I’ve been after a McCoy Nugget for some time but have now come across a 2nd hand McCoy Splinter. According to the McCoy website, the latter model maintains all the benefits of the Nugget design and its highly reactive bottom curves. Like the Nugget, it features a loaded dome. However, the Splinter looks much more like a standard shortboard than the Nugget does, in that it does not feature such a wide nose nor such a wide tail, although the board I’m looking at still features the same wide deck at 20" 1/2 and thick rail at 3". Like the majority of McCoy boards over here it’s got a glassed on thruster fin setup.
I would be interested to know if anyone here is familiar with and have surfed the McCoy Splinter model and how they find it? I would also be interested in how they find it compares to the Nugget model?
Email Geoff himself via his website if you want a full explanation - I’ve always found him to be super helpful with any questions I’ve had in regards to his designs.
G’day Kaheenalu, it just might be a matter of words - surfing is such a hard thing to describe, however I test rode a nugget and my impression was its bottom curves were the opposite of reactive. Rail to railing the board produced very little reaction compared to a concaved board. However the Nugget does have its good points - notably massive paddling and wave catching ability in a manouverable package. For big definate top to bottom turns and cutbacks it was just fine (once I got used to the tail width). I’ve only tried it in waves up to about shoulder height though.
I currently own a 6ft single fin ‘allround’ Nug and previously owned a 5’10" ‘potbelly’.
Mr.J is correct in as much as the most noticeable thing for me was the lack of concaves in the bottom, rather than any other element.
However, this is not a bad thing! Once you get used to it, you can really push the Nugget and the lack of twitchiness that you sometimes get with concave-bottomed boards is a feeling you soon learn to appreciate.
I feel the Nugget design has challeged me to surf differently and after years of riding shortboards and fishes with low volume and concaves and I’ve really come to appreciate it. Lots of flow and relative glide because of the volume and planshape, but really comes into it’s own in hollow waves.
I still love my other boards, but the Nugget will always stay in my quiver.
On this forum, Solosurfer, Glaucus and Psychobilly have a lot of experience with Nugget type designs, but as RDM said, Geoff will be more than helpful if you email him.
Bottom line-try it to see what you think, but if you do, make sure you ride it a good 15 times in all sorts of waves!
My understanding is that the Splinter may hold a few more ‘familiar’ traits that other shortboards will have, so it may be that you can adjust a little quicker than if you jumped on a really ‘Nuggetty’ McCoy.
It’s a 6’6, so if your 6’0 feels like a 6’10… geez! Should be OK though. The 6’6 Surftech I had a look at though I would imagine would be a beast to duckdive/roll with all that extra flotation. Funny how they made the ST’s as either 6’6 or 6’0 but no size in between.
Have already emailed Geoff but I’m one of very few people (possibly the only) who haven’t had a helpful response from him. I should really have known that mentioning the words “Surftech” and “removable fins” in the first sentence of my email wasn’t a good idea. And then indulging in layman waffling on about the possibility of converting a thruster to a single only added fuel to the fire!
I’d really want to be able to surf it as a single with a gullwing or spitfire fin but as mentioned earlier all the McCoys over here are thrusters. Converting one to a single might ruin it, since the thrusters are shaped differently to the singles. I wonder though if there can really be THAT much of a difference that it wouldn’t still work well as a single. Have played with the idea of getting a Surftech and converting it, since they have Futures fins and I could probably then surf it as single or thruster (the latter by using True Ames small box fin model in middle). Have since had a look at a Surftech 6’6 in the flesh though. Was left wondering how on earth duckdiving it with the extra bouyancy in addition to the already large volume would be possible in bigger surf.
It won't surf like any thruster that you have ridden before, so don't assume that you will be missing out on something that a single may offer without giving it a try.
You may, of course, be right. You may also be pleasantly surprised!
Duckdives are not too much of an issue. Just a timing thing.
Geoff is Geoff. He has his views. He knows his product better than anyone. The Splinter is designed to be as close to a modern short board as a Nugget will get without being one. Don’t worry about duck diving as you should be paddling out between sets quicker than on a regular shorty. I never have issues with that since I beat most folk out into the lineup with mine. Even long boarders. Well…not lately…hasn’t been any surf and I put on an extra 25 pounds. Back to running two miles a day and hitting the heavy bag. Ha ha.
I’ve thought the same as you about compensating for the duckdiving (or lack of) with the much faster paddling that one can achieve on this board. Probably OK on a PU as I would imagine turtle rolling would be another option, particularly as you would benefit from faster paddling and greater speed as you go into the turtle roll. On a Surftech I doubt I would be able to either duckdive or roll in bigger waves, since I don’t think it has enough weight to turtle roll successfully. Just my own opinion but to turtle roll a board I think it needs a bit of weight, length and volume to it.
How long is the Splinter you are looking at? You will probably find duckdiving is not much of an issue to be honest...
My 6ft Nug is 20.5 wide by 3.25 thick and feels the same as a more standard 6'10 semi gun to duck. However, paddling is in a different league. It paddles like a mini-mal.
Brilliant for shifty beachbreaks, heavy rips or thick wetsuits. All of which we get here in England!
“The modern shortboard is a hoax. It is the biggest distraction to surfing that we’ve experienced in 20 years,” he claims. “It’s a dysfunctional object … It doesn’t want to bottom turn, it doesn’t want to turn in general. What they’ve done to compensate is make smaller fins so it can skid and slide. They don’t know that the hard edges are making it release and skid as well. The balance is all wrong. Everyone is on their front foot because the only support is in the middle of the board, and you’ve got to be such an elite talent to get them going … There’s a small percentage of people who can do it.”
The article also provides a good portrait as to his character which I previously knew nothing of. Now I understand why you didn’t get a response!
If you do ever get a ‘real McCoy’ shipped over here to the ol’ USA let us know what the whole thing ended up costing.
oh crap… i sold one 2 weeks or 3 ago for 380 bucks… in good nick too! i traded it for 200 on one of my mullet models, the customer is stoked. he has brought in 2 friends to buy boards since!
Great to see you on this thread Dave! Have had some of my best waves on one of your creations so just wanted to say thanks for that! It was a thruster about 6’2-6’4 if I remember correctly with a green s-shape pattern across the deck. Picked it up 2nd hand in Maroochydore around -99 and ended up surfing it all over Oz. Eventually snapped in two at Margaret River but it had been through a lot by then and served me well!