the rebirth

[bluesnowcone]

i know surfing strarted with longboards, but then it all stoped and everyone shortboarded, but then it came back. Does anyone know when or how this happend, or was it allways there just no one took any notice

[rich r]

Longboards have always outsold shortboards. Which would seem to imply there's always more longboarders than shortboarders out there.

But, you don't make a big media splash or get the kids all charged up on a soul surfer hanging ten. It's all about tricks and air and speed.

But now it's kinda of saturated, so you see a bit more attention to longboarders. But - last year's signature world event for men got canceled due to lack of sponsorship, and men and women longboarders still get paid a pittance in comparison to shortboarders ($2,500 to $5,000 versus $50,000 and $100,000 purses for first place showings).

[bluesnowcone]

that is unfair, i think that pro longboarders should get the same, it waves alot more work to do big off the lips than a shortboarder does

[scuba steve]

Do you really think that?
I think shortboardrs rightly get paid more (not meaning to offend anyone)
Dropping in on 12 foot chopes on a shortboard and getting a treachorously deep barrel over an uphill reef and making it, in my opinion, is more difficult and takes more courage than hanging ten on 3-4 foot glassy malibu and doing the odd floater and re-entry.
Shortboarders really put their health at risk when surfing places like pipeline and teahupoo, and get paid well as a result.

I dont mean to say I dont like longboarding, I think its great fun, but surely shortboarding takes more skill?
I might be wrong here by the way, it's just my opinion.

Oh, and longboarding has been around pretty much for ever but it went through a dry spell in that bulge of surfing in the sixties (i think) when speed and airs etc. became fashionable.

[tomcat360]

I dont mean to say I dont like longboarding, I think its great fun, but surely shortboarding takes more skill?
I might be wrong here by the way, it's just my opinion.

Hahaha, you just opened up a whole can of worms I'm not stepping in.

It went away because you could take on more waves with the shorter single fins that came out in the 70s. Then they started the tri fin, and then made them smaller, etc. The entire point was to make more waves more surfable.

But then someone realized, remember those old logs we surfed? Remember how fun they were? And remember how we could do those sweet hang glides?

Then someone busted it out, and everyone was like "sweet!"

That's how I perceived it. All of the movements in surfing were to conquer more waves, but they moved to the point where they weren't working, and then went retrospective (hence "retro") and busted out the fishes, longboards, eggs, etc.

Agree anyone?

[scuba steve]

I dont mean to say I dont like longboarding, I think its great fun, but surely shortboarding takes more skill?
I might be wrong here by the way, it's just my opinion.

Hahaha, you just opened up a whole can of worms I'm not stepping in.

What have I got my self into now

[scuba steve]

Oh I just watched this: http://magicseaweed.com/video/flvplayer.php?id=4
That takes some skill

I retract my statements.

Even though I hold my opinion that shortboarders deserve more money as they put their lives at risk at some comp locations, unlike longboarders.

[Brian]

shortboarders only get paid more because more people watch the events, thus there is more sponsorship, thus larger purses. its the same argument for equal pay between womens and mens sport...womens sport just doesnt attract the same crowds...it has nothing to do with skill level.

[dondiemand]

hey man, to each his own, right? u r entitled to ur own opinion..personally, i like shortboarding better than longboarding, just because i suck at longboarding hehe around where i go, there are more longboarders and i have big respect to all of them..they make it look so easy

[scuba steve]

Yeah thats true, i think it takes a lot to make longboarding look so stylish and easy.

[beaversandducks]

It takes massive amounts of skill to keep the style and dodge all of the shortboarders on the inside!!....

[tomcat360]

It takes massive amounts of skill to keep the style and dodge all of the shortboarders on the inside!!....

When I'm in a good mood that's soooo fun!

*drop my knee around this one, give a little spray to this one, oooh, I'll trim at this guy and turn at the last second*

It's like a slalom course

[Dec]

Shortboarders get paid more because they have the physical ability to surf these amazing breaks. Longboarding it is simply impossible (for 99.9% of people) to drop in on Chopes or Pipe etc..

I also think for todays more active, faster, not so easily amused/entertained shortboarding kind of represents.

