Hey Guys,

Just a few questions as I am looking at getting a dedicated board at some point and I am doing some home work in preparation.

I am more interested in doing coastal runs than racing, but dont want to rule racing out all together. I will probably join DJ and the boys for a run or 2 up in Melbourne from time to time.

What do you prefer for coastal runs, a flatter bottomed board like the Naish Glide or the more rounded bottom board like the Pene.

Do they make a Pene in a 12'6?

It appears that most of the comps now are only allowing 12'6 boards, how does a bigger unit 0.1 ton class compete up against a 70kg guy on a 12'6?

Do they have weight classes?

On the 12'6 boards is a steering system required and if so is it much of an advantage when paddling offshore. The reason I ask is with the Glide I tried out at OG13 it appeared to be easy enough to just step back and correct it like a surfboard?

Any other houghts youmay have?

Phill

go bigger. there are faster and more fun in the open ocean

tha dogman said...

as rollo said

go big phil and play with the big boys

and get the steering system as they are so much fun just to be able to muck around with

and nothing is worse than paddling on the same side for extended periods of time due to a side on wind

dogman

so true . paddling on one side bites arse.

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the input.

I would like to stay around the 12 - 12'6 simply due to storage, transport and carrying it down to the water. Treking a 16fter around looks like a real hassle to me.

Well you have sorted my thoughts on steering, sounds like it is a must especially for coastal runs.

Phill

I have a dc17 and its seems to be a combination of displacement and planing.Its Nose and tail a displacement where as the middle board is planing.I find it very stable and a lot of fun.I think we will see specialist flat water boards and down wind runners coming out.I find mind not really fast in flat water but it catches runners very easily when the wind is at your back.

rollo90 said...

go bigger. there are faster and more fun in the open ocean

+1

The extra size and 'hassle' of a longer board on land will soon be forgotten when out to sea. Not sure of the conditions you wll be in or how much you weigh. But here on Maui, bigger boards are the way to go.
14 feet is when our boards start to 'come to life' - unless you are a very light paddler. We have some very fast paddlers on 12-6 boards, but they are light and extremely talented. They go even faster on big boards, with rudders.

Big boards are a lot less 'work' out on the ocean.

Give one a try if possible. You may like it.

OG SUP said...

Thanks again for all the input guys

Something I have noticed is:

The DC 12 seems to have a tight pintail and the Pene12 seems to have a wide squaretail.

Seems to me the square would have the edge on picking up the smaller runners?

Does wave period seriously effect the smaller boards, do they plough into the back of the wave ahead if the cycle is too short?

Phill

My guess is tht it's the opposite Phill.. The short boards fit into the short close waves maybe even better than the long boards.

It's the big wide spaced swells that the longer boards will work best.. (imo).

The big wide spaced swells often have all sorts of chop on them that make it hard for a short board to stay on them.

DJ

The DC 12 seems to have a tight pintail and the Pene12 seems to have a wide squaretail.

Seems to me the square would have the edge on picking up the smaller runners?

This is something I also assume is true but have yet to discover any theory behind.

As far as getting a 12'6 board with a steering package I think it will be difficult to find unless you get a custom built.

i got a question too. what factor does the board weight have when you have to paddle up wind

I noticed Paul seemed to be catching lots of runners and his C4 has quite a wide tail.

My Starboard 11'2" has a narrow tail and doesn't catch runners terribly well. I'm still fairly convinced that there's some skill involved.

Wish I'd been there! I think with my current experience the 14' Penetrator would have been quite a handful in those conditions, I find I'm still struggling a little when I'm actually surfing on a wave. It does this thing (I think this is pretty typical of all these longer boards) where normally it responds to foot pressure in the opposite way to a wave board, depress the right rail, it goes left and visa versa. But when it actually gets on a wave and is surfing I think it goes back to normal surfing - press left, go left but at this stage I'm not getting that real stability when the board is actually surfing on the wave that you get with a wave board or even what I get form the 12'6 Starboard . Pretty big learning curve and tricky because the bay conditions vary so much. I'm sure the problem here is my experience not the board, there are so many factors to deal with it's going to take a while to get it sorted and I suspect I have to move further back sooner.

The amazing thing I've found with the Penetrator is the ability to stuff the nose right into the back of the next wave, you hardly even notice it, even if the board isn't going straight down the face it still pulls through fine and will even pierce the wave and end up catching the next one. This is the huge initial difference I notice to the 12'6 Starboard, it was great on the wave but you constantly worried about stopping it pearling.

