When I came across this great picture of Waylon Olsen at Malibu it got me thinking about the affect of a riders weight in relation to what he or she chooses to ride size wise when it comes to noseriders. Often riders are unwilling or unable to experiment with major alterations when it comes to surfboards. Nodding to whatever is in their friends quivers or what they've always ridden puts them in a loop of dependance that doesn't always result in the most optimal board for an individual.
When Waylon first started surfing in the competive longboard collaltion contest scene he was riding what many of the day would have considered the norm for someone of his size. 10' x 19" x 22 1/2" x 14.75" x 3 1/8" give or take a few 1/8's of an inch here or there. Surfing in heats against guys weighing 150 lbs was frustrating. At 220 lbs, it was far from an even battle, we just didn't realize it at the time.
Sitting on the beach with Waylon at Malibu watching the Jr. Men surf their heats, surfing on basically the same size boards as Waylon, subtracting perhaps 6" in length got us thinking. Watching those kids perform led us to consider the simple idea of putting Waylon on something more equivelant to what they were riding sizewise. A simple ratio of weight vs. board size told us 220 lb Waylon should be riding a 16.5' long by 40" wide board if he wanted to be equal to a 120 lb kid on a 9'x 22" wide board of the same thickness. Unbelievable. Suddenly we were scrambling to make the widest possible thing we could come up with. "Cheater" was the word CJ Nelson once used to describe Waylons board. Not stopping to consider the huge weight and general size difference between himself and Waylon would lead to that thought.
Have you ever seen a little kid stand up on a longboard and just balance on it? Ever stop to think about why you can't do the same thing on the same board? In this static enviroment you can begin considering height and weight in relation to stability. Removing the wave from the equation helps one zero-in on simple design principles with more focus.
First of all, the simple reason you probably cannot float on the board is because it is not buoyant enough to support your weight. This is key to considering how large of a board is required to float a full size adult. Buoyancy is a simple equation based on the mass of an object and its density. Standup paddle boards come to mind. They're huge... giant. When considering the scaling effect of weight vs. boyancy you can start to see a clearer picture of how much it should be considered. Remember, a gallon of water weighs 8 lbs, and a 5 gallon jug weighs 40. So a person weighing 190 lbs is carrying that 5 gallon jug of water with them vs. a person weighing 150 lbs. It makes a little more sense how the effect of even a little extra weight can be pretty dramatic.
Moving forward in this hypothetical situation and suddenly you can float on the surface of the water. You find yourself teetering to the left and to the right, trying to maintain your balance, while our grommet friend is simply standing there. This brings in another thing to consider: stabililty. It's relative to the width of your board and because your center of gravity not only is heavier, it's higher up. The width of your base isn't enough to keep you errect. Think about what happens with your chrismas tree every year. Too narrow of a base and you're having an argument with the wife about why it almost topples over ever time she puts another glass globe on a branch. So the simple solution is to put a wider (larger diameter) base under the tree. Once again we find ourselfs at the extreme, SUPs at 28"-32" wide. Even the most amateur of surfers can balance on them.
We consider the widths that Waylon rides. 25 1/2", sometimes 26". They don't seem so extreme when we consider the kid balancing happily on his board in the lineup. The volume of his boards still revolves around 3" because thickening them results in a lack of sensitivity that he hates. But after seeing him surf a SUP as a normal board durning a session this summer, I'm beginning to question even that. <(") Carl
