Classic longboards of the ’50s and ’60s, as well as the modern replicas of such boards, have a clear design link to the wooden olo boards of ancient Hawaii. These boards had basically rounded, convex bottoms that attempted to reduce the drag on their enormous lengths by pushing the water aside from the centerline as the board plowed through the water. This application of a shape known as the “displacement hull” shows that in earlier times, board builders had only canoes and, later, boats to draw their inspiration from.
With the addition of 50/50 rails (completely round and bulbous with little or no release or breakaway edges), a heavier tail kick with a flatter nose lift, and the peak thickness pulled back from center, a counterbalance of drag and suction allowed a full-grown man the ability to perch indefinitely on the very tip of the coasting surfboard.
The length, width and comparatively flat bottom rocker of the classic longboard overcame many of its drag-inducting features, giving these boards their distinctive Cadillac glide and stability, but there was a relatively low terminal velocity: these boards would only go so fast before they’d shimmy, hum and basically try to buck the rider.
Today’s modern longboard bears little resemblance to its clunky ancestors, borrowing heavily from all we’ve learned since the shortboard revolution in 1968. The modern tri-fin longboards may well be some of the most versatile boards ever built — combining longboard groove, shortboard performance and paddling superiority to provide the rider an almost unfair advantage. Because of this, you get a sort of half-assed longboard and a half-assed shortboard that will, for most, grant the ability to be a full-ass.
While the modern incarnation of the longboard was the underdog trend and cash cow of the ’90s, the re-revolution really has its roots in the early ’70s. Only a few years after the 1968 shortboard coup, there were editorials and letters in the surf magazines that pined over the lost glide of the longboard. Over the next two decades, surfers and shapers such as Herbie Fletcher, Steve Walden, Ben Aipa, Rennie Yater and Bill Stewart contributed to the refinement of the modern longboard, replacing drag with planing, trimming with pumping and ash-canning the sluggish 50/50 rail for the lightning release of the down-rail and tucked-under edge.
Another modern twist, the 2×1 longboard (aka “2-plus-1,” “single-fin with side-bites” or “single-tri”) is a design based on compromise. Single-fin purists disparage them as “single-fins with training wheels,” yet this model, like it or not, delivers the most versatility of any longboard design. It incorporates a reduced-area center single fin (usually set in a box) and two small side finlets that are placed along the rail in a basic tri-fin setting. The idea is to give the surfer all the benefits of a single-fin longboard, such as increased traction in noseriding, 180-degree left-go-right bottom turns without skipping or staginess and, with proper rocker, the option to trim instead of pump.
A rare yet useful addition to the longboard family is the modern longboard gun. If you could have only one surfboard on a deserted island, this design would probably cover all the bases. Enough of a spud to tinker with knee-high surf enjoyably, the better-designed 9′0″ will start to hit its stride in 8-foot surf and keep on going up to 15 feet. That covers, in one board, what a six-board Sunset quiver used to. It harnesses all the hot-rod features of the state-of-the-art shortboard, gun and modern longboards along with a template that resembles a Dick Brewer Pipeliner model, arguably one of the cleanest outlines of any surfboard — ever. The result is a progressive synergy of efficient rocker, teardrop planshape, modern foil and a fast bottom that neatly lifts this design up and away from the longboard gene pool. Variations of this design stretch up to 12′0″ and are adapted for use in giant, open-ocean bomboras due to their superior paddling penetration.
Gone are the days in which all logs were created equal. A variation on the theme can be found for every wave and every style of surfing, accommodating the octogenarian at San-O as well as the charging grom at Mav’s. Far from facing extinction as initially believed by 1970, the longboard’s many incarnations ensure it a long and fruitful future.
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