I've read that some of the Hawaiian guys seems to go from displacement hull to planing hull depending on the wind strength, maybe the DC with the transition hull works for both.

Not sure about the square tail, pin tail thing - I've got a feeling that the board accelerates down the face rather than being pushed so it's maybe not as important as you might intuitively think, it may be just more to do with the release into "planing" mode but to confuse things even more I don't know if the Penetrator hull actually planes. It can obviously go faster than the wave because of the pierce the catch the next one thing.

But isn't it fun trying to work all this stuff out!!

Some of these threads about the tail section is not right, in my experience. When you are chasing runs you are not too concerned with the swell behind you "pushing" you it is more the swell in front of you that is "sucking" you ie it is more "low pressure" than "high pressure" that you are looking for. Not sure if this makes sense to you if you do not spend a lot of time in the ocean. If you are up on the Goldie come for a spin sometime...

I have a DC16 (with rudder) and these are the types of boards you need to have ago on to see what its all about. Test a few and you will find the one that works for you. Have fun.

mikeman said...

Some of these threads about the tail section is not right, in my experience. When you are chasing runs you are not too concerned with the swell behind you "pushing" you it is more the swell in front of you that is "sucking" you ie it is more "low pressure" than "high pressure" that you are looking for. Not sure if this makes sense to you if you do not spend a lot of time in the ocean. If you are up on the Goldie come for a spin sometime...

I have a DC16 (with rudder) and these are the types of boards you need to have ago on to see what its all about. Test a few and you will find the one that works for you. Have fun.

Thanks for your input mikeman.. .. I agree it sounds odd and I was just repeating what was said to me.

I'll have mine soon and I'll be interested to see if I can feel that squared off thick tail doing anything.

I have to admit tho on the short steep swells that we get on the bay there are times that the wave behind you will break and crumble across the tail area of the board.

The tail on the shorter DC race boards look pretty narrow and thin.. Have you paddled one?. Are they more for a light person or is each board a custom order?

DJ

I love reading everyones thoughts. I'm also trying to sort out what the right shape is for the next boards I build in my garage.

My current home built board has a narrow pointy nosed template with wide square tail. My wifes board has the same nose, with narrow pointy tail.

I demoed a Bark with a fuller front end and rounded bottom shape. About 6mm rounded across the width.

I'm finding the narrow pointy nosed template is more prone to sinking into the back of a wave and knocking me off a plane, while the wider fuller front end board is more resistant to bogging down and feels like it wants to skim over the wave ahead.

For me, the problem is less about getting on a runner and more about managing your trim and keeping your speed up.

At this point, I'm feeling the wider front and narrow tail may do this better.

But my opinions keep adjusting as I get to try more boards and make more runs. I'm fighting the urge to make more boards right now, as I try to gain more experience before shaping the next ones.

I too think a rounded bottom in the forward 1/3 of length and a flat bottom in the rest of the board would be fastest.

I've yet to demo anything with more top end than my current flat bottom shape, but the Bark rounded bottom felt better in no wind.

mikeman said...

Some of these threads about the tail section is not right, in my experience. When you are chasing runs you are not too concerned with the swell behind you "pushing" you it is more the swell in front of you that is "sucking" you ie it is more "low pressure" than "high pressure" that you are looking for. Not sure if this makes sense to you if you do not spend a lot of time in the ocean. If you are up on the Goldie come for a spin sometime...

I have a DC16 (with rudder) and these are the types of boards you need to have ago on to see what its all about. Test a few and you will find the one that works for you. Have fun.

+1

Jeremy Riggs took first place in his division (14 foot No rudder) this afternoon at the annual Naish maliko, on a board similar to my Foote maliko 14. His is actually what mine is based on. His board is 24 inches wide (155 lbs.). Mine is 27.5 inches wide. (I'm 195 lbs.) Footie has one that is 28.5 inches (he is 230 lbs.) They are 1 pound foam and all carbon. Extremely light. Mine is only 23 pounds. Feels light as a feather, very responsive.

The boards are very very fast. They are also very tricky to ride in my opinion. Jeremy and Bill are very good surfers and go like stink, in challenging conditions. Personally, I need well groomed conditions to bring this board to life. It goes like crazy on a wave. Here is a pic of how pointy the tails are.

Interesting to see that two guys on Stand ups beat Jamie Mitchell on a paddleboard..

What were the conditions like?