[dougirwin13]

Do you really think that?
I think shortboardrs rightly get paid more (not meaning to offend anyone)
Dropping in on 12 foot chopes on a shortboard and getting a treachorously deep barrel over an uphill reef and making it, in my opinion, is more difficult and takes more courage than hanging ten on 3-4 foot glassy malibu and doing the odd floater and re-entry.
Shortboarders really put their health at risk when surfing places like pipeline and teahupoo, and get paid well as a result.

I dont mean to say I dont like longboarding, I think its great fun, but surely shortboarding takes more skill?
I might be wrong here by the way, it's just my opinion.

Oh, and longboarding has been around pretty much for ever but it went through a dry spell in that bulge of surfing in the sixties (i think) when speed and airs etc. became fashionable.

Man! You need to watch Bonga Perkins on a 9'0" at big pipe (third reef). Or Laird on a SUP at Chopes. Or lotsa crew at Waimea on big days.

Before ski assist big waves were the domain of bigger boards ONLY.

As for longboarding taking more skill and shortboards being the domain of airs, etc. You really do need to watch "log" or pick up any Aussie longboarding mag. Plenty of 9' boosts and floaters. Floaters you simply cannot pull on a potatoe chip.

No, longboarding at it's highest level is harder than shortboarding.

-doug

[tomcat360]

Or the guy who unfortunately dissappeared at sea while surfing 2nd break pipe with a 9 footer.

I'm trying to find a picture of him on the nose at Pipe.

[Dec]

It's cool to see people like Bonga out there on those Pop-out Southpoint boards. The reality of it is, at places like Pipe and the rest of teh North Shore, unless you're really well known you can't even paddle out with a log. Locals at Pipe HATE it. I was there when I guy paddled out with a 7' something shortboard and they told him to get lost.

oh yea, Watching guys longboard/paddleboard Teahupoo is the best thing i have ever seen!

[rich r]

Longboarding spans skillsets.

Good longboarding takes just as much, if not more skill than good shortboarding.

But, on the flip side, it's easy for Gidget to go buy a log and start surfing.

It's not about wave size or anything like that.. longboarders go into surf just as big as shortboarders. Where you get differences is in the perception of speed, the quickness of the tricks, and overall manuverability that factors into the 'flash' of shortboarding.

A longboarder can catch a shortboarder on a wave, but the shortboarder looks like they are going faster because they're going up and down the face to generate speed a lot more.

Because of the lines of a shortboard, you can turn harder, getting more spray with the flashiness of a quick burst of speed. A longboarder can throw spray, turn, and the good ones can pull off 360's. But it's much more graceful looking.

All this adds up to marketing. Flash, perception of speed, excitement, radical-ness.

That doesn't mean longboarding isn't fast, exciting and radical. It just means that it is harder to convey that perception.

So it comes down to things like; will the 14 year old buy the $50 board shorts because he saw some hot moves of a shortboarder, or because he saw a longboarder floating a huge air on a 20 foot wave? You get more flash from a shortboarder ripping apart a chest-high wave than Greg Knoll dropping into Pipe at 30 feet.

For whatever reason, that's what drives the mind, and that ends up driving where the money goes.

[Otter]

Bravo Rich R!
One of the best explanations I've seen yet of the controversy.

Besides, I think most Longboarders are at the point in their lives where they have wives, kids, mortgages, etc., so it doesn't make alot of sense to spend the scratch on a bunch of Shortboards for flash effect. Most Longboarders aren't out to impress the babes (or are we?) and frankly, I'd rather walk than hop any day.

[bluesnowcone]

Bravo Rich R!


Besides, I think most Longboarders are at the point in their lives where they have wives, kids, mortgages, etc.

im not one of the most, im 15 no wife and no kids. Yes i did start of on a shortboard, but then i got myself an 8' and i just loved the smoothness of it, so i had a talk to my local shop owner and it happend that he was a longboarder, so i got myself a longboard and fell in love in the first bottom turn i did. Yes i have got myself a 6'6", but its a big chunky egg, and its only for when i have to catch the bus.

[tomcat360]

I log a good bit too, and don't consider myself a shortboarder (I like hybrids a lot, eggs, fishes, etc) and I'm still young, wife-less, morgatage less, etc.