Photo: Malibu's Surf Shop
Short boards - the cool new thing.Surf god Dane Reynolds usually rides shorter, fatter boards that don't go past his chin. These boards are great because they work in varied conditions, they stay under your feet better, have a tighter turning radius, and allow for more recovery from crazy turns with less nose flip. Check out the Transworld Surf article about how and why to convert your board into a shorty:

I have a new slogan: when in doubt, do what Dane does. I m referring of course to Dane Reynolds and the fact that whatever he does is taken as gospel by minions of pros and bros alike. I recently got a secret viewing of Dane s new movie, and all I can say is holy shit, Dane s good. One thing I noticed while watching it was the fact that Dane rarely rides any boards that go past his chin the chosen one is a fan of the short fatties, and if you ask me, we all should be.

When I say short and fat, I m not talking about fishes (which still have a place in your quiver) I m talking about taking your average everyday surfboard, rethinking the volume, and making it shorter and fatter in all the right places. Your current shaper can do it for you, and most likely knows the formula, but you should too, so here s your guide to chopping some length and adding some girth.

Every board and every surfer is different, says short/fatty-board master Matt Biolos of Lost surfboards. But, to put things simply, for every inch you go shorter, you should add a quarter-inch of width. So if you ride a 5 10 long by 18 wide, you d go 5 8 by 18 1/2 pretty basic stuff as far as length and width. The rocker gets trickier, as we like to keep it low since you don t really need that extra kick on boards like this. Thickness is similar to the width, depending on what kind of rails you like, about an eighth of an inch thicker for every inch shorter works for us.

Read the full article at Transworld Surf.