How To Surf a Mid-Length, With Devon Howard

Cover shot of Devon Howard by Dooma Photos

The humble mid-length has seen somewhat of a resurgence over recent years, brought back into fashion by the likes of Torren Martyn and Devon Howard. But there's a few myths about these more hybrid shapes that may go into your decision-making process before picking one up.

Perhaps one of the more significant pushes into mid-length design was CI’s Mid, releasing in 2020. The premise was simple enough; this is a board created for long, drawn-out surfing. Way easier to paddle than your thruster, but the way to surf it is completely different. Foot too far back and it’ll feel loose and skatey. Back foot further forward and you can pump and trim down the line – but not too much, you don’t want to be hopping these boards to the finish. It’s all about rail-to-rail surfing.

With the mid-length’s modern boom, we tapped up Devon Howard, the mind that’s pushed the shape into new realms, to get his low-down on tips on how to surf one of these shapes. Note; they're for waves with a bit of gusto to them, not for your crumbly one foot beachie. 

Devon Howard

Why Surf a Mid-Length?
“Before choosing a mid, think about the lines you want to draw. If you want to cruise along, trim and nose-ride, and have plenty of paddle, you’re going to go with a longboard. If you’re going up and down, tight turns, really fast, you’re going to go with a pointy nosed shortboard. Both of these have liabilities, a longboard is hard to deal with in bigger waves. If you want to get out easy, it’s a shortboard.

“A mid-length is in between these two, it’s attractive to a lot of people because it’s not big and unwieldy, you can duck dive it. The big difference between mids and high performance shortboards is mids are rail surfing and shortboards and tail surfing. If you look at the way the boards go through the water, look at the manoeuvres on a shortboard, half of the board is out of the water all the time.

“It’s mostly the fins and the back end of the board that’s engaging with the wave, or disengaging if you’re looking for release. If you look at Torren Martyn, Mikey February and Joel Tudor, a number of people who ride mid-lengths, three-quarters of the board’s rail is buried when doing a bottom turn when doing the cut back as well, that’s really utilising the rail, similar to powder snowboarders.

“So why surf one? What do you want to get out of your surf? If you identify with a tight-turning radius, super snappy high performance, go with a shortboard. If you’re not vibing with that and want to do drawn out turns, a bit more effortless, the mid-length is going to make more sense.”

What Conditions Do They Work Best In?
“It’s such a broad category, I can’t give you one answer, but I can give you some guidance. If you’re riding a mid that’s on a bit of the bigger side, let’s say it’s 12–14 inches over your height minimum, chances are you’re going to like it more when there’s more room to move the board around.

“When the canvas gets bigger, I can push the board around and push through all the rail. If you ride it using the rails, which is how I like to surf mid-lengths, you need more room to really feel the benefits of the board. If you’re more into tail surfing on a mid, like a shortboard, you can make it to work in smaller surf because you can lift the board out of the water and get a tighter turning radiance, albeit, a bit slidey, it’s a different approach.

“Overhead is ideal. They’re also not the best if it’s super onshore. It has a lot of rail, so it’s more exposed to surface tension, meaning if it’s side onshore with a lot of bump, the waves aren’t glassing off and cleaning up between sets, you’re going to feel that on the wave. The same can be said of a super offshore day. If it’s really strong, you got a lot of board under your feet, it can feel like an airplane wing.”

How To Transition from a Shortboard to a Mid-Length
“When coming from a shortboard to a mid for the first time, you’re going to need to push the reset button. There’s definitely potential for this process to become frustrating. There’s a lot more board, but what’s going to feel different is all that rail. If you try to force a shortboard approach on a mid-length, depending on what the design is, it could go wrong.

“A lot of mids have quite a bit of surface area to work with, they rely on trim, speed and the gaining of speed as opposed to pumping the board.

“They require you to be patient to work with the rail, not the tail. If you start pumping the board, again, depending on design, it would be counter-productive because you’re pumping and tick-tacking this big board and you’re breaking trim, as opposed to letting more of the board sit in the water and rolling gently from rail to rail, pushing off the bottom, climbing up the face, leaning back on the heels and coming back down to coil up into a bottom turn and slingshot out of that into your first big turn or cut back. I think patience is what’s required.”

And If You're Coming From a Longboard?
“It’s a much easier transition, it’s not as abrupt. Most mids have lower rocker, not all. That’s something that longboards share in common, you can build all your timings off the rail. You’re already used to generating speed by placement of the board, you’re used to being high up in the pocket, a high-line. The only adjustment is going to be how short of a mid do you go.

“If you’ve ridden a longboard for a long time, you’re going to be used to that volume that impacts your paddling. And seeing sets coming and dodge them. With a mid, you’ve got less volume, still a lot of paddle power, but think about your fitness level and how much paddling you’re willing to sacrifice. I think people order their mids too big, it’s good to challenge yourself and go shorter than you think.”

Biggest Takeaway?
“Despite what people may say or think, a mid-length is not a grovel board. They’re designed for the open face, to glide and work best in conditions that allow this.”

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