Surf Tips Surfboard and Fin Talk with Britt Merrick and Zeke Lau

[@Ryanistheone]

The colab I never knew I needed until now

[@gabio7386]

That's super awesome to listen to pro surfers talk about board tech and how they choose which board/fins to ride based on preference and conditions. please do more of those!

[@JustCurious637]

Awesome questions and answers. Most people never get to talk to surf pros about this.

[@chrisgillmore206]

That was actually super interesting even for me as an average surfer

[@russellpizel3750]

Great content. So the Pros build boards around fins and the Bros build fins around boards. Would be great to get a simple guide for what fins to use in different conditions for a single everyday board e.g. when to go bigger or smaller - when to go stiff or flexible - when to go more or less rake. What to swap in when its small, when average, and when pumping.

[@justryd]

Great interview more of this would be great 🤙

[@scottturner8176]

that was incredibly eye opening. thanks for sharing!

[@ianjames4849]

Noel, you rock! You are my favorite person to get advice from about fins. But there are a couple questions I have related to fins as I cannot find the answer anywhere. I have been experimenting with fins lately and mixing and matching different styles/sizes together. I have 3 questions and I think it would be great material to cover in a video if you could. I am trying to find a happy medium between a twin+trailer and a thruster. I have been doing this by getting large thruster side fins with a smaller center fin, so like Futures F8 side fins with a F6 or even F4 center fin. This has lead me to some questions. TLDR: I would love input on mixing and matching fins. For example fins with different templates rake/pivot/neutral, different flex patterns stiff/flexible, and different sizes large/small. The goal is to optimize set ups for different conditions, small, big, beaches, point breaks, style of surfing etc… 1- you normally recommend larger fins than what the factory does. I am 150 and from your advice I would be riding a large instead of a medium. Would I get the benefits of the grip/drive on a larger side fins but the pívot and looseness from a medium/small center fin? What would you recommend here? 2- similar to the 1st question I want to experiment with rake/pivot. My idea was in larger conditions to use rake template fins for the sides with a neutral center fin. What are you recommendations here? Is this something you’ve tried? 3- What are your fin recommendations for larger conditions. Overhead maybe 6-9ft? Most recommend moving to a smaller fin as your rail/tail is doing most of the surfing. But after hearing you recommend larger fins I am confused. Are you/pros surfing larger fins in larger conditions or are you moving back down to smaller fins? My thought was also to possibly use rake template sides with a neutral center but all in medium for when it’s 6-8 or so ? I would love your feedback and even better if you can make a video about this. The community would love it and it would even be an opportunity to explain how you’ve incorporated this philosophy into your own fins!

[@surfbinge5535]

Awesome video! Sometimes I get stuck on volume too much but have been riding boards 1-2 liters under my normal dims recently and agree with everything they said.

[@easyepublics5512]

Nice vid. Wanted more! Thanks, Noel.

[@stevenbekker3416]

Please get more of these

[@thiagonogueira2940]

The content is RAD! Love this episode!!! 🔥🔥

[@djpipe1]

That was fun !

[@jorgeandrescoppiano]

So good to watch a new video of yours man. And such good music man. God bless!

[@afonso_9186]

🙌🏽🙌🏽 love ur video noel, big fan. Greetong from Brazil

[@ricardotorres8779]

super interesting. liked the volume discussion and was surprised about lau's fin comments. it can get complex.

[@video1critic]

Heya Noel... can you list the boards that you keep in your quiver... I imagine you have about 10 or more of them! From what I can see you definitely would have kept the NB2 as you rate it highly. It would be interesting to see if you still have the Sampler there too

[@surfnshowreviews7777]

Boards I have in my quiver after reviews. NB2 Spinetek Fishbeard Spinetek The Medina Akila Modern Fish

[@ACBHR]

Very interesting subject. I tend to think of volume and foil as mostly related to paddling abilities but never to the shape of the wave (steep vs open face), and rail-line, fins and bottom contures to the shape of the wave. I guess this is because lowering the volume is difficult for out-of-shape weekend warriors 😄

[@lanikaibrian]

Very informative

[@antoniovandias8653]

Noel. that was fire. As "just another guy in the line up" I love to be able to be another "guy at the table". super cool content. thank youuuu

[@RBNK157]

I have my hydra at 39.5 liters and i can say it’s a bit liability to duck dive it haha

[@punishersantiago]

The wave on the north shore is crazy,, right now 🤙🏾

[@raphaelwct]

Hi Noel! Im going to buy a pyzel phantom, and im in doubt about which size should i get for this board. Is it better i get this board taller or shorter than me? Im 5 10 height 82 kg, intermediate beginner level, surfing 90% of time beach breaks in brazil 0.5 meters to 2 meters. I want this board to be my daily driver. Also... do u recommend me using pu or epoxy? At the moment im using a 5 11 x 20 1/4 x 2 5/8 - 33.4 l - epoxy board. Thanks for everything you do for the surf community!

