Gun Laws
Now in every family, there’s always an outlaw with a rebellious streak and so to in the tribe of surf shapes is the ‘Gun’. Relatively long and narrow, compared to even the ‘Pro’ range, with tails and noses that could pick the left over bits of burger from your teeth, they have one role and that is to ride waves of size and strength. It’s a specialized tool and only really worth talking about in this article for some beach banter to chew on. Big waves are all about the drop and a ‘Gun’ is all about helping you stick that drop. If it’s an open ocean behemoth then you’re going to want some length to help you dig in and pick up some glide on all that moving water out to sea. A heaving slab will require a shorter length where your approach will be more under the lip, so extra inches may hinder you.
Board length is relative to weight, for a lighter rider their ‘semi-gun’ might start at 8’ to 8’5” whereas for heavier riders like myself we start the scales at 9 foot plus. Surprisingly these boards are actually quite fun to ride in normal surf, where trimming their narrow width along a face gives you not only a cool sensation of glide but also provides a strong base to make yourself familiar with the board so when that day of days comes you know the balance points and board’s characteristics to keep second guesses on its performance to a minimum. You might never feel the need to face your fears on big waves, but trying a gun even in normal surf is a fun milestone to put on your bucket list and the beauty of sup is that anyone can still take these specialized tools out for a spin and feel what the high end design of our sport is like.
