Float & ride shapes, easy slogging, uphauling and maneuverability

Hello all

In float&ride boards I appreciate maneuverability, easy slogging and easy uphauling, just in case. If you have a board for everything you may want to use it in on shore conditions as well. Now many boards are designed with more volume at the back, between mast and footstraps in order to keep speed in onshore turns and slog easily. However, if you move the volume from the front to the back uphauling can be more difficult.

Could somebody say which wave and freewave models of last years are more balanced between front and back volumes?

Thks

If you want float&ride get float&ride rather than a big waveboard that does everything but nothing especially well. Sealion and X-Longboard are deeply loved by everyone who owns them. Both slashy in onshore conditions, both very balanced. The Sealion will accept a foil for either wing or sail and the X-Longboard is faster.

Also depends how easy it is to get out. If there's a proper channel you can go a lot smaller than if you have to slog over white water.

^^ I thought that until I got one as a heavy guy. A 115L waveboard that is for lightweights to use in no wind is very different to a board same volume for a 105kg guy to use as his go-to waveboard. The width required for the former use often works against planing threshold for the latter, as the nose rocker is pushing too much water.

So it helps very much to know which are suited for each use when they are that big.

My epiphany (back when I was heavier) came when hating a 2014 model 118L Goya quad that many seemed to love, tried a 110L NuEVO and it felt way easier in every way. The issue was the 66.5cm wide waveboard being sluggish. It was crazy how much easier I got going on a board almost 10L smaller and you could really see the volume wasn't a lie. The smaller Goyas were great, so I realised you can't just add fatness anywhere to help with float and stability unless it is truly only for lightweights to use in a zephyr. Heavy sailor won't like it.

Interesting discussion. With float n ride you have the dilemma of being able to float out, get on a wave early (enough) and then being able to ride it well in control. For the floating out part, it makes a big difference if there is a channel and how stable the wind is. And will you need to be able to up haul (if there are longer holes in the wind) or not. For the float, 2 things are important: lift and stability. Volume gives the lift, width the stability. You do not need more volume than what helps to float. If you float you float. More volume is not going to make you leave the water. And volume only gives lift when under water and the water is touching the deck (The law of Archimedes). Allready with a bit of wind and moving forward, you get a dynamic lift, even without planing. I know people who can float on boards smaller than their weight. They will sink the board when uphauling but as soon as they can get wind, the board will come up. And a board that is under water may actually feel more stable when it is choppy than a board on the surface. Still takes some skill though.
For dynamic lift and stability, width is the most important. Not all too difficult so far. Getting on a wave is another part. As a wave has a curved shape a board with more rocker usually works better than a flat tailed board. The smoother the rocker distribution and the closer the boards rocker matches the wave shape, the better. Also having the straps more forward helps to get and keep speed as it will pevent sinking the tail and causing too much drag due to the too high trim angle. With more rocker, the board will still turn well.
Once you get speed, the lift of water increases exponentially with the speed. That is a simple physical law. How fast you will go depends on the wave and wind direction. Cross off shore winds will get accelerated on the wave face by a decent sized wave, side shore winds usually not. With the lift increasing exponentially width becomes quickly a limiting factor for control and turning. This is the difficulty of a float n ride board. So you have to make compromises in the boards shape. What the best compromise will be depends on all these factors. Having the width more forward for floating and catching a wave with a narrower tail for once you are on the wave, helps to make this compromise and it also helps turning. A narrower tail also requires to have the straps a bit more forward. This is my float n ride board for 90kg: 106L, 2359x636mm, tail 378mm

I also found that a longer board help in float n ride where the wind is gusty and you need good upwind and speep off the plane.

I also feel that having a limited amount of rocker helps getting onto the plane and thus catching the wave further away from the peak. As in (prone) surfing, placement is key in float n ride. So a board that catch wave easily and further/earlier is a good help. Of course this is then a limitation for tight turns but some waves too small and fast, or too soft, to do tight turns.

Personnally I don t really see the point of sealion or even strapped sealion or any other specific big float n ride boards. The only moment when they have the edge on classic waveboard is when the wind is super light. At this point the wind is not an issue to prone surf...

Physical laws tell us that width is more important than length. More efficient. Look at the wings of sail planes or windmills. But there are other important factors. If you make a shorter board with the same total amount of rocker, it will have more curvature, thus drag more when getting planing. OTOH, for wave sailing, a longer board needs more total amount of rocker not to bury the nose and turn as well, so in fact have the same amount of curvature. Another really important and often overlooked factor is foot strap placement to adjust the trim angle. It has become fashion to place the straps quite far to the back. Moving the straps forward makes a big change to early planing, even more so for less skilled riders who are not as good in using mast foot pressure to keep the trim angle low. (BTW, for very big or tall riders often the boom cut out is (too) low, moving the boom up also helps to give MFP) By moving the straps forward you are increasing the planing area and especially the tail area. But in float n ride DTL riding there is hardly any sail pressure to convert into MFP so there it is also a good thing for skilled riders, given that the board has enough rocker to turn well. Or if you find the board slow and dull, moving the straps back just one position can totally change the board, make it faster and looser. Its happened various times that I gave such advice to customers and then hearing: I should have known that years ago.

My float and ride board has less volume (85 L) than my normal wave board (86 L). Just a different shape. A good old 85 L Quatro Super Mini - 217 x 57.5 cm, tail 38.5 cm. The wide tail keeps it going, while still being easy to turn and incredibly playful. I am 72 kg.