Surfing Waves

So the first test is complete!

My mates wanted to head to our east coast which was only 1-1.5ft (maybe odd 2ft) and predominantly a longboard / minimal wave.
I was hesitant whether I would even get any waves!
Pics below are my new board lined up against my 6'1 which I'm selling at the moment. I had hoped that this new board would be a shortened condensed version of my 6'1 and it's not too far off, although a bit thicker through the rails.

So first off, it very felt natural right away. It didn't have the same fat nose of the hypto and paddled more evenly (which I liked). The volune dispersion felt amazing and paddled really well for only being 28.7l. It's noticeably lighter than my 6'1 which is 29.2l. It seemed to paddle better and easily.

I caught as many waves as any long boarder out there, it just requires a little more paddle and effort getting on to them and staying on them but surprised me at how well it went in the small stuff aS it wasn't designed for
This primarily. It definitely wasn't as fast or lose as my 5'6 dominator was but again, this wasn't meant as a small wave board but it handled it well.
I tried it As a quad and I haven't ridden a quad in awhile! I hadn't liked my last experience as quad on the 6'1 but this felt good, seemed to be fairly fast, still somewhat pivotal and drivey. I could still do an OK bottom turn and push hard on the tail / fins.

I imagine it would be awesome as thruster and a lot more pivotal. Would also help the top turns and drive off hard turns.

Shape-wise, The hybrid fish-short board combo was awesome. The extra rocker in the nose was noticeable and helped keep the nose out of the water when paddling. I did a couple of late-ish drops and it stuck them well.
I can't wait for bigger stuff to really see how it turns and drops.

Overall a pretty happy customer after test 1.
The tail also didn't feel very pinny or overly grippy as some do.
I was also surprised that the hard rails stop just after the fins whereas my other boards from the shaper have always had hard rails for quite a long portion of the board

Excellent

Sounds like a good first run....interested to hear about faster, steeper and bigger.

Sounds like a good first date.

oldmansurfer wrote:Sounds like a good first date.

Speaking of dates, Benjl's place reminds me of one of my dates from long ago where I brought my lovely date back to my apartment and she said, "Are you aware that there is nothing on any of your walls?" I wish I had replied, "I"m a lover not an interior decorator," but instead I sputtered out some incoherent nonsense. I take my interior decoratin' seriously now.

So first test part 2:

It's been around 3m waves the last few days so I waited until it was stating 1.8m on the west coast before heading out today. I didn't want to charge straight in to 5-6ft until I had a feel
For the board first!

Unfortunately it was literally like 1ft and tiny, again!
Surprisingly though, the board was still able to be worked and trimmed on these small waves just as well as any other 6'8 fish that surfers had.
I would never take this board to these conditions if I knew they were going o be so small but i guess its impressive to see it work in them and be so versatile!
Finally maybe a 2ft or chest high steep wave came through brought the board alive! All of a sudden the board seemed to get that burst of speed to loosen it up and start carving the wave face, I got a backhand carve, then trimmed quite high before dropping down and doing a big cut back to
My forehand side. The board felt amazing! Fast, lose, a bit of spray and seeing that pin tail leave a line in the wake as I was turning!

I can't wait to try it in proper waves with a bit of juice and see how the rails dig in

So I can now start to give this board a proper review after trying it again in on-shore, powerful 1.8-2m wave faces in the weekend.
It's an interesting board for starters, and one that I'm still yet to fully understand and be at one with.
When I last surfed it, I was fully surfing fit but the waves were only semi-small and on top of that, I had been surfing an even shorter 5'6 which made the 5'9 feel less loose in comparison.
After 1.5years off, I've had a mixture of really good and over-the-falls rides. I guess due to supping, I had been acclimatised to not having to paddle with my arms for a wave and had just been using my wave reading ability for when I started surfing again. I would tend to just wait for the right wave moment and go. This was fine until the waves (particularly in the weekend) were a little hollow and punchy, steep take off's.
It wasn't until I paddled a little earlier for one and remembered how much difference this makes to getting on the wave before it's not so critical.
I think some pre-paddling for waves will help this board a lot. Especially as it's only 28.7l and I'm now 6kg heaver than when I last surfed and also less paddle fit.

