JP Australia team rider Chloe Walkerdene stopped in to help us open up some new boards. She grabbed the new 2017 Race Allwater 14' in Biax construction and got to work.
Looks good. Has anyone paddled one of these yet? I've asked about JP boards in the past on this forum and others and got kinda "meh" replies - if any at all.
Do those really soft rails up front release when downwinding, or is this more of a board for racing in mild chop and technical races instead?
I cannot speak about their All Water model but I and then my wife add a Sporster Flat Water 14x28 and it was a really nice board with good glide so the design worked. Regretfully it was the fiberglass/wood construction and we got fed-up of lugging the 32 pounds otherwise it would still be with us.
Have been on the 14x26.5 all water biax for a couple of weeks now and have had it in some mixed conditions from still glass to 15knot head wind, side chop and a few bits of bay runners. Really stoked with the way it handles all of it. Nice and stiff and the weight to price ratio is impressive. Cant wait to get it in 20knot+ down winder. It feels very agile with good secondary stability. The front end allows for a very smooth ride with limited pearling. The sharp underside of the rail goes from tail to almost the middle of the board, wich in combination with the soft nose allows it to work. This will give alot of the supposed all rounders a run. Plus the price is easy on the wallet
I have a 14x26.5 as my downwind board of choice. What I like about it is that it is really quick on the flat( for this type of board), easy and predictable on the bumps and easy to surf with its tail shape and rail. I'm a bit spoilt when it comes to riding boards, it's my no1 choice. As more people realize how good they are you will see many more getting around. Very competitively priced too
Cheers
Michael
In Canada, JP Australia is not quite "competitively" priced and there is no distribution to speak of on the West Coast.
Did anyone else finally relax when she ditched the blade?!
LOL