally take my 6'5" al merrick out when its that big or bigger. even trying to lean out the bottom turn or just go easy on it...the board would just rocket to the lip.... made my cut backs sweet and tried to do a pancho sullivan layback snap....hahahah wish i had that on video...the board out ran me as the board went down and back on the wave and i SHOT forward. months later ive learned to love the speed but sometimes it still surprises me. especially backside.....have to slow down to tuck in... my backside isnt great anyhow.

as far as the wave heght...i think i read it on here...somethign to the effect of

" why in the hell do i want to know the size of the back of the wave? i aint surfing that side...if i said the wave was 2 meters that i was surfing in, means its bloody well 2 meters."

i agree. i know the hawaiian scale and use it depending on who im talking to if i dont want to be singled out as the haole retard on the break but for the most part i throw the "faced wave" term in....its double overhead....is double overhead...why do i need to know how big the back of the wave is?

JHawaii said...

doggie said...

Jhawaii, I've just bought an Al Byrne 6 channel totally hand shaped and he isn't going out of bussines, in fact from talking to him he is going very well indeed. Alot of shapers mite use a machine to do the hard work, intact alot do, if you read Murray Burtons website he uses them all the time and he finnishes them off. What is the problem with that? Chinese boards have a place inthe market and if u think that 7s will go ok at pipe well all the power to you, please get sum footage of this when it happens cos I'm thinkin your mate (who the hell is he anyway) is gonna need some medical attention after that session.Lol

hahahah He's a lifeguard on the north shore. he's body surfed Pipe triple to 4 times over head ( the lifeguards have this game they play on the new guys to find their limits, he never backs down) ive seen him longboard it at double overhead. hes crazy as they come. in fact right now hes surfing ironing baords he's making...old school wood boards that basically look like and ironing board. tapered to the tip a bit but square tail...about 6 foot long and only 17" wide...about 3/4" thick.....and hes surfing overhead waves....crazy bastard. ive seen him surf sunset on the north shore around double overhead on a 5'10" 22" wide fish.....sunset is a pretty nutty wave. everyone else is on a 8'-10' gun or longboard....hes on a farkin fish. he didnt even blink when i metioned it. he said..." yeah sure why not"


yeha yeah totally i didnt mean it like that!!! some shapers are still doing well. little easier here in hawaii with just about every person in the 1.1 million population on Oahu that surfs, but an aquaintance of mine ( friend of a friend) Vercelli is so backed up on boards he had to get a shop closer to his house. hes got more work than he knows what to do with. hes got a website too www.vercellishapes.com....i was just sort of quoting what i read in the article about alot of shapers being bitter and losing business to crappy and good quality CNC machined, outsourced labored boards. im sorry to say that i researched 3 months about the a good hybrid fish type board to TAKE the info to my local shaper i have used before. but i found the 7S. dragged my ass in buying ...but i told a friend of mine and he jumped up and bought it. then ended up test driving the others....im not ashamed a bit to say i bought a very functional , durable board from GSI. its exactly what i was looking for. i recommend it to everyone. should have a sales job there. ive convinced a few folks to purchase one. but ive also talked more about Vercelli's shapes and Chances shapes on the reef than i do my board becasue they are good and need the publicity. so its a give and take. i just hate people assuming because its made in china its crap or that you should ALWAYS NO MATTER what buy from your local shaper. i think when clark foam up and ran , THAT was the big blow to local shapers more so then the outsourced labor....jsut my 2 cents anyway....or my lobotomy sunshine hahahah

Ok point taken, as Ive just come back from a trip to the Mentawais and the owner of that place rides a steve liz style keel fin twinny in 6-8ft(backs) Bank vaults and I watched him personally @ 6ft Hideaways ripping it to pieces. Ive got a pick here somewhere I will post it a minute. There is always one guy in every crowd that can surf mad boards in big waves and its not the board its their ability and skill not the board. So yes you can do it if you are brave or stupid enough. Personaly when things start to get bigish I grab my 6,8 simon anderson who as a master shaper also uses a CNC to rough out the boards, hand shaped, cnc or chinese who cares as long as what you are riding is what you want

doggie said...

Christie owner of Wavepark.com @ Hideaways.

thats a twinny? nice.....

nice pic too....wish it was a few seconds later hes just starting his wind up :)


kellys day at 8 foot pipe
"............into a completely original 5’11 with the wide point pushed forward, flatter, with a stubby nose, and slightly thicker and wider............This 5’11 x 18 1/2 x 2 1/2 round pin enabled Kelly to get into the hollow waves earlier and deeper allowing for adjustments that only a shorter board can provide. The Deep Six is the latest in Kelly’s quest to ride boards shorter than normally thought possible in surf conditions all over the world.......”

granted this is kelly slater we are talking about.... but still it just goes to show you that anything goes. i do have to say whipping a 6' superfish around as a 85-90 kg 195.5 cm is easier than i ever thought. it pumps faster, turns, twitches, angles, with stability....with the right fin set up why couldnt you take into bigger surf? and do wedll on it?