Pardon my ignorance, but what's the great attraction for 10ft sup boards? Why are they riding in popularity in Australia?

2 things that I know are if you want to compete in straya 10ft surf category and if you like me want to have fun walking or cross step or hop forward and back on a 10ft long board

What JPEG said.

Also, you have room in Australia and can have big cars :-)

I assume they're more popular on "non" beach breaks ?

I'd say competition has a bit to do with it.

I'd also say, most getting into the sport are on the older side (over 40) and if they were prone surfers, they were riding longboards previously.

I also think most that get into stand up in the first place do it because of the ease of catching waves and enjoying the glide - something that doesn't happen on a board at the same litres as your weight...

The glide

I am at around 60kg and my smallest board is a 109L 7'6 ECS Slab. I don't think that has any glide but plenty of volume for my weight . I guess a 112L 9'6 Style would provide more glide and still have way too much volume

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Hoppo3228 said..
I'd also say, most getting into the sport are on the older side (over 40) and if they were prone surfers, they were riding longboards previously.

I also think most that get into stand up in the first place do it because of the ease of catching waves and enjoying the glide - something that doesn't happen on a board at the same litres as your weight...

This for me.

Plus finding an 'ideal' volume is less relevant anyway for traditional longboarding - i.e. noseriding, trim, drop-knee turns (e.g. google 'Harrison Roach' vids). In longboarding (prone) we have 45kg girls riding the same size boards 9'1-6 23x3 as the 100 kg 60yo blokes. There's no race to the bottom volume wise because it's about maneuvering and walking around your fridge door with 'grace' (the girls, not so much the old blokes), rather than trying to do shortboard maneuvers from the rear and fling a 9'1 triple stage rockered tuflite 'progressive' longboard around a wave. I guess it also depends how they are scoring the 10 foot sup comps though for those that way inclined.

If your volume is too low on your longsup, and/or the rail shape is the wrong way round, you'll miss out on the opportunity to try noseriding or at least some joyful trimming, which would be sad imo. Look at the sheer joy Rick gets (Supthecreek) noseriding his sunova style in his vids. Awesome!

I started doing more noseriding since seeing a longboarder styling.
My local spot doesn't get great waves often so when its small started trying it. Years ago I started getting getting a foot on the nose of windsurf waveboard while riding whitewater in so as not to hit fin on rocks.
Of course I love to time and crank a bottom turn and link turns then hit the lip.
Longer board easier to paddle onto wave catch small waves or get onto the set waves first.
Long term is to get smaller sup wave board and travel further to get bigger waves - "horses for courses "

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bramber said..
Pardon my ignorance, but what's the great attraction for 10ft sup boards? Why are they riding in popularity in Australia?

They are fun in a wider range of conditions, and you can do a greater variety of moves with them.

10ft boards are just so much fun.
It makes me slow down and enjoy the glide, makes me trim and take different lines than I usually would, & it can make a 1-2ft onshore dribble surf a hell of a lot of fun

On a short SUP I am basically trying to shortboard surf with a paddle, but on a 10ft noserider my approach is so much different and my expectations are also lower, so I end up enjoying myself more.

Ease of catching waves (especially the uncatchable), the glide, the stability, trimming, time on the nose, big arcing turns, flapping around in the breeze on the face of a big bomb, making a drop you shouldn't have, scaring shortboarders that have been snaking you for hours, annoying your prone surfing son who couldn't make the last one you caught........did I miss anything?

Accessibility in competition is a major factor. Anyone can ride a 10' board and can therefore compete in a 10' plus contest. Shortboard sup contests are pretty much limited to little guys that can stand on tiny boards. 10 foot class has opened the sport up to everyone

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bramber said..
Pardon my ignorance, but what's the great attraction for 10ft sup boards? Why are they riding in popularity in Australia?

Surfing started on longboards.
They have always had a place in the heart of many surfers.
SUP is just carrying on the love affair.
They are easy to love for SUPsters, because of the ease of use and sheer joy of riding them.

Add in what everyone else said and you have your answer....
but not everyone has a desire to ride a big board, so they may not see the appeal.

Not SUP.... but I like it just for the old school dude with style

Longboard SUPs should be banned









waaaay too much fun ...

Easy one. I have 5 boards and the 10'er easily gets the most use because it's the board that best suits the majority of conditions. I live on a beach and get out as often as conditions permit.

Noticed that most of the newer 10 footers are having way less volume and thinner rails than a few years ago
eg fanatic stylemaster, smik style lord and JP long board all around 135L. Older boards previously 145l to 160L

How does this effect glide, paddle speed?, and obviously stability would be down a bit.?

Is the main advantage of lower volume and thinner rails to enable less foot pressure in steering thus more responsive faster turns?

I personally think there are some of us that want the shortboard feel and get a low volume longboard shape for paddeling stability. I have a 9x28 119l longboard shape that wouldn't at all call a longboard at all. It is way more user friendly when paddeling than a same size shortboard shape would be. But once surfing it goes like a shortboard.

Before sup I had 6'2" and 6'6" prone shortboards and 9&10' longboards. There was a significant volume difference between them. Why would the sup long and short boards be different?

