Under 8'

Hey is anyone riding smaller than 8' ? Curious to know dims and litres ? Also pics if possible.

Not interested in discs or anything over 29 wide.

Cheers

Yea there snall hey, I currently ride 7'10 x 27.5 x 3.75 88L

Just seeing what others have come up with

I ride a 7'10 x 29' x 4.25 . Not sure in the litres but about 100 i think.

I am 92kgs.

Great fun to surf and made locally here on the Goldy.

Gong has been making sub-7' boards for years (2010), you can get a lot of feedback on the gong forum accumulated during these years from various riders.

Here is Mika on his 115l 6'11" x 30 3/4": I wouldn't call it a "disc" :-)





Personally, I have had a 6'6", 6'9", 6'8", 6'8",6'8", 6'9", 6'10", 6'8" SUPs, between 115 and 125 liters, (I weight 100kg) in many shapes, from noseriders to shortboard-like outlines. Widths from 29'5" to 33". Single fins, thrusters, quads, 5-fins.



Width does not make a board a disc: shaping sub-7' boards is a delicate art, everything is in the shape details.

My current small wave board is a 6'8"x29.5" (Gong One) at imgur.com/a/RjuBD
My medium wave board is a 6'10"x31" (Gong Fatal) because bigger conditions here mean more water movement, I need the stability.

My overhead board is a 8'2"x27.5" to go to outer reefs easily of for conditions with shifting peaks (sub-7' boards do paddle so slowly...)

colas,
great pics! if I may ask a question? How in the heck does somebody own so many dam sups? I mean I have been known to have 3 or 4 boards at a time but the list you gave, I must say is pretty impressive!!

That makes sense to me. Being from the states and doing no traveling I've never heard of gong boards. I would like to see how they rode. The only guys I see riding boards that small are small guys themselves. Most of the fellas that I see sup are on boards like 7'7 -8'5 I would think a board would have to be pretty dam thick to be ridden in the 6' range. Good for you fellas who can pull it off. I would love to see a man 6'4 200 lbs riding those boards in daily conditions.

Last week I drove to Maine, so a fellow could ride my 8'11... we water swapped.

I ended up riding his Infinity Phoenix 7'11 x 30.5 (Simmons style)
I am 66 yrs old and in full wettie.... about 108 kg

I was quite comfortable on it and surfed it in head high waves for an hour or so.

Surprised the heck out of me to be ok on a 7'11

colas,
I like the pics of the boards you posted. I watched the video and have to be honest, the first video didn't impress me. It actually showed me that he needed more on that wave( more power on the wave, or more board, or maybe a little less trying to much on very little wave.) Sometimes I feel like the fellas that are going so short on their sup try way to hard on the waves and it actually looks worse then they did on a slightly bigger board. Not saying that about anybody on here, just an observation. How thick are those boards? The first post on here was pretty clear that he really didn't want to see disc's. But thats really what most people have posted on here. An example of a board that wouldn't be a disc= 6'10X26 wideX3inch thick.. I think to many people on here don't do a lot of thinning out when they go small. I know it will look like I am trying to stir **** up but I've seen starboard, naish, all wave, etc etc.. They look odd.. You got these boards that are like 7'7 and are still 4 inches thick and 32 inches wide???? To me, its like come on! If your going to cut then cut! Again not trying to critique anybody on here. I ride a 8'3 by no means is that short.

It all depends on weight & height of rider. It's all relative.
What may seem impressive to some ie... a 7'0 x 26" x 3 1/2" board at 80L, if you are only 5'8 & 70kg's soaking wet, to me is no more impressive than a 6'4" guy who is 110kg riding an 8ft board that is 120L.

instead of seeing how short everyone can go it may be a better question to see how close people are riding to their weight & height.

To me I am not looking at what others are riding so much as what goes good for me, both stability out the back and also once on a wave. Nothing ****s me more than constantly falling out the back in clean conditions because the board is too small for me, but once on a wave I am very particular about how it rides as well.

I love all the different shaped boards people are riding, and I don't knock any of them, if it suits you then that is all that matters, if it doesn't go any good, at least you had a crack and tried something different. It's only through experimentation that we can evolve.

The person in that pic is absolutely ripping in the first pic. No question there. I wonder how often do waves like that come around? I like the thinking outside the box with these boards you posted. Not to many people shaping boards like that around my neck of the woods. I was wondering if the boards were tough to go from rail to rail and to do deep cuts and bottom turns but it looks like they handle just fine. I like the idea. I just have a different mind set.

Whether people like these boards or not, the fact of the matter is that it represents real time experimentation which adds to the evolution of this sport. There is no
doubt that boards are getting smaller and its obvious why. Put simply they are a lot easier to carry as well having the capacity to be thrown about more in the water.
The caveats however still apply in terms of the sacrifice with stability as well as the greater emphasis that is placed on body positioning and paddle power for the
purposes of getting onto a wave.

There are far too many videos on offer showing how the boards perform once the surfer is on the wave but very little illustrating the setup phase which along with
the associated dynamics which conflate into the final outcome. The absence of this vital information is misleading and does nothing to give a realistic perspective
of board performance particularly when an accomplished surfer spends more time kneeling down waiting for waves than standing up. It does not do the sport any
justice.

Cheers

Ghost,
I think you said it best, all people including myself see is the person ripping on the wave or dropping in on a complete bomb! I was lucky enough one time to be at a certain break while a couple of regular sup surfers were shooting a photo session. It really opened my mind when I saw these guys falling off there super short sup's while waiting for that SET wave also they were getting towed past the white a lot of times. To many surfers prone and standup are completely mislead by these magazines and other publications. Maybe they just want to sell magazines and the normal guy struggling and just maybe catching one good wave during a session just doesn't sell magazines like they guy sitting on his board the whole time or getting towed in or towed out does.