RealSurf Surfers' Forum

I'm suddenly on a mission to surf every single board I own, one after another. No double up surfs.

This seems like an irrational idea, and it is! But so what. It's an accident waiting to happen but I'm into it.

So far (since last Tuesday) I've surfed a 5'2" Evo, a 5'9" MC, another 5'9" MC, a 5'10" MG, a 5'9" Byrning Spears six channel swallow, and a 5'11" Webber round pin. Next up, 5'10" Bushrat flex tail.

Once I've surfed 'em all I'm gonna get rid of all the ones that give me the shits.

...

...anyone of them shiting you so far.....I bet not...

Oh yeah. One of the MCs is super toey and hard to handle unless the surf is right on the button; it doesn't like overcoming adversity, which I never really appreciate in a board. The MG is a bit unbalanced, just a bit too much volume and outline curve in the back end, it could do with a rearrangement of volume and a bit of width shifted from the back third to the front third. The Webber is the creased up messed up one, one of the best boards I've had in the past 20 years but it needs to die god damn it.

Legion wrote:Natho's camped out the front of your place already *.

(* because the back was already taken)

Nah, they'll be 1/32" too wide or 1/8" too long for him

True but that's only coz I'm not as fat as Nick so can go a little smaller.

I am sure Nick will let me know if he wants to off load an MC though.

Well I'm hanging on to the Bushrat

You've gotta be in the mood for this board, plus it likes powerful waves, I surfed ledgey five foot reef to sandbank manglers which had the delightful quality of a roll-in to rock ledge section. The Rat is tilted forward and paddles in beautifully, it lifts from the tail unsurprisingly given that it's 1/8" thick and solid carbon fibre. I pushed a bit here and there but basically let it run high and fast and set up the sandbar for barrels before pulling out to prevent an absolute thrashing on the six inch deep sand. Just sorta trying to imagine I was surfing Shearer's Point. It felt right.

Who knows what'll be next??

OK next up was the Haydenshapes "Golden Gun"

This 6'3" hails from the pre-2010 era when people went after a "step-up". It's quite narrow (181/4) and boasts the long skinny curves of that kind of board, with plenty of rocker, reduced rail volume and a simple bottom of flat to single to double concave to flat. It has a Futures system so naturally also boasts Black Cat vector 2 fins. It also boasts a significant deck crease just forward of the 1/3 mark. I dead set could not remember when I last surfed it but I do recall a great surf I had on it at Mundaka, not the left but a super high tide right hand rip bowl sandbar in mid-river. This rip bowl was 4-6', I'm not kidding! And when you got barrelled you could look directly out of the tube at the town. Madness.

What this board does have very much going for it is an epic tail outline, a beautiful small round pintail, so while I was a bit "Hmm" about riding it, I thought just try to work the tail in. Ledgey sandbar peaks, 4-5', some horrid closeouts and some slabby sections. And the board felt super sick. Maybe a bit of my DNA is in that type of board, I dunno, but every time I engaged the back third of the rail it just went "Yep". Got a really good barrel and only tripped it up when the board tipped a little bit too far forward on to the excess rocker in the nose.

I'm not gonna keep this one, for me it feels a bit out of time, but I am going back to Hayden and see if he can make me a pulled down version, around 5'10", gather the same volume into a smaller space, and preserve that gorgeous tail outline. Almost like KS's comp boards.

I have a Golden Gun Hayden made me from like 6 or 7 years ago and I love it. Ride it about 2 or 3 times a year.
6'4 x 18 1/4 x 2 1/4. Pretty long compared to my standard boards however there's something about riding a bit of extra rail length when the waves are good and you can just lay it on rail and let those curves do their thing.
This one was glassed a fraction heavier which I seem to like on this board. It just settles right in and holds in lovely nice and steep. plus the board has stayed in great condition all those years later.

OK next board was a 7S Slipstream

A soft roundtail broadnose little board designed by Rick Lovett for 7S/GSI. It's 5'7" and quite wide (191/4) but not overly volumed, with an easy rocker and a slight single concave falling into -- well it's not really quite a double concave, more a rolled vee that's barely visible out through the tail. EPS/epoxy and no stringer, just that odd carbon webbing thing on the bottom and rails. Five fin setup FCS2.

