“Space is the new China”
That’s great. no oxygen in space. Natural vacuum bag?
Hey guys:
I’m ina coffee shop in Kahana. Just checked honolua bay. It has gone pretty flat. Past two days have been unreal. Probably the best waves my North Carolinain eyes have ever seen. These waves are BIG, jeez. I’m stoked.
I am interested in starting an organization whose goal is the eradication of sea urchins. Shit! I stepped on one and had to go to urgent care!
boyos
in a recent issue of Fine Woodworking they had an artical about glues, properties, strenghts etc… they pointed out that PU foaming glue has no strength in the foam form. For a super tight invisable type glue up it is strong as anything but once it has to span any sort of gap it has almost no strength… resin and milled fibers/qcell has strength when gapped…
SUP is very hard to do. Very hard. The canoe paddle is not getting it done. The 25 mph SW wind did not help. The process was very hilarous for onlookers, I’m sure.
First impressions design wise:
General dimensions are good in that there is plenty of volume. It is under 4inches thick but this isn’t a problem. 29’’ wide is great for stablitiy but makes prone paddling a little difficult.
I can stand on it easily and it doesn’t need to plane in order to support me which it cool–I feel like a 50lb grom on a long board.
The weight of this thing is great for punching through waves on the paddle out. It sucks, however, for carrying down the beach and lifting atop a vehicle.
As for surfability… it takes every ounce of surfing ability (hehe) that I possess just to take off on the thing. Nose rocker is clearly inadequate by quite a large margin. It pearled on 9 out of 10 waves–granted it was dumpy shorebreak. I had to really take the drop off the tail. Funny thing though, the board is so heavy that the nose would often ‘blast through’ the pearl and allow me to recover. I think the board will be fine on the mush rollers for which it was intended and should be a flat water exercise machine (I could do push ups on it, by the way).
If and when I negotiated the drop, the board felt pretty good. It’s an inertia oriented surfing experience. The waves were really crap but I was impressed with the glide. In fact, the board would continue to glide after the wave was expended. I would end up just standing there.
All-in-all the past two days have deepened my respect for lazymodo and his ‘fully clothed winter in maine sup’ display. I need a good paddle, that is for sure. I started constructing a paddle yesterday from supplies gathered at Big Lots. These supplies include an extendable aluminum pole and some plywood. I believe gorilla glue and fiberglass will be a part of the equation. I need to borrow my friend’s quickblade to determine what I’m striving for.
This is really fun. Very challenging. Good exercise too. Pics to come.
The greatest thing: Given the conditions, I would never have considered going out on my other equipment. It’s a whole new way to appreciate the ocean.
hunter b
Welcome to the club at last! Aren’t these machines just great for glide…Sounds like you need a rocker like this to stop the pearling! No chance of really pearling badly with this monster.
Ignore the minute 7" cutaway, just made myself a ‘mudgrubber’ fin for river riding, find a 10" CJB performer works really well combined with the 2 512 sidebiters in 4-6ft conditions. Like you say, using a paddle is hard work, it’s not as easy as it looks!
What’s the weight of your board by the way…? This thing of mine is really heavy, going to invest in a wheelbarrow inner tube to wear around my arm when surfing, then put it on my head as a cushion when humping this lump back to the car, in present scenario this is an active bald patch promoter!
That thing is curvy!
I think my board weighs between 40 and 50 pounds. The real trouble is the width. It’s too wide to get my arm around of course.
I agree about the head top thing… It really hurts my head doing that. I think I’m going to fashion two straps to go around the board, large enough for me to insert the paddle as well. This way I can use the paddle shaft as a handle and carry the board like a large suitcase.
Ahhh yes, and yesterday I got the last of the urchin spines from my foot. It was glorious. I had been hurting for a while.
Urchins bad, Glide good.
hunter
Quote:
Hey guys:
I’m ina coffee shop in Kahana. Just checked honolua bay. It has gone pretty flat. Past two days have been unreal. Probably the best waves my North Carolinain eyes have ever seen. These waves are BIG, jeez. I’m stoked.
