With all the new boards arriving soon it's time for me to consider a new race board for the coming season. I just wanted to see what the general consensus was regarding what size board most people are riding. I fully understand the merits of each length but there is no point buying a board in a particular size for racing when most people are racing the other size. I'm talking about general racing and not downwinders specifically.
For instance at the NSW titles I was the only one riding a 12'6" in the old guys category, yet there must have been 15 old guys on the 14 footers. Certainly made it easy to win the case of beer though.
Would appreciate any thoughts.

Mate...........you can ride a 10' board and still win I've seen you paddle

Sorry DJ missed your question. I'll keep my current 12'6" for BOP style races but I'm tending to do the 6-15km races more.

agree with Kissa - go 14'....it's faster and the real fast guys will always choose faster, so if you are competitive, thats the way to go.

If it was a one race board quiver I'd be recommending the 12'6" but seeing you have one already I'd say defiantly go with a 14.. See you in s few weeks..

DJ

NNSUP said...

Thanks guys, it seems like the 14s are the future apart from the BOP style races. I'd be interested to see what the Queenslanders think. I know Jacko is spending alot of time on the 12'6" but that's probably because the Worlds are racing that size.

The story going around is that the ISA will change to 14' for long distance racing.

As sam said go the 14!! if you have a 12'6 already then go the longer board!!

I love my 12'6 but this year with a 14ft board a bit more my size i am going to do most of my DW paddling on that. If we had conditions like in those vids just put up i'm sure we would all be saying get a 17!! but in Aus 12'6 and 14 will do for most of the time and if you have the $$$$ get a 17 as well!!

At the end of the day its all about who has the most toys anyway!!!

That being the case, it does make you wonder why we run national titles on 14' boards (long distance race) in order to pick a team to compete on 12'6" boards.

Interesting reading everyone's comments as we are having a similar discussion over here.

I think ultiamtely you will end up with the three class' (12'6, 14' & unlimited) and multiple age catgories in each it is only a matter of time until the numbers get big enough to cater for this. Look at races like the Naish Maliko race or even any of the Rainbow Sandals BOP races where there are hundreds of people which allow for catagories such as women/men 12'6 age group 30-35, 35-40, 40-45 etc for example.

Personally I enjoy 12'6 and at training it gives me extra incentive to catch and keep up with the guys on 14's. When competing aginst these guys and people on unlimited I know I will never be the fastest on the water, but can be the fastest in my class.

For the average punter I believe that 14' is the way to go and something like the current Starboard Coast Runner or even Fanatic Ocean are great all round boards. They may not be the fastest at either but for someone who can only afford 1 board they are good options.

Must admit though, I do get weary of this "every child wins a prize" scenario where we have multiple age categories on top of gender division and then 3 or 4 board categories on top of that. Want to win a trophy? Just turn up with several boards and a few forged birth certificates and possibly a very tight one piece bathing suit, then just figure out which category has no-one else entered.

Or just go racing and see how well you match it with the best.

Evening gown is my specialty but we do what we can.

PTWoody said...

...I do get weary of this "every child wins a prize" scenario...

You haven't worked with a lot of Gen Y's have you? Or maybe you have...

To the OP...eat some pies...then eat some more pies...repeat...pretty soon the choice will be simpler.