Webber Afterburner, Fatburner & Spoon

[channels]

Has anyone tried any of these designs? I was looking at them on the racks in a shop the other day and whilst I have never bought a stock board the bottom concaves looked quite interesting.

Someone did tell me though that these are mass produced in Thailand or China and there are quality problems occasionally? Anyone know if there is any truth in this?

[black duck]

I have a Webber Fatburner, pre-Thailand model with Greg Webber pencil signature on the board so it may be an early hand shaped one (or a good signature forgery!). I think i got it in 2003 or 2004. It's 6'3" and i would rate it a good board if you like your boards a little chunky - fairly thick foil throughout and nearly 3 inches at the stringer (easy paddling). The concaves going in them now are much deeper than previous versions, can't really comment on that but would think it's an improvement.

I have also surfed an identical 6'3" Thailand model fatburner from about 2006 (ish) belonging to a mate and it felt like a table compared to mine. Rails were not finessed, rocker and concave both slightly flatter. Definitely didn't feel as sensitive or responsive as my board.

Good fun board generally though. They take a bit of getting used to and need a reasonable amount of back foot drive when pushing turns due to the width and thickness in the tail. Rode it in all conditions and surf sizes, solid 6ft surf was the board's comfort limit IMO.

[buzzy]

I've owned a Fatburner and an Afterburner.

I really liked the Afterburner (which as a Webber rather than Thai board). At the time it was a fairly unique design, whereas nowadays pretty much everyone has a similar shape in their lineup. I like the look of the newer versions, which add a touch of extra nose width and seem to carry just a tiny bit extra volume. Based on the thai boards he seems to have really ooomphed up the concaves too. Their more like caves than concaves nowadays...reallly quite deep. They may well go great - I don't know. Anyway, thumbs up for a webber afterburner.

I didn't like the fatburner as much. It had too much volume and, surprisingly for a webber, was nowhere near as manooeverable as I expected it would be. Certainly chunky and lots of wave catching ability.

I have to say I actually really like the clean lines of the Spoon and CD and if I was to buy a webber nowadays I'd probably go the Spoon. Never ridden one though.

[channels]

Cheers for the feedback guys, the concaves are what leaves the question mark in my mind. They would have to be the deepest concaves I think I have ever seen and I'm guessing there is a reason most boards don't have concaves that deep... not sure what that reason would be though.

[ric_vidal]

Fixed a couple of SLX versions* (epoxy) and not sure whether they were fat or afterburners but not the ‘deep’ double concaves... either way one of the guys was raving about them and has turned a few people onto them, however he is in the older demographic if you can read between the lines.

*Have seen 2 or 3 with marks on the rails and for a while I didn’t work it out. Looked almost like the resin has melted and in fact it quite possibly has... epoxy softens with heat, polystyrene also melts with heat, friction from rope when tying the board onto a rack, either that or just too much pressure. Have seen similar such thing on PU/PE with the cavalier use of a truckie hitch, eh kooka?