Hi guys. I was after some experienced surfers' opinions. Out of curiosity I recently checked out some board calculators for weights and was surprised by what I saw. To cut a long story short, they are at the very least recommending me to ride a 32 litre board. I am about 82 kg 6 foot. The calculators are suggesting 6'4 x 20 or 21 wide. Would this not be a pig?

A few years ago I had a Steve del Rossi 6'2 18 3/4 and it was magic. Then for a bargain I got a 6'4 x 18 1/2 old school board. At first I thought it was a pig and felt way too floaty but I soon learnt to trust the extra volume on good waves. Recently I've got another 6'2 18 1/2 and paddling into perth waves I feel like the board's too small and I'm a learner again, but then again I took it to the rock and it goes great if the smaller but punchy left.

Are the calculators right? 6'4 x 21 sounds to be a pig, or am I wrong?

PP, I'm a fraction lighter and a couple of inches taller. I ride a 6'1" x 18 3/4" x 2 3/8" and a 5'11" x 18 1/2" x 2 3/8". Early last winter I was mostly on a 5'9" x 19 1/2" x 2 3/8". All three of those have more than enough foam for me, but I like low volume. Maybe if I wanted a paddle pig and didn't care about loss of performance I'd consider a 6'4" x 20", but nah, that's a big board for me.

Thanks for the reply legion. It was helpful that you have some dimensions that worked.

I'm shorter than you but about the same weight and my boards are all around 28 L (isn). I've tried +/- 1.5L with 29L being to much for waves under 6 foot and 27 being difficult (but not impossible) to catch waves. Volume isn't the be all and end all however as it also depends on where that foam is distributed but it is a very handy guide/indicator. Also depends hugely on your fitness and the actual wave conditions I reckon.

Those volume calculators are rubbish from the ones that I have seen, which one was it?

My standard shorty is 6'0 X 18 7/8" x 2 7/16"

PP, I noticed you never mentioned the thickness of your boards. Thickness is the fastest way to increase and decrease volume followed by width then length. Most times foam is your friend but it does depend on board shape and where you are surfing it. You said your board goes well offshore and will probably find it goes well down the coast. In the Perth area where waves generally don't have push you want foam but that doesn't have to mean length and a pig of a board. I'm exact same dims as yourself and have a 5'5" x 21 1/2" x 2 1/2" at 36 litres as a grovel board which goes unreal around Perth and my go to board in good waves down South is a 6'3" x 19" x 2 1/2" at 29.5 litres. There is a good article that Matt Biolos wrote on volumes which you can probably find on his Lost site that's worth a read.

Paddling Pig, I had a 6'4 x 20 Epoxy from Dave at Katana, it was a ripper. Fast n loose in small ****ty perth beachie sand just as good in the local reefies at rotto and offshore AND really good in bigger waves in Bali.
I'm 6'3 and 90-95kgs.......I now ride a Katana Scud at 6'2 x 20......Epoxy allows for smaller boards I think

As DJMWA said it's where the foam is and also how you rate yourself on those volume calculators....I think we under rate ourselves and consequently get given bigger volumes boards

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PaddlePig said..

Are the calculators right? 6'4 x 21 sounds to be a pig, or am I wrong?

Just realised I dint answer your original query. Yes it does sound like a bit of a pig for your height and weight range.

I'd say those calculators are pretty good, however they are aimed at kooks who have no other way to assess a board and as such are over volumed to cater to their skills in smaller waves.
More advanced surfers rely on past experience. See a guy on an interesting board; ask for a go on it. I do.

Thanks for all the advice guys. It's all positive advice and greatly appreciated. I realise u did not mention thickness, I guess I should have found the boards in question and checked that out to give you guys a better idea.

Yeah +1 for the Matt Biolos article, read something he wrote about board shapes before and was the best thing I ever read regarding shaping boards - a lot of myths de spelled and sense made. Can't find it but there is a decent and realistic volume calculator from his site here
lostsurfboards.net/whats-your-guild-factor-surfboard-volumes-explained/

Sorry if it's not a direct link, just cut and paste..
I'm 85kg, 6'1 and a middle of the road intermediate with decent fitness and the guide tells me around 30l which is what I have found my marker to be, the FireWire site is (or was) very foam friendly and I could never make sense of it..like to surf good waves down south when I can but do need a board which works in local Perth conditions too.
I am looking for a new board at the moment due to snappage and production wise have come down to the lost driver or beach buggy, never had a lost board but the guy seems so cool and clued up I have to give them a go next..anybody own either if these?
Looked at the board sale today in Perth (probably saw SE of you guys there) nothing really stood out to me, went to surf shop down the road and the beach buggy felt sick when I picked it up, great shape. May have bought then but missus was there and would have known the cost! Haha!
My last board was 6' x 19 1/4 x 2.5 at 29.5 litres and epoxy which I honestly felt made a difference with float, almost perfect, could do with .5-1 extra for poor days though..