I am interested in starting an organization whose goal is the eradication of sea urchins. Shit! I stepped on one and had to go to urgent care!
boyos
My dad got honolua bay all to him self and a friend at 8 ft. Hokepa i believe it was thats just around the point was almost closign out and Gerry Lopez was out paddle surfing into it with the windsurfers. Everyone was watching lopez and my dad and his friend were out all day with no one else. This is Circa 1980.
Alright! Glad to hear you got to go out there and try it… No matter what board you use the beginning is always a challenge. In fact, its always going to be a challenge! Haha! That’s what makes it so fun… Like you said, you got to surf when you normally wouldn’t even go out… That right there makes it worth it!
Ever think of imbedding handles?
Kai
Handles definetly crossed my mind. I was just unsure as to how to do so. Do you have any thoughts on a retrofit?
There are many things I would change were I to embark upon this again. Much more nose rocker of course and handles. Additionally, this SUP thing seems tailor made for the compsand construction guys. Light and ding resistant would be great in this application.
I had had some ideas to put in lots of leash plug type settings like Manoa did on his Fish board. Then you could string maybe a thin bungie or rope to hold your paddle. Not sure that they could hope to support a 50 lbs board though.
You could make hard roving handles but again, I don’t think the epoxy bond would be enough to really trust to 50 lbs.
I’m thinking you have to place a resin impregnated, dense foam like a big piece of divinicell(?) and have it span from the top skin to the bottom skin with rope imbedded in it. That way it would have to break through all that dense material to work it’s way out and hopefully it doesn’t cause much crushing on the EPS around it.
Or, maybe better and easier, get a sheet of wood or plastic, maybe plexiglass and have it sit under the top skin and attach the rope to that. That would spread the load over a wider area of skin.
Whew. Surfing this sucker is getting easier. PAddling it is not. My new 15 dollar (US) paddle bit the dust last night. Any thoughts on where I can get a nice stiff piece of aluminum tubing in the 5.5 foot range? The blade was good and the paddle was working well but the shaft flexed alot and then creased and then broke.
Fun stuff. I love surfing this beast. I was bummed on the lack of rocker until I saw footage of Derek Hynd surfing this huge yellow board that looks FLAT. Footage from Glass Love. He was doing freakin’ roundies and foam rebounds on the dang thing in overhead surf. It looked at least 12’. Awesome.
I love the way great surfers expand and demonstrate the possibilities.
I know, I know… pics. They’re coming.
hunter
NEW PADDLE IS OPERATIONAL! $20 US. White Cedar shaft–no glass; Oak dowel T; balsa composite blade. It works great–compared to the aternative efforts attempted.
I’m gonna make one for John and will post the process on this thread. It was super fun to build. Probably on the heavy side, but whatever. I’m doing this for exercise after all.
I did a long distance paddle the other day with it in choppy conditions. Whew. Leg burner.
I caught my first waves last night SUP style—KILLER! The drop and lack of rocker is actually easier to negotiate while standing versus the prone entry pearl-fest.
This activity will make a man out of you for sure.
I was paddling down the coast, falling off every 150yds or so and I encountered a large group of jelly fish. They were everywhere–all under the board. Great incentive to maintain one’s balance, and mericifully I did!
POSSUP is operational. All systems go.
Yeah, knee high Atlantic juice baby! This is from the morning surf report on WBLivesurf.com; also posted in eastcoastsurf.com. The fame has gone to my head.
Mahalo for this thread. I just finished my 12’3" x 30" x 4 7/8" balsa skinned SUP. I will be posting pictures soon. I laid out the paddle, cut out the plane shape and will start foiling tonight. Perhaps we can can do a Swailock’s crossing of the English Channel like Laird Hamilton. http://www.surfersvillage.com/surfing/22186/news.htm
Thanks again,
D
