Jackson Biscuits

[Cuttlefish]

Hi Beery,
The MR's which livened up the Firewire Dominator were as a thruster set up with it's small trailer centre fin.
Dominator has a wide tail so the larger side fin worked well whereas on the narrower tailed Addvance it made it too stiff...just had too much hold.
The Stretch quads I've been riding in my Fat Bullet work great in 3+ but I was going to try some smaller trailers in it for smaller waves.
Trouble is I tend to want ride the Firewire when its smaller because it is so good so the Fat Bullet doesn't get ridden so much.
Still got that Spitfire single fin?
I've got mine in the 7'er waiting for a lined up, uncrowded 4-6' day at Noosa (like when Hell freezes over).
Hope you're family all well too Mark.
Still riding the mat?

[carve8]

There's another Jackson shaper down south at Ulladulla - Vern Jackson (http://www.vernjacksonsurfboards.com), who makes a great product. My bro in law is on one of these and it's a great board (caught a few nice ones on it myself). I believe they're pretty popular down that way.

[JET01]

PUBLIC WARNING.... THIS WAS WRITTEN AFTER A BOTTLE OF WINE AND A WOMENS 6 GRADE SOCCER MATCH SO MAY CAUSE READERS NAUSEA, OR DROWSINESS... but on the plus side, no SUP riders were hurt in the writing of this post
Thanks cuttlefish for your awesome feedback.

When i bought my Dominator, i bought a bunch of fins too. This is the range of fins i have.

MR TX sides with GS trailer (glass flex)
MR TFX set
PG7
bought what i though was a set of SF4's from Ebay but they turned out to be 2 front sets...
Shapers S2's that i swapped with Pridmore to go with the 2 front sets of SF4's
GL sidebites
Shapers fins had a sale on some of their "x-rated" fins" so i bought 2 set's of 7's a set of 5's and a set of 3's.
I've tried my dominator with the following
MR TFX
MRTX fronts with S2 sides.
PG7 fronts and GL sides.
x7's and x3's

the surf has just been so shit for so long that im' trying to find alternate ways of getting my stoke back. For me, as feminine as it sounds, retail therapy usually does the trick. Although, i am looking at moving to a smaller residence shortly, that going to mean rationalisation of my quiver.

I was hoping to go to:

9'0 Modern longboard
6'8 Miller Waterskate
6'5 More Roundtailed Quadfather (only thoughts at the mo')
6'2 Firewire Dominator
5'10 Southpoint epoxy fish
5'8 Jackson/More Biscuit style creation (only thoughts at the mo')

Tuflite M10 Hogfish with pinky/red FT1 fins now for sale for $450

[ric_vidal]

Mark. When it comes to skill...i'm a pretty shit surfer. But i love it just as much as the next realsurfer and just want to get a little better...

Well looking at your list of boards I'd say your always going to struggle. Way too many fish style boards in fact way too many boards full stop. Keep the mal ( but not for when its crowded if your skill level isn't that high) get rid of all the other crap and get someone, why not pridmore to shape you a good quality all round thruster.

J-Saur, I dunno about you guys but I believe our waves are generally better suited to more hybridised configerations, if that is your interpretation of an ‘all round thruster‘ then good advice. Too many high performance self-destructing wafers than quality waves.

[pridmore]

from an outsider lookin in, it eems that you ( jet ) are mad keen on surfcraft of all sorts and I am too so I fully understand where you are comin from but to surf so many different shapes regularly isnt gunna help ya surfing progress at a rate that it could, I would seriously reduce things ( dont have to sell em, maybe just stick to riding a couple for a while ) and really tune into one or 2 boards, maybe a simple shape, perhaps a slightly wider, bit of extra volume thruster...but it doesnt even have to be this shape ( just my opinion for an easy to ride all rounder ), just by sticking to one or 2 will allow you to get a better understanding of how it performs and therefore your surfing will have to progress as you and the board work together instead of always adjusting to different feelings and performance traits of such a variety of designs...I love nuthin more than the transition from board to board but I have done it for alot of years now, I dont surf great but I can swap from board to board with minimal dramas ( usually ) and only coz I perservered for along time doin this....and it didnt do anything for my surfing ( short term that is ) and I did feel confused for some time there.....but my drive comes from learning and feeling different things from different shapes and not always trying to surf 1 board as well as I possibly can ( although I do wanna surf whatever I am riding well ) this is getting confusing, dunno if it makes sense to you but basically saying you will progress quicker on 1 or 2 simple and suitable shapes...but keep lovin the boards of all sorts....

[mical]

Personally, I think that if you can't sit down and come up a full review of just one of your boards i.e. how it releases, what the concave's doing and the way it's feeding water through the board, how it handles sitting in the pocket, what the rocker is doing, what the rails are doing and really have an understanding of why it's doing what it's doing ... you should stick with that board until you can.

Once you have an understanding of everything that board is doing, move onto the next.

Best to start with something that will work in a variety of conditions.

After 5 or so years of that ... mix it up all you want during a session.

