At least we'll have to try that!

www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150263659942155&oid=193000804060374&comments

Seriously if that was a race horse the stewards would have him swabbed............

Connor first daylight second, sensational!

That's the saying comes from "he won it at the start" bloody quick.

If I do a start like that how am I going to wash ride of everyone else in the race??

gregc said...

not being a racer at all it looks ridiculously fast, I actually thought someone had manipulated it so he seemed quicker. Then I realised he really is that fast. Quick question though that technique that he is using at the start is that a normal thing or really unusual. As I said not a racer so thought I would ask.

His technique with the paddle is all wrong going by what the experts tell us, but he is so much better than everyone else so surely the smart racers will be trying his techniques, at least in practice.

His "bouncing" technique is used by kayakers as well - it allows for the board to be really light and have less drag in between paddlestrokes - it demands a weird combination of rhythm - I definately can't quite get it right.....

Holding the paddle further down on the shaft allows him to increase cadence albeit with slightly less power - the result when done by Connor is staggering to say the least.....

Yeh def want to put The Gorge Race on the Bucket list

Looks great.

X angie

Thanks Alison. Looks the pace on Sunday was slower than the pace on Saturday. Maybe not much wind for the downwinder

husq2100 said...

a few things to consider other than his stoke: His board was a touch infront of everyone else, looks like he "lawnches" the most and he was first to his feet by popping from water straight up....most others got in in stages.

Try doing that without bruising your shins. My left leg is blue after practicing launches the last couple of mornings.

DavidJohn said...

PTWoody said...

Try doing that without bruising your shins. My left leg is blue after practicing launches the last couple of mornings.

So.. your left leg is blue.. and your right leg is white... You did that on purpose

DJ

but what does he bleed dj

looking at the short vid posted, it looks like his board may have a nice continual rocker...not as flat as most the others. This would aid his "pumping" effort

husq2100 said...

hey Chris, what where you saying with that pic?

same thing as you... that the other boards are flatter...

His board shouldn't be good for overall speed at all (I think husq was just talking about the bounce thing he does at the start..).

Which makes his win even more impressive.

I reckon if Connor was on a Javelin (like Kai in 2nd place) then the margin would have been a fair bit more than 2 seconds - Connor's board looks like it's pushing a lot more water (as in, it's slower..) than the Jav.

Then again his technique doesn't look right either, so who knows. Woody?

Either way; Connor's a freak, I think everyone agrees on that. So unfortunately it doesn't matter what board he's on, he's gonna beat most of us no matter what :-/

www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.253266451362319.66535.185289344826697

chrisparker said...

His board shouldn't be good for overall speed at all (I think husq was just talking about the bounce thing he does at the start..).

Which makes his win even more impressive.

I reckon if Connor was on a Javelin (like Kai in 2nd place) then the margin would have been a fair bit more than 2 seconds - Connor's board looks like it's pushing a lot more water (as in, it's slower..) than the Jav.

Then again his technique doesn't look right either, so who knows. Woody?

Brian Szymanski, the Starboard race board designer spoke very recently about the design imperative, specifically displacement nose theory, and the gist of it is that there really isn't a genuine displacement SUP board - they all have to taper into a more or less flat hull at some point. Szymanski says that the sharp noses like the Jav and the K15 merely disguise the point where they actually push the water, it happens further along the board. I've found that in speed testing these different designs, that the sharp noses feel like they're going faster, but the GPS doesn't always prove that to be true. The big Starboard noses scream at you that they're pushing water and they bounce and all that, but then you check the speed and they really surprise.

PeterP said...

Connors board's nose looks less bulbous than the 14'Ace we've seen here - is it a production board?

It definitely looks like a hybrid of the different Starboard designs. The footwells are not so deep and look like the 14' Open Ocean / Coast Runner rather than the Ace, but the tail is pointy like the Ace, not square like the Open Ocean / Coast Runner. However the tail doesn't look quite as high as the Ace. The nose is definitely closer to the Coast Runner than the Ace. However it looks nothing like the new flat water race design that Dan Gavere was racing recently. In short, I have no idea what this board is. I think they are messing with us. Bastards.

PeterP said...

The Starboards speed seems to come from their pointy tail release - they don't pull much water.

That's true and the other advantage is they track very straight so not much change of sides with the paddle. And with the clean release of water, they give the next paddler nothing to drag from. I'd say Kai Lenny did this race the hard way.

PTWoody said...

chrisparker said...

His board shouldn't be good for overall speed at all (I think husq was just talking about the bounce thing he does at the start..).

Which makes his win even more impressive.

I reckon if Connor was on a Javelin (like Kai in 2nd place) then the margin would have been a fair bit more than 2 seconds - Connor's board looks like it's pushing a lot more water (as in, it's slower..) than the Jav.

Then again his technique doesn't look right either, so who knows. Woody?

Brian Szymanski, the Starboard race board designer spoke very recently about the design imperative, specifically displacement nose theory, and the gist of it is that there really isn't a genuine displacement SUP board - they all have to taper into a more or less flat hull at some point. Szymanski says that the sharp noses like the Jav and the K15 merely disguise the point where they actually push the water, it happens further along the board. I've found that in speed testing these different designs, that the sharp noses feel like they're going faster, but the GPS doesn't always prove that to be true. The big Starboard noses scream at you that they're pushing water and they bounce and all that, but then you check the speed and they really surprise.

PeterP said...

Connors board's nose looks less bulbous than the 14'Ace we've seen here - is it a production board?

It definitely looks like a hybrid of the different Starboard designs. The footwells are not so deep and look like the 14' Open Ocean / Coast Runner rather than the Ace, but the tail is pointy like the Ace, not square like the Open Ocean / Coast Runner. However the tail doesn't look quite as high as the Ace. The nose is definitely closer to the Coast Runner than the Ace. However it looks nothing like the new flat water race design that Dan Gavere was racing recently. In short, I have no idea what this board is. I think they are messing with us. Bastards.

PeterP said...

The Starboards speed seems to come from their pointy tail release - they don't pull much water.

That's true and the other advantage is they track very straight so not much change of sides with the paddle. And with the clean release of water, they give the next paddler nothing to drag from. I'd say Kai Lenny did this race the hard way.

good work pt. tricky question,do you displace the water along the rails and bottom- spread it out or get it over and done with up the front like the starbies and the sic 12'6.

one more way to do it is like the new lahui kai's- short flat displacement feeding into concave and chines down the rails