[@surfnshowreviews7777]

Go 5’11” and PU/Poly

[@SkipperSurfReview]

That was very helpful 🤙🏼

[@adamwaz5615]

When are we going to see you surf pipe Noel? 🤙

[@surfnshowreviews7777]

No time soon.. that place is a zoo and my tube riding skills are very suspect.

[@exterminator6661]

Any recommended high performance short boards for intermediate-advanced surfer in 4-6+ conditions

[@surfnshowreviews7777]

Fever is my favorite by CI. I also like the Driver 2.0. Both are pretty user friendly

[@exterminator6661]

@@surfnshowreviews7777 do you think the fishbeard could satisfy some high performance needs or would you recommend sticking to boards made for performance

[@surfnshowreviews7777]

@@exterminator6661 Depends... in 1-4’ surf I love the Fishbeard as a performance board. Anything over 4’ I suggest a thruster or HPSB with Quad set up

[@stevenbekker3416]

Sooooo helpfull

[@PA96704]

Holy Zeke Lau!

[@BernBuhring]

Top secret, literaly. Thanks Noel.

[@ygoeb13]

Noel can we ever get a video on your board collection? just to see all of them at once.. must be crazy

[@surfnshowreviews7777]

I only keep a few.... the boards I keep in my quiver are mental.

[@ygoeb13]

@@surfnshowreviews7777 would be cool to see you breakdown what you keep in your board bag when not reviewing boards! although I'm sure a big chunk of your time in the water is reviewing

[@surfnshowreviews7777]

@@ygoeb13 Absolutely

[@chrismast5626]

noel can you do review sharpeye modern 2.5 if possible

[@mikuo7258]

If I keep catching the rail of my surfboard when I’m doing a forehand turn does that mean my rail is too thick or thin. Also does this mean I need more litres in my board? Or is it my bad surfing habits.

[@travistarp7466]

Could be a lot things. Most likely its skill lol, if you watch Electric surfboard test on stab with Dane he's literally surfing big fish boards and he still doing insane rail work. Sometimes surfing a board with too much thickness in the rails or too many liters will cause it to catch when trying to do a tight radius turn. If you feel like you're sinking then you need more liters. It also depends on the conditions, high performance boards with less volume like speed and punchier waves, and if its too mushy the boards rail will just sink, so having more liters is usually better for smaller weaker conditions.

[@joedirt8625]

Cool.

[@808Mark]

Talking about too much volume at pipe but then guys like Bonga Perkins, Kai Sallas and Keegan Edwards charge pipe on high performance longboards. Great video and talk though, enjoyed it 🤙🏽

[@bh2861]

Sorry mate, but there is a massive difference between charging pipe and holding one line on a "high performance" long board to actually surfing within the barrel. Which means pumping for speed, feet and weight placements/adjustments for foamball navigation, changing from high to low lines, stalling for more depth in the pit, check turns after fade into the barrel to wipe off speed, linking sections etc etc ...so much more to it than simply "charging pipe". Less volume and thinner rails give a surfer that ability to manoeuvre within heaving barrels and to successfully achieve those things I mentioned. Edit: it was great discussion, I agree :)

[@808Mark]

@@bh2861 he's pumping in the barrel at 01:09 in this video. So you can't say you can't manuever in the barrel on a longboard kzbin.info/www/bejne/a3PSgapnZaqaZ8k

[@bh2861]

@@808Mark where did I say you can't pump a long board? Its really chalk and cheese mate when it comes to barrel riding with a shortboard over a Longboard. I take it you're a Longboarder mate?

[@808Mark]

@@bh2861 yep I'm mostly a progressive longboarder, do some foiling and ride a twin fish on the side too. I'm a wannabe shortboarder honestly but am just too comfortable on high performance longboards. I just don't have the patience to sit in a crowded lineup on a shortboard, i rather be on my longboard so i can even keep up

[@kevinm5564]

I saw the star on his board and immediately thought Hardees/Carl's Jr. Not sure what that says about me

[@soulsurfer3102]

Yes yes will all know zeke is akiller surfer.but We prefer normal every day wavs.with noal salas the legend

[@brahnini]

"and there's no waking up late in the afternoon, treat your mother with love, look ur daddy in the eye"