this is the story of a step down and my continued hobby of measuring and riding designs from famous shapers
[img_assist|nid=1046360|title=Step down comparison - 3" in length, 3/8" in width|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480]
[img_assist|nid=1046357|title=Bushman Pancho Sullivan model 6’ 3"|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480]
[img_assist|nid=1046358|title=New board therapy|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480]
[img_assist|nid=1046361|title=Tail comparison of step down|desc=the tail of the bushman has slightly more area|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480]
My rationale for purchasing went something like this. Whats all this fuss about flex, I think Tuflites are the Next Best Thing Since sliced bread, but surely the overwhelming opinion of Swaylocks can’t be wrong? So Tuflite Two promises to deliver a more conventional feel and flex. Much as my Flyer 2 seems to be a one board quiver, Surfdings insistence that I need a quiver using the different golf club for different situations analagy is starting to wear me down and he does know his stuff. I don’t play golf but the urge for some irrational new board therapy is also growing.
So I look to see whats available in Tuflite 2. UFOs are right size but not sure about the low entry rocker statement. Also my surfings been going rather well lately and much as I love the paddling power of my oversized Flyer 2 I’ve encountered a number of situations where I would have liked something capable of tighter turns.
So I’m going to downsize from 6’ 6" to 6’ 4".
So not a lot for me for me. TL2 seems to be mainly pro models and they are such skinny potato chips. Then I saw the Bushman Pancho Sullivan.
6’ 3" - fine whats an inch in length.
width 18 7/8" - my academically perfect measurement would have been 1/4" narrower than the flyer which would be 19, but whats 1/8" of an inch - I’m not going to notice.
tail - 14.6 - a tad wider than Flyer - just perfect! Will keep me skating happily on the surface and the board isn’t meant for macking waves anyway, in fact when things get tricky the plan is to break out the Flyer for wavecatching reasons.
Pro model for Pancho Sullivan - I know I’m stupid but I like the fetsish value of pro models by a superstar shaper. I know they don’t ride TL2 except for promo vids but I believe I’m getting the shape.
Marketing statement “Designed from Pancho’s favorite contest board. The 6’3” squash is a great all around shortboard for a bigger surfer. Medium nose rocker and slight single to double concave. This board works in any conditions from 1’ - 6’."
So its a Big Boy Chip, so even though its a comp model its high calorie size will have the effect of detuning to allow my diminutive ordinariness to cope. I’m 55kg, so despite my 48yrs of age thats still a reasonable amount of float.
I like the sound of the moderate entry rocker - boards that I’ve tried that have high entry rocker seems to go good - Flyer2, McCoy Nugget. They don’t push water - what they do is catch waves well and the nose end is out of the water anyway when surfing, giving what seems to me to be a shorter board.
So Bushman surely wouldn’t put heaps of tail rocker into high nose rockered board would he? Trouble is the marketing info never give away rocker numbers. Pancho is in tubing Hawaii so maybe it is a banana rockered board and no good for me. On the other hand the claim is that it is a contest board capable of handling waves size down to 1’ so that would suggest otherwise. On the other hand is that tubing Hawaiian 1’, and what is Hawaiian one foot anyway? Totally confused with this overthinking I decide to take a short stroll to my local surfshop - remarkably despite living in apartmentland close to the city there is a surfshop at the top of my street. Trigger Bros St Kilda for the Melburnites on this site. They can order it and I place an expensive bet hoping to win magic. Custom or stock its all a lottery as to what we get. One week later last friday arvo it arrives 
ride report to follow
first 2 surfs done in this - its overhead but blown to pieces slop with major backoff sections
[img_assist|nid=1046376|title=aussie 4' blown to pieces|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480]
3rd surf done in this - swell from a funny direction but quite good and 4’ (comfortably overhead)
[img_assist|nid=1046377|title=Aussie 4' - swell from funny direction but good waves|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480]
After a total of 4 surfs and having thrown gallons of spray from full rail cutbacks (I dream a lot) my assessment is as follows:
No time to measure it, just go surfing. Paddling out was better than I expected despite the 3" step down and my 5mm hooded wettie. In fact it was just fine, I was so exited on my first surf that I didn’t notice the difference in ability to paddle, but on the second surf I could tell the difference, but it is not a drastic difference. But my word a modest downgrade in paddling gets a big upgrade in duckdiving - I think its largely the narrow finely foiled nose. To the young guys on Swaylocks who have potato chips you just don’t realise how easy you are getting it when duckdiving! And the Pancho Sullivan is no low calorie chip either.
