XL Bodyboards for larger riders

At 6'2" 270 pounds I'm a big guy. I'm fairly muscular, if perhaps a little overweight, but I don't have a gut hanging over my belt or anything; I'm just a big. That said, my bodyboard just doesn't have the buoyancy to handle my weight. Paddling out I'm mostly submerged and the current really drags on me and my board feels sluggish riding all but the biggest waves.

The traditional rule for sizing a bodyboard is to get a board with a length within one inch of the height of your belly button. For large waves an inch below and for small waves an inch above. The advice is often repeated but I've never heard a real reason for it, though it seems to work fine as a starting point for most people. Following this advice my max board length would be 45 inches, which is the length of my current board (45"L x 21.5"W x 2" thick). It was a good board for learning on for the price and I'd definitely recommend it to any first timers, but I need a larger, more buoyant board.

Bigger than 45" there are only a few models available:

• Custom X Beast 260$
• 48"L x 24.5"W x 3.5 thick
• Core: Polyethylene (Dow) core
• Two stringers
• Polyethylene deck and rails
• Crescent Tail
• Wave Skater Pro 180$
(I recently reviewed this board)
• 48" Long x 23" Wide x 3" thick
• Compression molded EVA/PE foam
• Unique one piece construction 
• See full info here
• Manta Pro XT 46" 230$ 
•  46" Long x 23" wide x ??? thick
• Beaded Polypro Core 
• XPS Bottom Slick
• Double F Stringers
• JL Designs Porpoise Board 57" 260$
• 57" Long x ?? wide x 3" thick
• Single stringer
• Flat Bottom

Or you could I could choose a Custom Board

• Kenu Hawaii 295$ and up + S&H
• Any length, size, shape, specs you want
• Fin boxes for skegs

So what will I choose? Well I'm not sure... if anyone out there has any experience with any of these boards I'd really appreciate your feedback.

Thanks, stay stoked,
DH

Decent surf session at the Poles

Well the report was that there was good surf at the poles at low tide. Unfortunately I missed dead low and caught more of an incoming tide which had the waves closing out a fair bit and a little more inconsistent. I must have passed 10 people walking in on the board walk but there were still about 20 surfers in the water(most on the north side of the poles) when I paddled out. The waves had a lot of potential and I saw a few rare overhead waves on the outside. The overall length of the waves surprised me.

I found my self watching a really nice wave roll in and be picked up way down the line only same wave rising up right on top of me a second later. One of two rides that I really should have caught. Most of the rides I caught were steep, fun, and very short. I did manage to catch two outside waves that I was able to ride into the inside for a nice long ride but overall I was rather disappointed if only because there were a handful of really great waves were there if you could just get in position to ride them.

The waves were very different than any I'd ridden before and I'd love to be out there on a nice clean consistent day when it's going off.

Stay Stoked,
DH

Aggro Surfers and the Us Versus Them Syndrome

Yesterday the surf was up for the first time in over a week. I was bodyboarding with about 20 surfers on the south side of the pier and got in on one of the best waves of the day when a surfer dropped in on me. I called him off and he tried to swing his board back at me. Had he been closer I would have gone high, lifted my board up and taken him out at the ankles. I hung in there and rode it out right on his heels, but a wave that should have made me stoked had me ticked.

Following the wave the guy had the gall to yell at me from 20 feet away:

• Aggro: "You need to get a surfboard man! Why don't you go somewhere else!"
  
• Me: "It's a free ocean, brother!"
  
• Aggro: "Yeah, I guess I'm free to drop in on you like I just did then!"
  
• Me: "Yeah, everybody's free to be an A$$####!"
  

Surprisingly he didn't respond. Maybe he realized that he'd just admitted to everyone around that he intentionally dropped in on me and felt suitable shame. Or maybe he realized I was a head taller than him and outweighed him by about 80 lbs and I wasn't going to back down. Either way he paddled down the line and we didn't have anymore problems.

So why the aggro? The pier was pretty crowded and everyone was vying pretty hard for waves, especially since surf has been scarce lately... that's usually enough to do it. Seasoned vs groms, surfers vs bodyboarders... when resources (waves) are scarce people develop a sense of entitlement. Us versus them... we deserve to be here and they don't because (fill in reason here).

I was talking to a bodyboarder from California who said that if you want to bodyboard out there you better bring a group of friends or the surfers will run you off. I don't know if it's true, but it makes sense... the more people competing for waves the more they'll group together and try to exclude people not like them.

Fortunately it's not that bad here... probably because there are so few bodyboarders here and fewer surfers than a lot of places. I wish I had a solution to the problem but sadly I think it's just the way it is.

Stay Stoked,

DH

FBA Competition Pictures

Here's some pictures from Decembers Florida Bodybording Association Competition in December. Sorry to take so long to get them uploaded.



Stay Stoked,
DH