The GST! - Gut Sliding Turtle!

[Cpt.Caveman]

haha!

What a crazy little nugget. Looks like a 360 machine if you surf it stand-up

[Topher]

Bloody hell. If I tried to ride it i reckon it would be a nose dive or backflip machine.

[pridmore]

should bring that wild looking little thing down to my board testin day if ya have it by then....I wanna suss it out and maybe have a go finless hahaha....what fins is it having ? if any....

[Beerfan]

Nice !!, we need action pics too!!

[Cuttlefish]

Hatching imminent.
This Friday (two more days).
Ocean is turning into a lake right on cue.

[Cuttlefish]

Well the turtle has hatched.

The Gut sliding tool, the Green sea turtle, Get some tubes, call it what you will.

A few quicks shots taken in the garage.

Have to wait for a few days to get it to a more photogenic localilty...errr like the beach.

Even though the ocean has come over all lake like.

I seem to recall Pridmore telling me about "yadda, yadda, yadda, curing time, yadda, yadda when he dropped it off to me today.

Yeah right!

Stoked with the result.

Artwork by Mark's 12 year old son, Cain!



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[Cpt.Caveman]

Looks almost good enough to stand up on

[Cuttlefish]

If I was say 75 kgs instead of 92 kgs I'd be thinking the same thing.
The deep double concaves should have it flying.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us


Uploaded with ImageShack.us


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[Cuttlefish]

Had my first paddle on the gut sliding torpedo this morning.
Nice and glassy 1' lefts and rights.
It was funny sitting on the board with my flippers tips catching the bottom as I waited for waves.
Little slab has some serious foam packed in there.
Putting the board level underneath me while sitting on it the water was about 1-2"s below the bottom of my pecs.
Catching waves was so easy.
Paddle into position with my arms, wait for the wave to pick me up while moving back a little to submerge my lower body and a few kicks of the flippers and drop in.
Well, not dropping too far (on a 1' wave) but still head high when you're on yer guts.
Coolest thing about riding it was it's acceleration.
Bottom turns produce speed that I've not found when trying to ride bodyboards.
Lack of flex...get that down the line projection I've found hard to get on my very limited time on bodyboards.
Could go really well on a point wave.
We envisaged this board as a primarily point and shoot design but it still turned well and was able to do off the lips when presented with little closeouts.
I guarantee I would have been lucky to get to my feet and ride these little waves more than a few metres if riding a shortboard.
Had a blast on the turtle.
Has me thinking of how much fun I can have on this when its small and/or sloppy when I wouldn't even bother.
When the waves would close out I could still get good speed zipping across the whitewater to finish off the ride...ending up in water a few inches deep. Hilarious.
Also had me thinking of how much fun it will be getting pitted on it in sucky beachies when it's bigger than tiny like today.
Tried some keels I made by grinding down a pair of glass flex M7's I had kicking around.
Worked well too.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us


Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Don't have access to a sander atm so haven't thinned out the foil of the fins yet.
Rode the board with the fins in the back plugs but in the pics they are in the front plugs ready to see how they feel next time.

[pridmore]

I have other fins you can try, once you have sussed out the board and know what it needs or what ya wanna try, let us know....

hangon, wasnt I tryin to borrow a set of M7's off you the other day and you didnt have any ?

[Cuttlefish]

You were...tis true.
But remember they were a pair of centres and so no good.

[pridmore]

haha...yep, thats right.....

[Cuttlefish]

Further updates.
I've had a good cross-section of waves this week to ride the gst in.
Monday was all of 1'.
Still head high for me.
Crazy sitting in water so shallow that my flipper tips were brushing the bottom sometimes and still catching waves that I was dragging an arm in the face to slow down.
A couple of guys on boards nearby were struggling to go more than a few metres.
I was riding the waves into 6"s of water.
Tuesday was 2-3' and I had a blast catching some peaky screamers.
The sensation of speed is something else.
I used to hang out for big days...ridng this board a 3' day is a few times overhead.
Thursday was at Kings for some wedgey ones.
Pridmore out there getting some good ones.
Had me thinking of trying some smaller triple tab keels as I had so much speed on some of them there were some sideslips here and there.
Today the waves were pitching then backing off pretty quickly.
The gst let me glide right through the flatter spots.
Too bad more people don't try bellyboard/paipos.
Pure fun.

[Cuttlefish]

I've been looking for a set of longer based keel fins that would fit in all three fcs plugs but only have a depth of 3-4"s.
Keen to get drive and hold for fast down the line speed.
I've not found anything along those lines and came across these fins while hunting around...
http://www.reefshark.com.au/
These could actually work quite well so I'm going to give a pair a try and will report back.
I've used all manner of fins on my surfboards (Spitfires, turbo tunnels, wavegrinders, bonzers, butterflys and the like) so I'm looking forward to the experiment.

[pridmore]

they look like shite to me....how bout the gap between the fins and the board, and these are the examples they use on their site ? keen to hear how they go mate but I am sceptical...how bout the part where they say they've witheld the names of surers to protect the contracts or something.... interesting fins for sure.....

[Cuttlefish]

Yep, the blurb is painful to read and I noted the gap.
Gap should be easy enough to address with a bit of sanding and I'm used to fcs fins (and others) that have pretty decent gaps.
Sometimes can't get the fins seated evenly without either a gap at the front or the back.
For a hack like me I don't reckon it's going to make a discernible difference.
Who knows bizzare shark fins on a turtle may work or be shite.
If they suck I can always take to them with the sander with no regrets.
Looking at the conventional fins used on the Austin paipos had me thinking tall, short based surfboard fins are maybe not the answer as I'm after hold and drive.
http://mypaipoboards.org/riders/Austin_ ... ards.shtml

[Cuttlefish]

Well, for anyone interested the shark fins were shite.
So I took to a set of old Kelly slater fins (blue plastics) with a bbq flame and bent the tips of them inwards.
Bingo...previously where they were letting go when I pushed the turns they were now holding in but still letting me turn where I wanted to.
The curve in the top 3rd of the fin made a world of difference.
Hadn't surfed the turtle for quite a while and took it out in some 1-2' peaky but low powered, mid-tide Maroochydore this morning.
As always a stack of fun and the speed I can get on this board when the wave is a bit hollower is such a blast.
Length of rides are longboard-ish which is great.

[Cuttlefish]

Out amongst the holiday crowds yesterday on the turtle.
The banks at Maroochydore are suffering from the shellacking they received at the hands of the last swell.
Low tide saw it breaking briefly on the outside bank then backing off as it hit deeper water and then reforming for the shorey.
Normally a high tide trait it was weird seeing it at low tide.
Thing was no one was able to ride them through from the outer bank to the shorey (including longboarders).
Enter the gut sliding turtle...
Paddling around on it everyone ignores me as I'm viewed as a bodyboarder.
Pretty long waits for the sets and so I can safely say the crowd weren't happy with what was on offer. No one having a good time and plenty of whingeing about the crap waves on offer.
Meanwhile I had a blast.
Grab an outside one and work the wall then once they backed off use the crazy planing ability of the gst to keep on going right through to the shorey for an inside dredge fest.
I may have been the invisible bottom feeder but geez I had a good time.

Also rode the gst at first point (Noosa) on boxing day as it came up to low tide.
Went great in the 2-3' walls on offer. The speed across the faces suprised a few out there.