I surfed my new 6’4’’ by 19.5’’ x 2.5’’ Firewire Alternator series today for the first time. THe surf was mediocre for my area–waist high, bumpy beachbreak with some larger sets. There were some fun sections to be found though.
Now, to keep my review in context, it must be known that I haven’t surfed a board with these dimensions on a regular basis for some time… probably about 4 years. I have been on the multifin fish trip during the intervening time. My primary board prior to the FW purchase was a 6’0’ Speeddialer (yes, I am an idiot who spends a fortune on surfboards… moving on…) I would hop on a somewhat narrower pu/pe WRV 6’4’’ and enjoyed the ride from time to time.
Float/paddle: The board floats and paddles great… as well as my 6’ fish. It catches waves very easily-- as well as the fish. This surprised me… pleasantly.
Dropping in: the weight, or lack thereof is a bit awkward for me right now, esp frontside. I definitely don’t have a smooth takeoff wired just yet. The board doesn’t lock in quite as readily as the fish. It’s not hard to catch the waves but it’s like the lightness makes the board a little slow to engage. Of course, one must also consider that I haven’t got tons of practice popping up on a ‘narrower’ thruster. I’m confident that this feature of the ride will be overcome with practice and familiarity.
Frontside surfing: After a few waves, I really found the gas on this thing. In small waves this is not a cruisy glide machine like the fish. I really had to drive and flow, which was fun as crap. On a few sections I really got a feel for winding the board up to speed and it felt great. All the frontside turns I did sucked really bad. The tail is much narrower than my fish and it’s obviously that I need to go about my direction changes differently. The turning was clearly not the board–total user error–basically identical to the crappy frontside surfing I do on all thruster shred sticks. I’m going to get this worked out.
Backside surfing: Holy crap. Backside has always been a weakpoint for me. I never surfed the pavel particularly well on my backhand. I don’t have alot of confidence going that direction. However, for the conditions, I did my best backhand surfing ever on the FW today. It felt great and natural. I did one of the best backhand roundies of my crappy ass career. Wooo. stoked on this.
All in all, great session… seems like a good board. It felt about like a good pu/pe frankly. If I told you I felt some magic spring or anything like that I’d full of it. It’s a good board, feels really solid, and I’m really happy with it. It makes me want to go surfing–say no more.
I’ll post some specific measurements tomorrow for the curious.
Also interested in how the “edge control” was. I’ve been going back and forth between choosing a flexfire vs. the alternator, and for me it all comes down to the right combo of having enough width and float for planing surface and paddle-ability and low-rails for edge control.
Reading your review, I must say, when you get into some real drops…thats when the fun starts, as it does with ANY board. But there’s likely a small amplification factor with that one. Keep chargin it!
CJ is on it about fins. Im using the Rusty glass flex rails and then tune to surf with the appropriate center, usually either a black G3k or AM.
Wrt, to frontside…get down low (use your legs muscles) and lean on your front leg,drive the board down/forward off the front. If youre a back leg’d frontside surfer, change that.
Since I’ve gotten multiple requests for my dimensions, I’ll post 'em.
I am 6’1’’ tall and weigh 185 to 190 lbs, though I could stand to weigh 175 (ahh college days). I’m 29 years old. I’ve been surfing with irresponsible commitment for only about 10 years though. Surf anywhere from 1 to 7 days per week depending on the surf.
My law partner john is a little heavier than me (closer to 200) and about the same height. He’s a fish guy too. I’ll post his review of the board after I let him try it. He usually rides a 6’4’’ pavel or a 6’6’ rusty pirhana.
Hackey- My buddy Frankie bought a 6’4’’ flexfire series out of the same shipment. I imagine that I’ll have a chance to compare the two in relatively short order. I’ll post that info as well. John (the guy discussed above) has already ridden in small waves and really liked it which was a shocker because he never likes smaller thrusters. That board must provide a good bit of floatation too if John liked it.
I am such a gear head about this stuff that while I was out there I was thinking about trying different fins. The shop gave me the M5 fcs fins with the board. I would like to try larger, flat sided side fins with a smaller center for our waves. Thanks for the suggestions.
craftee… you’re exactly right about the staying low thing. That is what I screw up every time. For some reason, when I get on a more performance oriented board at first, I try to “put the board” where I want it, if that makes sense, rather than turning my body and my board as a unit. All the surfers that I really like, such as t knox, seem to be incredibly low to the board when executing direction changes.
I still haven’t gotten the rocker and fin placements off the board, but I will.
Couldn’t resist the Star Wars metaphor. Theboys…I am your father. Now do your homework, and ride that board!
Hunter does surf good. He plays himself down. The good thing is he has a bunch of different kinds of boards and is willing to give us the report on them.
Would you say the FW was faster than the Speed Dialer?
He's really gone to the darkside now, we just sent him his third or fourth Coil. He makes occasional posts on the ride reports thread and regularly sends me hilarious emails.
Howzit Keith, There are so many guys who were on the site back before the 04 software switch that made us all reregister, that it makes my head swirl. I think I found Sways in 99 or 2000 since I finally broke down and bought acomputer in 99'..We were mainly into Poly built boards and the club was a lot smaller then and no body dissed any body back then ,kind of miss those days. As for now I still want to know what happened to Hicksy and he is a mod. Maybe he rode off into the sunset on that skateboard he made. Aloha,Kokua