Im riding a local custom beck board... its a copy of a local rippers board!! it has no dimensions but is around 6-1x 21 x 2 5/8 squash with five fin setup rode as a quad! im 185 cm and 100kg and board is supposed to be around 36l... it feels small and doesnt have much paddle when its big 4 foot + but turns like no other board i have ridden... its got heaps of rocker so it makes any drop! and id rather ride it in big surf now rather than my paddler board...
So if you can go a local shaper beleave in his knowlage and he will set you up on the right board for your local waves!!

My 36 litre puppy for small mandurah waves. Love it but I am 93 kg.
I ride a lower volume in decent waves.

Sorry PP have to ask, how old are you, and do you have any shoulder or back injuries. How many times a week would you hit the water??

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PaddlePig said..

Are the calculators right? 6'4 x 21 sounds to be a pig, or am I wrong?

I reckon go shorter but keep the volume in the shape.

I read this one which was good.


It's all about unlocking your hardware says shaper to the stars Matt Biolos.

1. Boards with a straight rocker paddle faster. And, paddling is 50 per cent of the game. If you can?t catch waves, you can?t surf. Even if you?re surfing two-foot windblown peaks with three friends, you still have to compete to get waves. And, you thought it was all about thickness, right? It?s not; it?s how the bottom moves across the water. However?

2. Volume is your friend. You can have a really thick board, but if you put a vee bottom in it rides neutral, whereas a medium-thickness board with concave can ride flat like a plank.

3.Tail shapes don?t matter as much as you think. If the width going into the tail is the same, a square, a squash, a diamond or a swallow is going to behave in a similar way. Round tails and pintails decrease the rail line, so they?re going to hold a little better and shorten a turn radius.

4. I don?t buy into the whole back-foot/front-foot surfer thing. We?re all surfing from the back foot. You?re either a weak back-foot surfer or a strong back-foot surfer. You push hard or you don?t.

5. Look at the outline of your board. Straight lines go fast. Curved lines turn. Simple.


6. The straighter the rocker, the further back you need to stand and boards with a continual rocker have a bigger sweet spot. However, and this is a big however, a drivier board will be more forgiving in picking up speed, just less forgiving when you need to turn.

7. Match the curve of the board to the curve of the wave. This is for the average surfer. Everything goes out the window for pros ? they can do anything. I travel with a curvy board and a flat board: curvy boards for the Gold Coast and for Sydney shorebreaks. Flatter boards for mushy points or blown-out crumblers. On a planky board, it ain?t gonna work when you need to jump to your feet and bottom turn in one quick move. And, when you do get up, all you?re going to do is parallel floaters.

8. There?s a magic number and it?s called your cubic volume. It?s up to us shapers to educate people, and it?s information available, right now, on our shaping machines. Let me explain. One of my team riders, Shea Lopez, was teasing me about how big my boards are. We were down at Lowers, two fat cocktails in hand, and he grabbed my board and said, ?Have a look at this boat!? And, I said: ?Well, I?m fat, I?m 40, but you know what? I bet my volume-to-weight ratio is not far from yours. I?m 30 per cent heavier and have maybe 30 per cent more volume. The difference is, I?m a desk jockey and you?re a professional athlete.? If we know our cubic volumes, all the other dimensions can be left to the shaper. Instead of saying, I ride 6?1?s x 18 5/8? x 2 5/16?, you?d say, I?m a 42, make me a small-wave craft. This does require a degree of trust in your shaper. Which leads me to?

9. There are two types of shapers you can trust. One is the local shaper who knows the conditions and who probably knows how you surf. That?s a certain kind of trust. Then there?s the trust you have for an international shaper. You trust Al Merrick because he consistently makes great boards for great surfers and for the globall market. If you live in Santa Barbara, where Al lives, you get local and international knowledge. If you live on the Gold Coast, you get both: Darren Handley and Jason Stevenson. If you live in Sydney, you get both: James Cheal (Chilli). If you live in San Clemente, you get Timmy Patterson and me. But, if you live in, say, Adelaide, you might have to balance the tradeoff between local and global knowledge.

10. Balance in a surfboard is everything and shapers walk a tightrope every time they build you a custom board. If you want a board with a lot of rocker, your shaper has to build everything around it to balance it out. If one element is extreme, the rest of the board has to act as a counterbalance to neutralise the extreme. Greg Webber was a genius on the wire. Everything is balance.

I read that too, was it on facefelch?? Inertia it all at last made sense! Maybe that's why I'm in love with Lost boards but have never owned one....i lust after a Rocket version 1,2or 3

I ride around 28 litre boards and I am only 60kg and about 5'9 / 5'10.

Biggest board (shorty) is a 6'2 that is 29 litres and I don't ride in anything much around 5-6 feet.

32 litres seems tiny for me! I like high volume boards though. Much prefer to catch plenty of waves at the cost of maybe having less bite in a board.

Cheers