In terms of waves caught though - I was shocked at how easy it was to ride again despite not surfing for 1.5years, and straight back in to head high waves. The shape seems very organic and natural to ride and paddle. I would think of it as a user-friendly performance board, capable of a wide range of conditions. A really good platform / plan shape to play around with to suit your needs.
It seems to turn really instinctively, seems quite fast and wants to do what you want it to. My turns seem to be a lot better and more sharp after my year off funnily enough- I think having to turn a sup has taught me how to work the rail and body positioning a lot better which has translated in to surfboard-turning. Especially on my backside.
I haven't nose dived it yet and did take some pretty steep drops in the weekend- at one point I could see the nose bounce off the pit of the wave but not catch or pearl.

I've been trying some creatures of leisure arc fins which I think are similar to a K3 or AM2 template. Longer and wider side fins with a slightly smaller centre fin. These seem to work quite well with this board and give it lots of speed, drive and release.
The only waves I've been struggling on so far is quite hollow waves. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I managed to slide out the fins on a turn on my frontside and smashed my face in to the wave. Surprised this happened, especially with these fins.
Might give it a try with some EA quad fins to see how they are with those.

Can't wait to get some footage of surfing as well!

Hooray for Benj!

Welcome back to the light side Resist the dark forces

Thanks guys, I guess it actually makes a really good quiver in conjunction with my 6'4 step up for more hollow stuff.
It's also a board which I can't wait to surf more and figure out. I forward planned when I made it and added a touch more volume and length as o didn't think I'd be as light as I was when I had it made.

In terms of sup vs prone, sadly despite being able to surf again I'm still in favour of the sup. The prone is more fun and agile on the wave but I just enjoy the whole body challenge and long rides of the sup. Maybe it's also a new challenge compared to something I've already done for a few years?
Both def have their place in my quiver though!

Well I am glad you are back to healthy enough to surf again regardless ( don't tell Luke Skywalker I said that)

Get off those mini surfboards and you can have longer rides proning as well.

RinkyDink wrote:

oldmansurfer wrote:Sounds like a good first date.

Speaking of dates, Benjl's place reminds me of one of my dates from long ago where I brought my lovely date back to my apartment and she said, "Are you aware that there is nothing on any of your walls?" I wish I had replied, "I"m a lover not an interior decorator," but instead I sputtered out some incoherent nonsense. I take my interior decoratin' seriously now.

What?! Who cares what's on (or not on) the walls? If I'm going back to my date's place it's not to look at the walls! That comment is totally unnecessary. What a weirdo.

kookRachelle wrote:

RinkyDink wrote:

oldmansurfer wrote:Sounds like a good first date.

Speaking of dates, Benjl's place reminds me of one of my dates from long ago where I brought my lovely date back to my apartment and she said, "Are you aware that there is nothing on any of your walls?" I wish I had replied, "I"m a lover not an interior decorator," but instead I sputtered out some incoherent nonsense. I take my interior decoratin' seriously now.

What?! Who cares what's on (or not on) the walls? If I'm going back to my date's place it's not to look at the walls! That comment is totally unnecessary. What a weirdo.

Since when did a comment need to be “necessary”? Make that a rule and it would be just us and the crickets around here.....

Seriously....I know you’re “big” on the how small of a board can I ride thing, but I’d have thought that riding SUPs would have revealed another available dimension.......I’m. It saying to get a longboard, but a midsize with good volume, pulled in nose and tail so you can get on big or small waves I’d think would be a good board for your quiver IF getting longer rides that are still dynamic is something you’d be interested in............if the waves are yielding 2-300m rides on an SUP, I’d bet they would be receptive to a big fungun.

Or an old school single fin or 2+1.