Surf is blown out and board squirrely on my first wave which fizzled out. Approximately on my fifth wave I got a reasonable overhead one and boy oh boy this is fun - what we have here is the feeling of being able to bury a rail and feel the power instead of skating on the surface. On the wave after that when I entered a cutback a photo page from Mark Occilupo’s biography entered my head - he full rail powers his cutties seeming to bury half his board. Please indulge this fantasising, it is harmless and enjoyable. What this vision did for me was that I remembered to enter the cutback even footed instead of rear footed and I gently leaned into the turn with some front foot pressure and yes it came round with plenty of rail engaged - excellent this board works even footed so maybe I was right about the rocker. I was laughing on this wave and at that moment I decided that is was going to me my go to board as opposed to my when everything is just right board which was the original plan.
post session with rocker stick
[img_assist|nid=1046380|title=rocker stick on the Bushman|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480]
Future Fins
plastic.
EA - 450 - traditional Foil (no cambering). Despite the marketing statement its actually in their Medium size category which is intended for medium sized surfers (65kg - 85kg)
the marketing statement:
“Time to carve into overtime, with a narrow base and a narrower tip.This fin throws buckets.”
Yeah right, that would be nice 
Length 6’ 3" - this was advertised length and accurate.
Width 18 7/8"
Rocker
Nose 5 1/2" - Moderate amount.
1’ down 40mm - ??!
2’ down 11mm
------rear rocker from tail—
2’ up 12mm
1’ up 37mm
6" up 48mm
Tail 2 7/8" - That’s heaps!
Rails - medium - more pinched than the rails of Flyer 2. They actually get chunkier a bit before the front fins - round about where the TL2 decal they are quite boxy with a tall side wall height. Maybe this is allows it to work for Pancho’s bulk.
Deck - moderately domed to get the rails to blend into 2 1/2" of thickness.
Question marks above are due to being so surprised that the nose entry sections were no more than the tail. As I measured I wrote down the measurements without thinking and then when I went to analyse them I thought I had made a mistake and remeasured to be sure. To keep the 1’ and 2’ nose rocker measurements down mean that it has heaps of nose flip to get into 5 1/2" of nose rocker. I always thought that entry rocker is around the 1’ and 2’ down from the nose measurements and not nose tip rocker - so despite the marketing statement this board is really lowish entry, or have I got my understanding wrong?
I can honestly say I wouldn’t have bought the board if I knew that it had so much tail rocker and what I think is meant by the term entry rocker is quite low, but this board is going great for me. It just goes to show how little I know about what makes a board good for me and its blown my theory that I need high entry rocker and low tail rocker to be happy. Certainly it does feel a lot different from the Flyer.
The board allows me to keep my skating style due to the widish tail and tall boxy rails which extend through much the rear end of the board. The skating type of surfing is the only type of surfing that I can get to work for me, but with this board I get to taste a little burying rails and making more use of rails in cutbacks (when the opportunity arises). I do feel I need to dance around a bit more than on the Flyer but I don’t have to frantically pump it like on high rockered board I tried years ago. We are comparing apples and oranges here but when running into flat backoff sections it will slow down and I have to do that ugly lift the nose and slam it down, but the flatter wider longer Flyer seems to keep going without that effort.
I now have a new cutback techique - when I’m on a bowly shoulder I repeat the word “Occilupo” to myself which reminds me to go into a even footed cutback. On other types of waves I still do the cutback with tail pressure. On one of my even footed cutbacks on quite a decent wave I had so much weight on my front foot that as banked the board with weight on the heel of my front foot my toes lifted off the board - this effect would be much worse on a wider board so I think this might be one of the reasons why the pros like such narrow potato chips? On my wider Flyer I’m just not trying this front foot oriented cutback and I don’t think I would be able to either. I think I can only do this sort of cutback on decent sized waves.
[img_assist|nid=1046359|title=Boxy rails on the Bushman Pancho Sullivan 6' 3"|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480]
I’ve got my usual angled black footprints on the deck from my booties and I’ve measured them. Although my boards seem to have a more minor heel smudge further back than the main one so maybe I’m unconciously moving my back heel around although I don’t remember doing this.
I measure from the middle of the smudge where my foot arch is and comparing to the Flyer they are about 1" further back relative to the front fins. Additionally the Bushman fins are further back than the Flyer.
