BIC 9'4, anyone have experience with this board?

[Rickyroughneck]

Hey folks, I've seen the aforementioned board for £150 (USA $232).

Good points:

-Price is a steal
-Tough
-Coolest guy in the line-up


However I am not confident that it will surf well. It looked ungainly even in the BIC promotional videos and I think the rocker might be too low for what I want (although I've not had a good profile shot to judge it by).


Does anyone have any experience with this board?

[jaffa1949]

Hi Rickyroughneck, I'm not a fan a of BIC boards except in the raw beginner stages when they have great value as indestructible barges that can do the basics.
Obviously if you are are great surfer you can make it do better than most but my personal opinion based on looks alone and observation of people surfing them. Is that BIC makes better pens and lighters than surfboards!!!

[Rickyroughneck]

Thanks for the feedback Jaffa, don't forget their razors too. I am still musing this over; at the moment my thinking is that I could buy and try, and then sell it on if I don't like it.

Edit > Were you referring to all BIC boards, because this is the so called "e-comp" which is at least better than the diabolical plastic capped ones?

[jaffa1949]

That is a thought clean off the wax and on sell for a little profit, but wax on the BIC is notoriously hard to clean off . the textured surface causes this.
Your call on whether it is worth the effort and the karma of onselling one!

[Rickyroughneck]

Well I bought it. Highly doubtful I could make a profit even if I tried, I just feel sorry for the guy selling it as he would only have got £135 - listing fee - a few % for paypal.

I will update when I have given it a go.

[jaffa1949]

You are going to know the truth of the matter now> experience beyond my opinions!
Really an opinion is just that and not necessarily a statement of fact!

OOPs sorry it's the plastic capped one

[IB_Surfer]

Worse come to worse you can melt it down and make 1000 lighters...

[greg2935]

I owned one of these, can't remember if it was quite that long, definitely 9 something though. I would not bother as I think most people outgrow them pretty quickly, and for that reason alone, I do not think its good value for money. Much better to get a second hand longboard that you can grow into.

[timpritch]

Hi there, I have one of these boards and find it really good. It might be worth taking a look on youtube as it is reviewed by australian longboarding (glideind). This was a quote on the net.
By then I was riding 'real' surfboards and dismissed them as 'entry level' boards. ... A friend told me to log onto You Tube and watch the review for this board. Tony Channin rode it and raved about it.
worth a look.

[IB_Surfer]

In defense of BIC, last time I rode was was 15 years go, maybe they have changed some of the specs and dimensions since then. At the time I bought one for my kids, I did not want a foam top but wanted something rugged. Compared to my board at the time, almost the same dims, it turns slower and seemed to bog down when paddling, but I rode waves fine with it.

[Rickyroughneck]

Late update (problems logging into the site).

I eventually prepped it and rode it for the first time yesterday. You were right Jaffa in that the wax was a bitch to remove. I did the best I could with a comb and then white spirited the rest away.

The fin setup it came with was a giant 10" (maybe 9.5) dolphin AND sidebites. Needless to say that that is way too much fin for most people, especially me at a meagre 11st (despite being 6'2"). The fin box was quite small so didn't allow for any adjustment with the stock fin, so I replaced it with a slimmer 8" cutaway (less rake).

I took it to Llangennith, a fairly mellow beachbreak, in about 3.5ft 12s of swell (about chest to shoulder high on the sets) and a cross offshore wind. All in all I was very impressed with the way it surfed. It was a bit of a tanker to handle in the water, but on the waves I got on with it so much better than my skinny Skindog (9'2 x 22.5 x 2 3/8). It turned pretty well: I put in some solid bottom turns that turned into off the tops, something I rarely did before on my Skindog. Not really noseriding waves but I walked the board a bit and it worked well enough.

I think it confirmed my thoughts, that the shapes are rough reproductions of shapers designs. They aren't pretty boards but get the job done fine for an intermediate like me. I am definitely taking it out next time, waves permitting.

[jaffa1949]

They aren't pretty boards but get the job done fine for an intermediate like me. I am definitely taking it out next time, waves permitting.

Therein lies the absolute answer, I may be semi scathing in my comments about BICs but it comes down to one thing with any board, "Does it work for you?" If so all arguments and slanging ceases to be relevant

[IB_Surfer]

Chiming in: surf was chest-high Sunday. It was close to high tide so the waves would slowly build then dump steep near shore. Fun shoulders but a shortboard was not the right call, so I took out my step-up. Most of us had fishes and hybrids, but one guy had a 9'0 (I think) longboard and I recognized it was a BIC. The guy caught waves easily, seemed to work fine, so I guess they are ok.

[Livetosurf]

I used to have one of these boards for smaller days and when I started surfing served me pretty well as a beginner learning to trip and turn but after changing to a performance longboard for a few years I found it in my shed and thought would be fun to go out on it .You defiantly feel the difference in manoeuvrability just feels sluggish