Hi eveyone.
Had a better outing on the board Speedneedle made for me, see:
http://www.swaylocks.com/forum/gforum.cgi?post=228586#228586
I’m going to use Wildy’s term for Bert Burger composite sandwich construction type boards - “compsand”
The compsand board is 5’10" x 19 1/4 x 2" designed for small or fat waves. The waves today were 2-3’ windswell - lefover from a localised low that moved through last night. It was offshore but still bumpy and a bit disorganised, ideal conditions for this board.
The board paddles ok, better than a standard performance shorty but not as good as my last semi-fish, which was a PU/PE 5’11" x 18 3/4x 2 3/8" the PU/PE board had a flat deck with big round rails with a tucked edge going hard after the fins - compsand has low blady rails, soft up to the fins and hard after. It duckdives a lot better though than the PU/PE board after I push the board under it pops up and through the back of waves real quick.
The board catches waves well - probably the same as my PU/PE. It’s wider than I’d normally use but it doesn’t feel wide. It has a normal amount of drive of the bottom, but when you unweight it shoots up the face much faster. Today the lips were crumbling a bit and I found I could really bounce of the foam - never been able to do that with my PU/PE. The board feels more responsive and I can do stuff quicker. It planes across flat sections like any wide flat rocker board would, but you can shoot up and wack the lip when the oppurtunity presents itself. Which means the board is more forgiving timingwise (good for old guys like me). I got one wave that peeled at thigh height for quite a way and I was able to fit three little cutbacks in, couldn’t really say though, whether the board holds speed through the cut back, the wave was so weak and slow.
If I was to theorise about how compsand effects the design of small wave boards like this I’d say you can go with a flat rocker and wide outline without the board surfing flat. You can get it up on the rail in turns and it kind of pops back when you unwieght so it doesn’t feel like its surfing flat. I think this is the perimeter stringers and the low total weight and low density core working together. For a small wave board you can get something that paddles well with less volume, so you can throw it around better - My PE/PU board paddled great but felt dull and unresponsive.
I’m going to put bigger side fins on the compsand board to get a bit more drive - the fins I’ve got at the moment are a bit small - 4wfs 4A’s.
Cheers,
Pinhead
