Gravy

[Indo dreaming]

I stumbled across one second hand in in near new nick for half the price of a new one, tail pad, fins, and perfect recommended measuments (5,9 4-6 ich's shorter than what i normally ride, 6'1-6'3 ) so bought her as i like short boards and had been curious after seeing Rob surf them in Indo in solid waves.

At first i was suprissed how easy it was to get used to being a fair bit diffrent to my normal boards, expected it to take a few surfs but first surf felt good, got some nice turns, easy to paddle and catch waves and very fast heaps of drive (guess that because it has hardly any rocker and heaps of volume up front)

I really loved it at first, put a spark back in my surfing, but now after surfing it for a few months im ready to hop back on my normal board for a while.

Good points
-Paddles well
-Catches waves easy
-heaps of drive
-goes over flat sections easy
-more forgiving than normal short board
-great off white water sections, white water climbs etc
-great for carving

Not so good
-found it hard to do a good reo on
-because the boards has f all rocker, doesn't seem to fit into the curve of the wave, doing turns on hollow sections, and theres a fine line between getting it to do a good turn in the pocket and and sliding out.(hard to do a good controled slide as sudenly pops out of water)
-You really got to get your feet in the right spot, sweet spot feels like a smaller area than normal board, which makes sence as its a smaller board.

Summary
Great board to have in quiver but perhaps not a board to ride every surf.
Im taking it over to Mentawai's soon, real curious to see how it goes in good mid sized barrels, have a theory it could go good on backhand in barrels, kind of like how kneeboarders can quickly take of and tuck in, as even though its short it catches waves easy is fast and nice and stable pig dogging after all in sence like a cross between kneeboarding and standing up fully, guess we will see how it goes.

[Chillin]

Had the little gravy for a few months now and i have to agree with everything above, very easy to paddle in and surfs fast and fun. Iv decided that it feels a bit big and I ordered the same board in a 5'9". Just had a couple of weeks in the Maldives on the 5'11", here's a couple of pics.

[Natho]

Rob Machado's cool bra and he rides one so totaly sick. Cool name too, but I like the sound of the Wizard's Sleeve, plus Kelly rides the Wizard Sleeve so its totaly sick ya. So much frothing to be had on one those Merrick boards.Plus they have the the ripping high gloss finish. You can just blow up on them broz. I just ride em for the pure stoke you get and the added froth. Everyone is just blowing up on em so all good yeeeeew.

[Chillin]

Sorry Natho, I don't fit do I. Your so cool, wish I was you.

[steve shearer]

Pretty sick shots Chills.

Like that hand drag bottom turn.

[Cpt.Caveman]

Hows the water in the second shot? Its mesmerizing!

I would probably spend at least my first 3 waves just staring at the reef on the bottom out of amazement! I've been surfing Sydney too long!

[Natho]

Hey Chillin I was only entertaining myself, no dig at you.
I went into one of the Quicksilver stores on the weekend (fahk knows why). A guy was looking at the Merricks (in particular the Gravy) and my post is almost an exact quote of the cool quicky 'sales guy' in the store trying to sell him a Merrick. I p1ssed myself

[Davros]

"Excuse me young man I dont understand your banter". Did the guy buy the board after listening to that bucket of rubbish? Caveat emptor when people start calling you bro, legend, champion in a board store.

[Chillin]

No worries Natho, but I'm getting a bit jack of folk giving me crap for my choice of surfboards, oh and by the way my daughter is the east coast rep for Quiksilver so give them a break too eh, they are just like everyone else and trying to make buck out a fickle and convoluted market. You might be surprised at how much they agonise over the direction and placement of their brand. Thanks for the comments on the pics, there are more on the Coastalwatch monthly swell reports from Richard Kotch in the Maldives. Richards' photography is coming along in leaps and bounds. Look for his input from P'Pass from next week, a far more serious wave than Lohi's.
Here's link to hi res pic's, yes thats me in the first one riding Richards 6'10" Bing single fin.
http://www.coastalwatch.com/news/articl ... 9&cateId=3

[Wingnut]

Nice Nikko...

[Chillin]

Vid of the Gravy at Lohi's here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp6U2ga-gLM

[pridmore]

Hey Chillin I was only entertaining myself, no dig at you.
I went into one of the Quicksilver stores on the weekend (fahk knows why). A guy was looking at the Merricks (in particular the Gravy) and my post is almost an exact quote of the cool quicky 'sales guy' in the store trying to sell him a Merrick. I p1ssed myself

I had very similar experience in Suburban Surf up here, some cool looking young guy was sellin a board to a guy and just rattling off so much crap, even heard him say that the extra rocker makes these Rusty boards go sooo much faster than DHD's, hard not to speak up sometimes...but the thing is the guy believed what the sales guy was saying, it was sad to think that he could not only sell a guy the wrong board but also educate him with so much false info.....then he began to describe a wave I know well up here and he again was totally wrong, I had to make myself walk away...

[Indo dreaming]

Wasn't a bad board that gravy (see my description above), would have loved to keep it in my quiver, but after six months i had to trade it in while it still had some value on it and it still went okay, it was near new when i got it but dinged up real easy the kind of board you get in from a surf and you have another ding and i didn't surf it flat out.

If i could get one in an strong epoxy construction id get another, not a board you want to surf all the time but not a bad board to have in the quiver.

[spork]

I agree indo, the first one was a shop board and dinged up pretty quick. The newby is a custom (FCS plugs) and the glass is far superior and its holding up much better.