This is interesting as its a more squirrely board than my Flyer so putting feet even further back would make it more squirrely so maybe I’m learning to weight my front foot more when appropriate to keep things under control or maybe there are things going on that I don’t understand. I tried consciously moving my back foot forward but I couldn’t do off the lips! So I’m just letting my foot find its place naturally.
there is the question of whether to believe me, is this all the figment of my overactive imagination? and I never forget the quote from a mate’s wife
“all surfboard design is bullshit”
[img_assist|nid=1046356|title=Bushman 6' 3" foot positions|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=480|height=640]
On the subject of TL2 and flex - most of my off the lips were my usual weak effort, but over the course of the weekend I managed to hit the lip solidly once. On that wave I felt a distinct shudder in the board as it flexed! I do remember that shudder feeling from my 6’ 9" poly board I used to ride in Santa Cruz. I’ve never had that shudder from my Merrick and Lausch tuflites. All the board I mentioned have thicknesses of 2 1/2" or very close to that - although the Bushman is more foiled in the front end.
It does feel like it has more dampening than the tuflites - the last time I tried a PU board it was my mate’s 6’ 8" so I don’t have a recent similarly sized PU comparison to make. But I think it is more like a PU board despite being sandwich. For someone of my ability the role of flex still remains not very important - its the shape that counts, I’m sure I’m still going to like the Tuflite 1 boards.
The Bushman Sullivan Models is one of the best models on the TL2 series. For the Late 40's early 50's shortboarder it's a no brainer. Material combinations with focus more on the core rather than just the skin is key. Damping is just as improtant as flex. The balance between the two is important. Having a Quiver is key to enjoying the surfing experience as well.
SD
The amount of what I term “resistance” positioned slightly forward of the side fins combined with a lightweight core is significant in what you are feeling and able to do. The thinner “more foiled” front end provides lift versus floatation bulk that plows versus skims. The measurements at 1 and 2 feet help denote what the ‘approximate’ rocker curve is throughout the board but cannot be completely definitive due to its combination of concaves which change rail rocker from centerline rocker.
Flex is great, but for higher volumed more on top water models, I place far less importance on the flex and more significance on strategically placed amounts of ‘resistance’ in conjunction with other design elements to produce a desired ride.
But then again, someone’s wife says “all surfboard design is bullshit” so I have to surmise I shouldn’t even be offering this, or someone’s wife isn’t getting enough ‘attention’, thereby prompting her statement. Just keep in mind that the opposite sex are myopic by nature and prone to jealousy whether it be another lass or a new board.
At the end of the day, ride what you like, and like what you ride.
Mostly I ride Chinese girls…
One thing that owning different types of boards does for you is it teaches you to adjust your technique to fit the board as opposed to trying to find the magic combination for a fixed surfing style. You’ll eventually gravitate towards appreciating a board for what it is rather than wishing it is something it isn’t. You step up and trim with a retro single fin, you carve/flow with a keel fish, you pump with a thruster, etc…
I have a friend in your age range who likes boards similar in length and width as what you’re testing. I built a board for him a few years back when he was 47. It had a bit less nose and tail rocker but was intended as a daily driver. At that time I had tried to talk him into letting me set it up as a quad but he wasn’t interested so we just went with the thruster setup.
He surfed that board for 2 years and loved it, especially after I nagged on him to start moving his rear foot farther back on the tail to take advantage of the thruster’s drive. Lemme tell you, that took a lot of nagging on my part. After a couple years I finally talked him into was letting me install 2 more fin boxes to convert the board into a quad.
The board worked well as a thruster, but it worked even better for him as a quad. And not by a little, either. See, the sweet spot on your stance for a thruster is farther back on the tail than it is for a quad. Doing the conversion on a board he’d already been surfing really illustrated that point, too. Now he has sworn off thrusters altogether and will only consider quads. The next thing I did was nag on him to buy high quality fiberglass fins with a well-considered size setup relative to the board and his style of surfing.
He’s sold on the setup, but I’m still working on him to open his mind on trying out different types of board templates and fin setups for different conditions, the thruster still being one of them.
Anyways, my point here is that based on where you’re apparently standing on that board a quad conversion might rock your world. You would just want to make sure you used small fins for the rear boxes. Besides, it’s lots cheaper to experiment on a board you already own than it is to buy new boards at retail.
Great review J
I’m nagging my neighbor so hard right now…I’m tempted to just make him a board and force him to ride it…he’s about to pull the trigger on something he thinks is perfect but I know will not suit him or our local setups.
but then again…I usually catch the waves he misses so I’m conflicted.
although I can remember bailing on some closeout sections, I have no memories at all of wiping out. I did make some fairly late drops - maybe this is my imagination, but I think the landing at the base of the wave was made easier with a bit of flex or maybe it was the different board shape I don’t know. Certainly the dampening feels different and the feeling might grow on me.