I kind of inherited this board from last year's SL Board Test. Mooney really liked it but when I surfed it I wasn't that psyched, it felt like it wanted to sit flat and not respond very quick. I stuck in a thruster set of Performer fins for this surf 'cause they're a little larger and longer which I felt might suit its width.

Surfed it in slabby 4' reef waves, mostly rights with a couple of lefts. At first I thought "nah" - it felt soft and almost a bit boggy, like it was flexing without much control and stalling the water flow. But I shifted back into the fins and it began to respond a lot more happily, very predictable and stable and with a surprisingly short turning arc off the curvy outline. A couple of waves later I started getting it to do stuff, accelerating out of the base, short carvy cutties and easy lip bounces. On the few lefts I caught it felt comfortable in backside bottom turns, I never pushed it vertical backside because the wave never said so.

It's not near my best boards but I reckon I'll keep it, lil brother has one too and he reckons they're super skinny in waves under three foot with a quad set up. I reckon it's good for mucking around like that, trying fins and summer surfing, and also a good board to lend out to people who don't feel comfortable on the more psychotic members of my quiver.

Any IP on how 7s are travelling with Lovetts higher performance range?

I dunno.

Next board up, a 5'9" MC swallowtail.

This board is from what I like to think of as Maurice's Psychotic Testosterone period, 2009 or thereabouts. It's 185/8 wide with quite a bit of that in the front half of the board. It also boasts a three quarter inch deep single concave bleeding into a raised rolled vee behind the back fin, and razor edge rails nose to tail. Despite the dimensions I reckon it's about 22.5 litres in volmue, if that. It's ferocious. It was originally made for Tom Curren but Tom was visibly frightened by it and gave it back to MC. I thought, Are you kidding, and when it was still in MC's factory racks a year later, talked Maurice into letting me take it away.

The low entry rocker has tricked me in the past on this board to try to ride off that front part, but what it really wants is for you to work through the concave and out to the back end rail, so I tried to remember that. Surf, 3-4' and pretty as a picture.

Wouldn't you know it, first wave I immediately went forward and the board rode up on the front rail, lifting the tail gluggily and getting a bit trapped, just how I remembered. You fcukwit! I thought, and went left on the next wave which I always finds cures that tip-forward tendency. The left was muscly with some energy in the top half and I leaned on the concave off the top and the board just flew. OK. Corrected. Went back to rights and the board was alive, speed out of rail pressure inside the concave and a beautiful swingy turn off the little back end vee. Complex, unique and delightful.

I know these boards aren't for every day but when you have a board from an MC Psychotic Testosterone period, you don't fcuken give it up. Only Maurice or Tom could get this thing out of my garage.

Reading these board reports about the way you surf makes me wonder what sport I've been doing for the last 9 years or so.

Lol. So in tune.

Nick, what would you say the most hipster board you own is?

No idea really. I don't really prize flatness and volume in surfboards and the boards they seem to like, I rode myself in the 70s and was super glad to leave them behind. Maybe the Bushrat but it's a bit beyond hipster. I've got a short single fin that's kind of an MP model copy? That's probably it. I'll ride that next.

alakaboo wrote:Reading these board reports about the way you surf makes me wonder what sport I've been doing for the last 9 years or so.

me too. I feel incredibly inferior.

But keep em going Nick, they're very insightful.

BA wrote:

alakaboo wrote:Reading these board reports about the way you surf makes me wonder what sport I've been doing for the last 9 years or so.

me too. I feel incredibly inferior.

But keep em going Nick, they're very insightful.

you've all been tricked. Carroll has actually been riding a 7S Superfish for years now.

Nick,

reading that MC board report and it might be time to remind you of a recent conversation I had with MC down at Bells:

Natho: Maurice that 5'8 Mermaid I got is going insane. Time to step up and try a Pro Tow I think?

Maurice: Yep go a Pro Tow. Let's sort it out.

Natho: Yeh but looking at the things kind of scares me. I'm either going to love it or hate it. Just a big risk to spend the dollars without trying one first. They look crazy.

Maurice: Nick Carroll lives near you and rides similar dimensions to yourself. Ask him to give one a go.

Natho: Yeh but I don't like to borrow other peoples boards. That's just the way I am. I would never ask someone just to borrow their board for a go. They are his.

Maurice: No they farkkin are not his boards they are mine. Tell him I said to give you a firkin go. They are fukkin my boards.


Well I won't take MC up on his offer but if you want to sell one let me know.