My longboard SUP is 27.5" wide and 118 liters for my 100kg. With a longboard shape, you only have to deal with lateral stability, not with yaw (row) or for/aft. So it is easy to manage narrow width. I had a 27.5" wide shortboard SUp but resold it, it could be hell with water movements.

I tried longboard SUPs 25" wide and 100 liters, and they are really fun, unlike a 25" shortboard shape for me, but harder to cross-step and knee-drop turn. I was longboard-minded, I would definitely have a narrow low volume longSUP in my quiver. They are not so hard, but noticeably faster to paddle and glide into the wave, and insane when the waves have some juice. As I only have one longboard SUP, I stayed with a conservative 27.5" to get the benefits of narrowness but not needing the extra agility of a 25" in good waves, because I then use other boards.

A 31" wide 6'8" shortboardS UP is fun in small waves because once fully on a plane, the width helps the speed by providing more lift to reduce the amount of displaced water (a skimboard feel). But a longboard shape in slow waves is not fully planing, and narrow shapes then reduce drag a lot, 31" wide feels very sluggish.

I got into SUP mid last year (after 45 years of short boarding). Following research, 10ft seemed to be the length for my weight, so I got one. I now realise I could have gone shorter (8.6 or 9), but that hasn't stopped me having heaps of fun both in waves and flatwater cruising with my 10ft Waterborne Evoke

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copperdog1 said..
I got into SUP mid last year (after 45 years of short boarding). Following research, 10ft seemed to be the length for my weight, so I got one. I now realise I could have gone shorter (8.6 or 9), but that hasn't stopped me having heaps of fun both in waves and flatwater cruising with my 10ft Waterborne Evoke

so would you say you've become more woke because of your evoke?



(sorry)

After only using a 10 footer for about a month or so, I can finally chime in my thoughts on the 10'ers.

When I first took it out I had no idea what to expect I went with a 10 x 29 thinking the step down in width would be a challenge but its stupidly easy and wish I had of gone a 28!. When I first paddled out into the sets I was not too impressed super hard to turn for a wave and took me a few goes to work out how to stick to a wave with out feeling like I was on a plank of timber.

Once I nutted that out after a couple of waves I have not looked back, It is so easy to catch waves it feels more nimble on the wave than my other boards. I turn my head and hips where I want to go and the board just sticks to me knowing exactly what I want to do. I have never felt this on my shorter sups I always felt like I was racing sections and trying to get into the ideal position. On the 10'er I am in position and ready to make my next move and jeez it is fast. I love it, and feel like my surfing has improved a lot. I should probably give my shorter sups a go soon but the 10'er is too much fun.

I forgot to mention standing on the nose had me giggling like a school girl the first time I nailed it on a really nice wave.
I highly recommend every trying one out as I think it is a real sweet spot for sup surfing ( I think the key is going narrow as possible ) if you love surfing point breaks like I do.

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Nugdam said..
After only using a 10 footer for about a month or so, I can finally chime in my thoughts on the 10'ers.

When I first took it out I had no idea what to expect I went with a 10 x 29 thinking the step down in width would be a challenge but its stupidly easy and wish I had of gone a 28!. When I first paddled out into the sets I was not too impressed super hard to turn for a wave and took me a few goes to work out how to stick to a wave with out feeling like I was on a plank of timber.

Once I nutted that out after a couple of waves I have not looked back, It is so easy to catch waves it feels more nimble on the wave than my other boards. I turn my head and hips where I want to go and the board just sticks to me knowing exactly what I want to do. I have never felt this on my shorter sups I always felt like I was racing sections and trying to get into the ideal position. On the 10'er I am in position and ready to make my next move and jeez it is fast. I love it, and feel like my surfing has improved a lot. I should probably give my shorter sups a go soon but the 10'er is too much fun.

I forgot to mention standing on the nose had me giggling like a school girl the first time I nailed it on a really nice wave.
I highly recommend every trying one out as I think it is a real sweet spot for sup surfing ( I think the key is going narrow as possible ) if you love surfing point breaks like I do.

I've been riding a 10 footer the last few weeks as well and I've had a similar experience - it really is good fun!
Mine is 10 x 29 and 124L , and is a performance shape, with a nice pulled in pintail that is super thin. Im riding it as a quad.

my 3 main boards are 8'7 x 30.5 @ 120L, 8'9 x 30 x 122L, and my longSUP at the dims above. Im 6'4 and 100Kgs.

It really is interesting to see the difference between how 3 boards of similar volume ride and balance. The 10 footer is so much more stable, I was actually somewhat surprised.

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Nugdam said..
I think the key is going narrow as possible

+1.
10' is adding so much stability that you can manage widths you wouldn't thought possible.

What fins setups are you all using in your 10 footers ?

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wazza66 said..
What fins setups are you all using in your 10 footers ?

Single fin! 9" fatboy.

2 + 1...if pumping ..otherwise single fin 8 to 10"

medium Quobba sides + 8' centre

Single fin or 2 + 1, try both because their so much fun, then later on you can try other combo.

I started at 10'6" and afterward went to 11'. It's the glide. For less than 10' and I'd get out the surfboard. For an over 10' it's like another sport for me.