Overgunned explained. Also big wave guns.

Guns. This story was supposed to be about big wave guns. But during my research I came across this little word-of-the-week nugget—overgunned, so we’ll start there.

🧠 word of the week: overgunned

Overgunned, according to the Encyclopedia of Surfing, is riding a surfboard that is too big for the prevailing wave conditions. There are two scenarios in which a surfer may become overgunned.

One—as a result of misreading the surf. Let’s say a surfer takes out a bigger board thinking the waves will be 10 feet, but they end up being only 6 feet and they wish they’d brought their faster shortboard.

Two—surfers may overgun tactically and use longer boards and their paddling power to their advantage, especially at longboarding and crowded breaks. You often hear surfers complaining that “this a-hole was sitting so far out and catching all the waves.”

🔫 so what’s a gun anyway

But what’s a gun anyway? It’s a surfboard designed specifically for big-wave surfing. They tend to be long and narrow, with a pointed nose. Not a board you take out on a 2–3 foot day, then.

I guess we could call Pat Curren the father of the big-wave gun. In the early–mid 1950s, Pat started shaping longer, narrower boards so surfers could paddle into and survive much bigger Hawaiian waves, especially at Waimea.

At the time, boards were still wide and bulky—great for cruising, terrible for steep drops. Today’s big guns are something else, and they’re more about refined shape rather than just length. You can get a 7’6” gun, for instance.

🪵 gun vs longboard

Isn’t a gun just a longboard? Not quite. Longboards are wider, meant to be stable and glide at low speed. Guns, on the other hand, would struggle and feel slow on small waves. But on big waves—woohoo—they go fast.

Needless to say, as a beginner you won’t be coming anywhere close to a gun. Stick with a longboard.

Author: The Wipeout Weekly team