I think 6ft2 is a little big for our Perth breaks.
Do you want glass or epoxy?
For glass I got mine shaped by D.A.Lewy, who works for murray smith surf shop. Beautiful board. Its light, fairly strong and I like the shop owner as he treated me good (instead of other shop owners thinking some pesky kid is touching the boards-was 14when looking for the one).
No clue about epoxy boards.
Ps, they custom shape them for no extra charge, but it takes about 2weeks to get it built. And would never ever ever use it as a kiteboard. Its one of my many babies.

Hi Reli,

I ride and love the 6' Airush Converse, it's been a great board for me and I have ridden the 07 and 08 and reckon they're both the goods.

I have the 08 6' Converse for demo if you want to have a borrow to see if you like it.

Let me know. Good winds,

Delta or Jimmy Lewis seem nice for the accomplished.

Ryland said...

i have the 6'2 sst. pretty sweet board. if you want something smaller try the slingshot 5'11 srt.

I agree the sst is a great board, but if your a light weight do as mentioned and get an srt.

you and VB look cute together in that photo did you let him go to first base???

I let him touch my breast only because his stubble gave me a nasty rash.

I'm also on a diet....have lost 7kg since NYE. No guinness n pies for me. Pure blonde and spinach rolls instead.

Just need kn wind........

I must admit i like my epoxy 6'3" 18 2 1/4 surfboard.
I had it custom made for me ages ago to my exact specs as a short board to compliment my at the time 6' 10" for Indo trips..... and its (was) a damn fine board.

I guess what i want is something with similar dimensions, light, strong and for predominantly metro waves.

So would you go epoxy over tufflite ?
Would you get a local shaper to do it or off the rack ?

it is a personal choice really, as you see everyones opinion is different.
At the end of the day it depends on ur riding style and where you are riding.
I have a custom glass 6 footer that a local shaper made me and it is wicked.
I also have a tufflite 6"2 quad and it is also wicked in the light conditions.
in terms of strength and price id go a custom shape from Da-lewy or P-dot or any of the other locals that know the perth waves. You can get a strong board that is easy to fix yourself and feels like a surfboard flexwise.
A tufflite is good for light winds but i am a little cautious when i ride it as getting it fixed involves no board for at least a week and min. 70 bucks. hence i dont try jumping with it.
There are some sick looking kite specific boards out now, but still offer no garantee so it is a gamble paying that extra coin when you could snap it in a day.
The airush and slingy boards do look nice tho...
Check out kiteforum, there has been pages and pages of stuff on there about choosing boards and what different constructions do to the feel of the board and the strength of the board. There is also a pod of mark shinn on there somewhere where he explains the shaping of a good "kite" surfboard, and why he thinks so.

The biggest dilemma most have is that for kiting you need extra strength, but then when you beef up the construction you get too stiff a board which feels like crap.
Some guys are working on laminated construction of areas that require the stiffness/strength(feet area) and then leave normal the other areas(rest of deck) and then a reasonably heavy base glass.
Aparently Burton(big snowboard company) have bought out a large surfboard manufacturing company and are working on a whole new way of construction which people are predicting to be "the" future. we shall see...

for the time-being i would say custom glass cos at least then you can get it shaped how you want and cheap. And if you fK it up you just get out the repair kit and fix it yourself for bugger all.

Just ride em all and go for the one you like.

You should have taken the Spleene Zone for a spin up @ Kitestock Rellie! Still welcome to take mine for a spin any time. Most of the guys I know that have them would also be happy to let you test ride theirs if you ask them nicely :-)

IMHO the volume in a surfboard is really a major issue if you intend to paddle it to catch a wave.

I'll just clarifywhat i said about the Zone.... in general riding around the zone is very quick and doesn't need much kite to get going.... a lot less than a freestyle twintip. It holds and edge very well and you can jump it like a twin tip with no fear of any damage to it. It slices through the chop like nothing else. In the really rough stuff a surfboard bounces around a lot whereas the zone just slices through. At time when i feel that i definitely would have nose dived a twinie the zone is ok due to the length, high nose and flex. And carving.... it really does turn very sharp. You can snap it around very easy.

I'm not a stand up surfer so take this as you will but i feel that in really full waves the volume of a surfboard helps. I think that if you are a surfer and use the kite to catch waves then you may like a surfboard better but if you want to kitesurf waves then the zone is definitely worth trying out.

I'm not sure if a standup surfer who picks up a kite would like a zone as much as a kiter who choses to kitesurf on waves.

**** it... enough of my rants. Just try one. Nothing ventured nothing gained!

mike

Hey Rellie you must have demoed every kite at kitestock perhaps you should have set aside an hour a day for demoing boards or maybe you can have a quite word in WAKSA's ear and see if they can organise another kitestock in a week or two .

P.S. Im only just starting to kitesurf on a directional but am quite happy so far with my strapped 6'2" Pat Rawson Tufflite. I'm using it strapless most of the time when the wind is light as being a long time surfer I like to be able to move my feet around but I have tested it's strength by doing a few backrolls on it when heading back out over the waves strapped in slightly stronger winds and its all good so far.
I think if I was looking at a new board now though I would like to try a quad fin.

now now...

i cant believe he's on a fk'n diet tho, in the repetitive words of slave:

lol.

RayQ said...

Sorry Meerkat, got to dissagree on a few points,

Epoxy boards are tougher and stiffer, but harder to repair in a lot of cases

All my repairs have been from dropping the board in the car park, hitting my bar(or head) or the board washing up the beach. Those fixes on a fibreglass board would have been a pain in the @rse. Expoxy means i just head to bunnings, $10 worth of sticky stuff and masking tape and i am done.

RayQ said...


You can put any amount of rocker into any length, depends on what you want the board to do

He wants to surf it, not own a banana.

RayQ said...


Concave is absolutly not a must,

surfboard dynamics are not windsurfer or TT dynamics

Really? how do u hold the edge of your surfboard without straps with ease?

Then again these are just my opinion, never said they were right?

and you can repair a polyester board with epoxy!

so is no way reparing an epoxy board easier.

If you want light and strong check out the surftech website.

I have a 6'1 stretch quad and a 6'4 webber thruster all good you might go a size smaller.
Better and cheaper than the kite brands that make surfboards.

T

Yeah I've been riding a firewire board for kiting now for the last two months. I was a bit dubious in getting one but I tried my friends, who just uses his for surfing & it was easily the best ride I've had. They are strong yet they flex like a poly board. Try one out if you get a chance.

lancekenny said...

Hi Mike I have been riding my firewire quaddie - www.firewiresurfboards.com - and its pretty good - different from your average surfboard construction and a great board...

Super strong boards, not as strong as a dedicated kite board I wouldnt think but you can jump on these things on the ground and they will flex flat then spring back - well the test boards we built that we didnt care for we were able to!!