Your Groveler Hybrid Surfboard shopping Guide & buying advice

Hybrid surfboards come in a wide variety of designs. Hybidboards come in a wide variety of shapes and designs and a list would have to be made for each individual board.

There are hybrids for:

• radical manoeuvres in medium to big waves
• for radical manoeuvres in small waves
• for mushy surf as often found in the North Sea and Baltic Sea
• hybrid surfboards for powerful waves
• with retro influences
• and many more

These surfboards are between 5 and 7'6 feet long and offer a wide range of uses. With a hybrid surfboard you can cater specifically to your needs and you are guaranteed to find the surfboard that suits you.

• Size: approx. 5 - 7'6 feet
• Waves: Small / Medium / Large
• Skill Level: Advanced / Pro

Hybrid boards are available with a wide variety of rocker, rail and tail contours. The volume of the board is usually increased in the nose area to make it easier to get the waves. 

Tail shapes of a hybrid:

• Roundtail (in different widths)
• Swallowtail (in different versions, wing, double wing, deep flat)
• Pintail
• Roundpintail (combination of roundtail and pintail)
• Diamontail
• Squaretail (normal, rounded square)
• Squashtail

The tail shape has a serious impact on the surfing behaviour of a surfboard.

Rocker of a hybrid:

• flat rocker
• medium rocker
• curved rocker
• Tail Flip
• Nose Flip
• High Frontrocker
• High tail rocker
• Low Frontrocker
• Low Tailrocker
• etc.

Rails of a hybrid:

• 40/60 - very forgiving
• 50/50 - forgiving
• 60/40 - radical and not very forgiving
• 70/30 - radical
• Mixed forms on the board
• Special features like underedged etc.

Steve´s Tip:

If you haven't surfed a shortboard before and you want to switch to a shorter surfboard, or you are looking for a performance surfboard with more volume, a hybrid is exactly what you need!

A suitable hybrid surfboard is half the battle. The range of use is much wider than with a fishboard or funboard. You can practice many manoeuvres with a hybrid shape.

A hybrid board offers you many advantages when surfing. We have listed these for you:

• Increased wave yield
• there are several shapes for every surfing condition
• relatively forgiving 
• suitable for small waves
• suitable for medium height waves
• suitable for big waves
• cutbacks, hishspeed turns, very manoeuvrable,
• duckdives
• easy to transport

The wider nose of the surfboard gives you a higher wave yield. Due to the slightly larger volume than a shortboard, it glides on more easily, increases your wave yield, lets you ride around weaker sections of the wave and generates speed itself.

Where there are advantages of a hybrid board, there are of course also disadvantages. We have compiled these for you here.

• Can't do what a high performance shortboard can do.
• later take off is more difficult than with a funboard or fishboard

A hybrid board is not as forgiving as a funboard and does not glide as well, but it has other advantages.

Even if a hybrid surfboard is not as forgiving as a funboard, it will still forgive many mistakes.

Hybrid board and beginner - does it fit?

The answer to whether a hybrid board is suitable for beginners is clearly NO. These hybrid shapes are too manoeuvrable and too radical, and therefore definitely not an option for beginners.

If you want to buy a hybrid surfboard, this should be very well considered! The workmanship of the surfboard is definitely important. You should not make any compromises here. Cheap surfboards break much faster and the performance is not the best either. If you value environmentally friendly processing, check whether it was made with bio-based epoxy or at least with epoxy. Polyester resin is much more harmful to the environment.

Furthermore, you should be clear about what you want to use your hybrid board for.

• radical manoeuvres in medium to big waves
• for radical manoeuvres in small waves
• for mushy surf as often found in the North Sea and Baltic Sea
• hybrid surfboards for powerful waves
  
• with retro influences
• for point breaks
• reef breaks
• performance wall
• Beachbreak

Hybrid boards are easier to turn than fishboards, funboards and minimalibus. Each hybrid shape has its own characteristics.

Your height and weight is another very important factor in finding the perfect hybrid surfboard for you. A hybrid should be chosen in your height minus approx. 10cm. However, this is only a rough guide.

Here we would like to list the most important points in keywords:

1. Which waves do you want to surf? 
2. How big and how heavy are you?
3. How is the hybrid surfboard made?

There are also different shapes for different conditions and different manoeuvres on the hybrid board.

The infinite possibilities of hybrid shapes make it impossible to list them here. Nevertheless, we would like to give you a rough idea. Retro lovers will get their money's worth with single fin surfboards. For the high performance sector, there is a suitable hybrid board for every wave.

Many hybrid boards are equipped with a 5 fin setup and you have the option of surfing your board as a quad, twin fin or thruster. This has the advantage of significantly changing the surfing behaviour of your surfboard and adapting it to the prevailing conditions.

These are the most important hybrid board shapes:

1. Single Fin 
2. Performance Hybrid for (big, small, medium, powerful, soft waves)
3. Retro Shapes
4. Twin Fin
5. Thruster
6. Quad Fin
7. 5 fins

The length of a hybrid board is very important when deciding what to buy.

When buying a hybrid board, you should definitely pay attention to the length.

The following rule of thumb applies to determine the right size.

Body height - approx. 10 cm

• If your hybrid board is too short, you will hardly catch any waves and your movements will be restricted.
• If the board is too long, it will be harder to turn and at higher speeds it will be very unstable on the water.

There are hybrid surfboards with all imaginable fin set ups. Which fin setup you should choose depends on what kind of waves you want to surf and which surf style you follow.

• Single Fin: For the retro surfing style. The king class with shortboarding

• Twin Fin: A hybrid with a twin fin is very manoeuvrable. This gives the board the characteristic retro surfing behaviour.

• Thruster: With this fin setup, your hybrid board can be surfed very precisely and gives you the necessary drive during turns.

• Quad Fin: A hybrid surfboard with a quad fin setup is mostly used in performance-oriented surfboards and gives your surfboard more drive, speed and control at the same time.

• 5 Fin Setup: Here you can change your fins to make your surfboard a twin fin, thruster and quad surfboard. By changing the fins, you can change the surfing behaviour of your board enormously.

You will find a hybrid board for the following surf conditions. There are shapes for small and weak waves, or for strong and big waves, or even for soft mushy North Sea waves. The extra volume in the nose lets you glide through the waves faster and generates speed independently. Even in weak and powerless waves. Hapes for tuberiding are of course also a must.

A hybrid board is suitable for:

• small waves
• medium waves
• soft waves
• point breaks
• reef breaks
• Beachbreaks
• Tuberiding
• Norse waves
• mushy surf
• powerful waves
• soft waves
• radical turns
• tuberides
• retro surf

A hybrid shape for children? Does that make sense?

Whether a hybrid shape makes sense for children can only be answered with a very clear YES if the child already has good skills and surfs safely on another surfboard.

You can find hybrid surfboards starting at a price of 300€.  These surfboards are usually poorly made and their performance is also rather poor.

In the middle price segment of these shapes, around 500€, you will find quite decent hybrid surfboards with good workmanship and solid performance.

Hybrids for over 700€ you get a very good quality with a good performance on the wave and guarantees you a lot of fun on the waves of this world.

• Hybrids from 400 euros - poor quality and average performance.
• Hybris Shape around 500€ - solid workmanship and performance.
• Hybrid surfboard from 700€ Premium surfboards for real pleasure.

Steve´s Tip:

If you love this sport, you should definitely look in the highest price range for your hybrid board - It's worth it!