Kneeboard Surfing USA Community Forum

I live in Southern California and wanted to get some advice on boards for Hawaii. I currently ride a 5'7 x 22.5 Romanovsky rounded pin quad and will be on Oahu and Kauai for a couple of weeks (lucky me) this winter. I'm 6'0 175. I'm trying to get a 2nd board shaped by Buddy or Ron and wanted to get a sense of shapes that have worked in HI. Many thanks.

I go to Oahu and Maui about every other year for a long time now, and always spend time on the North Shore. I keep a Blast board on the island with some friends so it's always ready and I don't have to pay airline board fees.

I think the size of your board is commensurate with size of the waves you are willing to challenge. At your height/weight, a 5'10' to 6'0" should do you fine on many waves up to 8'-10' faces. Anything bigger than that you may want something that paddles faster and gets across the wall with more speed. The board I keep there I use for Sunset Beach and some other larger waves, and it's a 6'3" roundtail gun quad (Blast). Its fast design gives me more confidence in those waves. But you can have a great time on Oahu and Kauai without pushing yourself into the large stuff, unless you are deliberately planning to seek it out.

If Bud McCray reads this post, or someone else with a lot of experience on the Islands, they may give you better advice. I'll be on Oahu the third week of next February--will you be there around that time? We can get together...

Just now looking over Bud's Blast site on his boards for Hawaiian waves http://www.blastsurfdesigns.com/blast-big-wave-fish/ I notice a lot his riders on boards in the 5'7" - 5'9" range taking on pretty serious surf. So, depending on the board design, your height and weight, you may get by fine with a bit smaller board than I recommended. Check out his site for more info, since he lives and surfs right there in the Sunset Point area, and many of his kneelos are also surfing Hawaiian waves.

Remember, board length has a little to do with fin placement...

I ride nothing but Romos boards, the board you describe probably has the fins back, 6.5" and 12.5 to the back of the boxes. If it paddles well for you ,you should be fine with what you are on. If you like his boards, he and I came up with a fish design that I have personally ridden in 20'++ faces at indicator in pv, it is 5'9" x 23.5 wide and 2.75 thick with quad fins set at 9" and 15" to rears of boxes.
I didn't get into all of the specs ,but Ron knows.
Other than that ,talk to Buddy at Blast, no one knows the North Shore better than him.
Max
ps Wedge has been firing