http://www.grainsurf.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3170&p=22420#p22420
http://www2.swaylocks.com/forums/hws-deck-bracing-question-and-compsand-update?page=1
So, what's the truth of the matter ?
The truth is that surfboards have a lot in common with BOMBS.. . . the kind which fall from on high.
Lightweight bombs just don't do the job as well as heavy ones !
Ultralight is better for the extreme trick surfing which is the flagship for the entire mainstream surfing industry so there's a lot invested in the idea that lighter is always better. This investment has been made over a period of half a century so the attitudes are ingrained.
Materials cost money so ultimately the industry has little to gain by promoting heavier boards. The official line is that lighter boards are better except for big wave guns, but the truth of the matter is that greater weight used sensibly has many advantages which apply to waves of all sizes.
I regularly roast the tail feathers of legions of shortboard and malibu heroes on boards two to ten times the weight which they use, and the added mass is definitely a factor in that success. . . of course I don't do scoreable moves and prefer to make my turns as smooth and invisible as possible for hydrodynamic efficiency and the flow of both the surfboard and the rider's concentration, but at the end of the day that's what usually wins in the real world.
Beware of the Swaylocks BS, it's roughly equivalent to the propaganda put out by our governments, and has about the same truth content !
Rip tear and lacerate or slide dream and meditate ? The former likes lightweight, the latter heavyweight, the heavy weight is often underestimated .
By the way beware also of the line that weight is a handicap but heavier boards are ok for less skilled surfers in slow waves. Nothing could be further from the truth, heavier boards are faster or at least as fast down the line as light boards in both theory and practice, and require as much skill to handle correctly as do light boards.
To really wind 'them' up, take the word 'GRAVITY' light the fuse, and toss it into the pit at swayp*x . . . they'll froth at the mouth and you'll hear more BS in one week than one usually hears in a year. . . it's great fun !
