“Are You A Believer In The Liters?”

There’s clearly merit in the universal literage metric listed on surfboards. Why else would every high-performance pro surfer utilize and often adhere to it? Listing how much water a board displaces is effective both for standardizing equipment and for helping consumers to understand comparisons between unique board models.

But, is literage an absolute rule? Probably not.

Could obsessing over a decimal place sometimes be counterproductive for the average surfer? Perhaps.

I’m not suggesting you ought to go spend $1000 on a board that’s 5 liters bigger than your normal shorty. I’m merely saying that hyper-fixation on a single aspect of a surfboard could potentially be limiting. Foam placement, rail shape, bottom contours, and rocker all play significant roles in the feeling of a surfboard, and they seem to get far less attention in the buying process than that nifty literage number.

Based on their second episode of Off The Rack, the fellas at Surfboard Broker know what I mean. They had three team riders — Kevin Meza, Flynn Novak, and Schuyler Allen — try 6 previously-loved boards; all of which were slightly different from what the boys would normally ride. 

Did the boards appear to limit the quality of surfing being done? Well, Kevin still managed a handful of spins and shuv-its, while Schuyler and Flynn were tagging it like a bunch of schoolboys who found some spray paint and an empty wall.

The clip made me want to grab a few friends, throw an assortment of new boards in a van, and head to the beach for the afternoon.

And hey, that’s all any surf-media consumer can ask for, right?