Of course, that's all if you're more interested in how well you actually surf as opposed to just having a penchant for buying boards.

Too many people jump from trend to trend or board to board looking for that magical sled that will take them to surfing heights they've never before reached, when in fact it's really only a few that can tell you why it didn't work for them.

Get your surfing up to par first ... then fcuk around with your boards.

[Cuttlefish]

You only have yourself to blame...
I don't know about the rest of you crew but everytime I see that avatar I scroll the f..k down to the next post without reading yours because that pic turns my stomach.

[JET01]

should i be renaming this thread to "what's Jet's idea of the ultimate quiver?"

I've always loved surfing my 6'8 Waterskate but the "duckdivability" of it is shit house, and this is what pushed me into trying 1000 different boards in the first place. Hiding in the channel at cronulla point was too easy so i ended up neglecting my backhand.

Thinking of getting Grant Miller to shape me a 5'10-6'0 Rounded pin Waterskate with 5 sets of plugs to use as an everyday small wave board. Also a rounded pin shorty with 5 fin plugs around 6'5 x 19 3/4 x 2 5/8 for when it gets over shoulder high.

So I'll have a 9'0 longboard, 6'8 waterskate, 6'5 shorty, 6'2 Dominator, 5'10 Waterskate. All boards will have the same tail shape, but have the fin change capability to keep things fresh. Do you think that if i keep all my boards with the similar characteristic (tail shape) but different lengths then maybe i might be able to have the variety with out a lot of the draw-backs of chopping and changing?

I'm not a big wave surfer so don't need anything for the big stuff although i understand the pintail/rounded pin would be quiet suitable for this too. I reckon that should give me enough variety to keep me stoked for a while... what do you guys think?

[JET01]

that stuff makes me sleepy

[buzzy]

I agree with Pridmore that for an average surfer an "active" quiver of 3 should be enough, particularly if they aren't a big wave surfer. By "active" I mean ones you use regularly - not ones sitting around "just in case" or kept for sentimental value.

I personally have 4 boards in the quiver but two are essentially the same idea from different shapers (a waterskate and a mccoy nugget). They're the average surf staples of 2-3 foot, particularly when it's not super sucky. The others are a Miller Powerglide (for 1-2 foot days), and a Firewire Alternator for good days. I could as easily go a Mal to do the same job as the Powerglide.

Anyway, with 2 of the boards from the same shaper I don't find the transition from the Powerglide to the Waterskate too difficult. And nor is there too much of an issue transferring to the Firewire. They're all thruster set ups except the McCoy which is a single fin. I reckon though if I was transitioning to twinnies or fishes or quads I'd have much more difficulty - the style for singles and thrusters isn't all that different, whereas for twinnies and quads I reckon it is.

[JET01]

I went to Aloha Manly and took a 5'8 Channel Islands Biscuit for a test ride today.
It was 1-2ft Max onshore mush at manly/queenscliff. Weren't many surfable waves around.
Board paddled well through the water and i wasn't up to my armpits in water when waiting for sets.
I'd need the 5'10 if i was going to get a CI (i'm 83kg). Had a good look a few other shapes in there. The Psillakis Squid looked awesome, but the nicest board i saw in there was a Mark Rabbidge Micro 6'0 x 19 1/2 x 2 1/2.

Popped into Jackson on the way home to run my hands over the stock 5'10 x 20 3/8 x 3. I reckon that would be the ticket for a mush board.

Had a look at at few shorties today whilst in manly, but there was a gorgeous 6'4 in Jackson's that really caught my eye. Lucky i left my wallet in the car. Nice black rail paint job on it just like my waterskate.

[pridmore]

buy em all.....

[JET01]

I thought it about Mark... BIG TIME. It was a very aethetically pleasing board.

I want a board with 5 fin plugs in a 6'5 rounded pin. A 6'4 Squash tail straight thruster was just a little too far from what i had in mind. And i want to be able to ride a few before committing the $$$$. I don't have anymore space for boards that are almost what i want.

[Beanpole]

Go the rabbidge I reckon. He's been working on those shapes for ages and if you contact him direct you'll save heaps. He sells wholesale.

[JET01]

I reckon i'll get a rabbidge one day for sure, great excuse to head down to bendalong for a surf... have you seen his channel bottom roundtail quads.... they are probably the sexiest surfboards i've layed my eyes and hands on... I wonder how they go. There's a few pics on his website, but they don't really do the boards justice IMO.

[Beanpole]

He'll send them up to Mona Vale if you can't get down there.

[JET01]

i'm not in a hurry to get a new board... get my new quadfather tomorrow that'll be my good wave board for a while.

[JET01]

I ummed and arrrred between a 6'0 biscuit and one of the poddy shapes in a 5'10...

I went with the 6'0 x 21 x 3

5 fin plugs (set up as a quad at the moment. Medium C-drive fronts and MR trailers for rears)
Single concave to V
Haven't had much time to surf as i've just changed jobs, but the few waves i've had on it have been encouraging.

Glad i'm a lot busier at work these days... It means i have less time to talk myself into new boards. I'm even sleeping better. hahaha