The check is in the mail and the board in the hand

[oldmansurfer]

is worth two in the bush or something........something new. a kind of squarish 7'6" x about 24" x about 3" thingy (he didn't mark it or tell me exactly what he was doing) with a bamboo stringer and offset leash plug and an extra layer of glass over the back one third. Just arrived today so I thought I had to show a pic of it. 5 fin set up but I will be taking 2 fins out and using it as a thruster first (once I wax it and have time to go surf.) It was made for me by a shaper friend.

[Big H]

Looks good OMS..let us know how she works out for you.

[oldmansurfer]

Yeah I haven't even taken it home yet. I am working but can't wait to try it out

[Jester]

Nice one OMS!! Dead excited for you, can't wait to hear how she goes

[Big H]

It's made by the same guy who made your fungun that you're posing with in your profile pic right? What's different about the new board from the old one/ what was it that you asked for/wanted in the new board? Just looking at first glance it looks like the new board has a slightly pulled in nose and much more so tail over the last model and it's a bit shorter.

[oldmansurfer]

I just told him I wanted a shorter board. I also told him I wanted a narrower board but he kind of looked at me like I was crazy so I told him to do whatever since he was the expert. He is really good at making old man boards so he wanted to be sure it wasn't going to be a difficult change for me. The biggest difference I can see besides 6 inches shorter is the nose and tail are a little blunter and there is way less rocker, the bottom is flatter. The tail is like a blunt rounded pin tail. The fin configuration is also different. The 8 foot board has a single fin option plus a quad setup so I can run a one plus two or a quad or a single fin. I wanted a full thruster and didn't want the single fin option so he put in a 5 fin typical configuration. This board has a bamboo stringer which runs along the top of the board and allows the fin placement without damaging the stringer. The rails are a little different but I have to get the two boards out together it figure out exactly how different. The 8 foot board has a boat nose, the 7'6" doesn't. I had him make the same colors even though he didn't want to so it is my third board the same color (I also have a 9'6" funboard). The bottom of the new board has less concave than the other board.

[Big H]

You should ask him sometime what it was he was trying to do differently....interesting to see if it matches up with what you feel after riding it...looking forward to reports!

[oldmansurfer]

I think I told him I wanted a shorter board for faster turning so I imagine this board is made to be faster turning.

[oldmansurfer]

Also just something slightly different as a backup while my primary board is getting fixed

[oldmansurfer]

The verdict is it seems ok. I went out in small crumbling waves today and it paddles slightly less easily compared to the 8 foot board and catches waves slightly less easily than the 8 footer and seems to turn slightly better than the 8 footer in small crumbling waves. I did a little cutback and it seemed to be similar just a little easier to turn. I think it will be better in small mushy surf. Now I have to see how it does in something more substantial

[Big H]

Good times OMS!

[billie_morini]

Yea, Ol' Man!

[oldmansurfer]

As near as I can tell this should be about as short as I should go (for an overweight,out of shape, over 60 guy). If I get another board I might get one that is narrower or not. Really I am still loving my 8 foot board but want to change fin setups on this board to see what it does for me. Then when someone asks me the difference I can say something useful...maybe

[oldmansurfer]

I am still riding this board in a thruster configuration. It looks like a small wave board and it does work well in small waves. It also seems to work well in waves up to about 5 feet (10 foot faces). It seems to have a lot of speed down the wave but I haven't figured out how to keep it going on a mushy wave to try to hook up to an inside break. It may well be I have to adjust my footing for that. Or maybe I need to learn the Hunnignton hop I can ride my 8 foot board on next to nothing of a wave sometimes. The real problem I see with it is when you drop down a bigger steep wave it can be a little squirly at the bottom but if you just wait for it to stablize then you can power turn with it. Also I hit a small airdrop and while it seemed like I landed it fine I suddenly went down. I think I have to land with more pressure on my front foot. My 8 foot board lands air drops with the tail hitting heavy but this board just scooted out from under me suddenly.

[benjl]

You asked for a more narrow board and he shaped one that was 24" wide??

How does that figure? I thought 21" was quite wide !

[oldmansurfer]

Yeah but he knows what he is doing and I don't so i told him to do what he thought was right . When I used to surf before 19 inches was wide but now things are different (my widest board was 18.5). I think he didn't want me to have transition problems so this board probably has the same volume as my 8 foot board maybe more. I know my arms/sholders will last longer if I don't have to paddle harder to catch waves so I am reluctantly getting used to wide boards. I have learned to move my front foot to the inside rail on steep drops, that seems to help this new board too.

[benjl]

i'm just trying to comprehend how a 24" x 7'6 board will turn with a flatter concave! I thought it would've had a big whack of vee in there!
Even my 19" wide shortboard has a decent amount of double concave haha

Stoked to hear that your enjoying it though and that is the main thing. My mate is over in hawaii at the moment and he rented a 10' longboard at Waikiki. Said the waves were tiny (like 1-2ft) but really long and smooth waves.. soo jealous!

[oldmansurfer]

Basically to turn a wide tailed board you need to have your back foot over the fins. I weigh 210...oops just weighed myself....... anyway I am surprised I don't break the board with the amount of pressure I put into my turns. This new board I have is flat with just the hint of a vee in front of the back thruster fin as in millimeters difference. There may be a hint of a concave in front of that but not much. There is more concave in the top surface, for some reason it was made that way not pressure dinged by repeated power turns like my 8 foot board. When I relearned I used a 9'6" gun originally then switched to a 9'6" longboard. I could whip that thing around pretty well as long as the waves were bigger than waist high. I don't worry about what should work theoretically, it's not like they know everything about boards

[benjl]

Do you mean the deck of your board is domed?
My old 6'3 had that, heaps of volume in the middle of the board and then tapered out heaps as it got to the rail. Was almost like a big vee on top of the board haha

[oldmansurfer]

The deck is slightly concave most notable in the tail area. My 8 foot board looks the same due to pressure from my feet making power turns but this one was made that way.