What is a Stinger surfboards?

Answer 1

The "Stinger" as it's called by many outside of Hawaii (*actual name is "Sting"), is a design made famous by Ben Aipa in the 1970's. The Sting surfboard's original design intention was that to be of a very short board length, somewhere between 5'10" to 6'6" in length. and approx 19" to 21" in width. The "Sting" namesake came from the "wings" or rather the transition of width, 1/3 up from the tail where the board had a distinct 1/2" or so "wing" aprox 18" to 20" up from the tail. In other words, the board was wide from the nose to the wing, then it narrowed in from wing to tail. Basically, you had the combo of a wide board with a narrower tail section. The Sting was usually finished off with a straight edged swallow tail, but pintails were found on the longer "gun" shapes also. The original Sting was meant to be ridden in small fast waves. I have owned several Aipa Stings in the past and currently have a new one shaped by Ben Aipa, using his original templates like back in the 1970's. I LOVE Stings!