Riding longboards is an art – graceful and smooth transitions held together by an endless wave, but what does it take to start riding the nose rider sup and cross stepping with style.
Looking at the board you have to realise that not all are designed or ideal for the job. Back in the day most longboard surfboards were designed with nose riding in mind but with the evolution of the shortboard and in particular in SUP the traits suited to classic surfing are missed.
Looking at the Jimmy Lewis Black and Blue we can see all the necessary features put into practice to create a nose rider sup.
The bottom contour of the board is totally different to that of a high performance short surf sup board like the Stun Gun. Most sup surfers and surfers alike will see their shortboards as having concave bottoms for high speed. This is in total contrast to the rounded bottom needed for a true noseriding design. The rounded bottom helps to slow the board down and keeps the board and rider exactly where they need to be in the wave.
Speaking with Jimmy he said how important it was to get the board positioned perfectly in a wave for noseriding.
Having a large single fin and wide tail helps to increase drag and slow you down which again is a requirement for anyone looking to walk the board.
Looking at nose design it comes back to going slow and staying in the pocket of the wave. A wide nose gives the rider a stable platform once you’re up front and creates drag on the face of the wave.
Now let’s look on the underside of the nose of the board. A concave helps to provide lift for the rider. More concave increases lift and improves the noseriding experience but again limits speed.
Rails must be soft. Hard rails increase board speed as they increase water release. Softrails hold onto the water so again it helps to hold you back in the wave face.
Any longboard can be ridden from the nose but the experience you will get from a board designed with noseriding in mind will increase your time with toes on the nose.
