Your opinion on this board

[avillax]

Hi, let me start by saying that I'm an intermediate level surfer. I've been intensively surfing for more than a year and have seen myself gone through many stages of skill.

I'm 5'10 and weight 156 lbs, I surf in San Diego, CA.

The latest board I had been using was a 5'10 Al Merrick Flyer Tuflite

I loved that board since it was a good paddler, didn't pearl, good wave catcher, very forgiving, easy to use and did not drag much when getting hit by waves, easy to duck dive. I had been learning to do turns with it and even managed to do a 180 once.
The problem I had with it is that I bought it all beat up, and seems to be sucking up water, I feel like it is losing part of its flotation although it could be my imagination. However it does have some water leaking from it every time.

So decided to buy what I thought would be similar board but faster: a Sharp eye SBT-S 5'10, almost the same measurements but glass and a tiny bit less narrow.

Well, compared to the flyer, the SBT-S doesn't float much, it's not that good of a paddler.

The good things I noticed:
-it's even better at catching waves than the flyer and can handle small to slightly overhead waves just like the flyer.
-another thing I noticed is that it's more forgiving at take-off than the flyer, I was able to land even close outs surprisingly easy compared to the flyer.

But it's worst flaw was: it seems to be a bad turner, I could not feel a rocker sensation under my foot and could not manage to create speed or turn, it was my first session with it, still dialing it in, but it gave me that impression, plus when I compared both boards I can see that the flyer does have slightly more tail rocker. The SBT-S feels sort of flat.

My question to people who have ridden this board: could you manage to turn with this thing? any advice?

And the other thing is, I was thinking that perhaps the tuflite gives more floatation in a small size but sacrifices contact with the water, that's why I feel like the take offs with the flyer aren't as smooth as with the SBT-S because feels like losing the board for a moment, like loosing water traction, I think it might have to do with the tuflite and not really with the model itself.
If I'm right about this last one, then a 5'10 flyer glass would be the way to go for me right now, I would be able to take off on more waves correctly because the glass would stick more to the water, and still manage to try the turns that I was learning, unless at 5'10 glass I would be sacrificing too much floatation compared to tuflite, that I don't know. What's your opinion?

[IB_Surfer]

Easy, you went from an epoxy board to a fiberglass one. Epoxy has more float and is stiffer, the fibeglass board has more give and floats less. This is why I am able to surf a 6'2 epoxy at 200lbs but have to use a 6'5 with fiberglass. If I owned a 5'10 flyer I would have gone with a 6'0 Sharpeye, though we have not discussed width and thickness, I am assuming they are both equal in width and length, but that might be another difference.

I have an SB10 (I have an older glider model) and love it. The SBT-S, I read on their website, has more rocker than usual, or at least more rocker continously and with more volume towards the nose. This makes it better on barreling days but slower to paddle, but should be easier to turn which might be because you are having problems generating speed to turn.

Have to ask, did you buy new fins or did you use the same ones you had on your flyer? Is the flyer FCS or Futures, and what is the Sharpeye? What fins, specifically, where on your flyer and now on your Sharpeye?

Lastly, Sharpeye makes a good board, you might just have bought the wrong one for you. Funny, people make fun of me because I am very specific in what I need to surf, but I know within a 1/4" what I like and don't like.

[avillax]

Actually a lot of what you are saying makes sense. The fins on the Flyer are FACS K2.1
http://www.tactics.com/fcs/k21-gf-thruster-fin-set

The fins on the SBT-S are FCS - G-AM Fins

I tried it in one of those days where waves are pumping every 5 seconds so I got tired fast specially with the less floatation, if I can make it turn then I still have a shot of having a good board except for the size which would give less floatation.

What's your thought on these fins?