Published on August 12th, 2009 | by Tungsten
0Finally I got space for a new board!
You remember I built this yellow wood / epoxy copy of a Cole trunk board because I liked the looks. After quite a couple of sessions with it, tuning fins, finding foot position, changing the rails from soft to sharp and adding more pads, it’s time for the verdict.
The board is way stable (good), turns on a dime (very good), upwind is good, level with other surf boards. Handling is very good, really loose, with still enough grip for sharp turns.
But it’s sloooow. Especially in choppy conditions, which happen to be what I am dealing with most of the time. It’s not slow like a big displacement hull is slow – it takes off straight away and planes. But it’s like you’re riding against an invisible brake, top speed is not enough for me, you have to constantly power the kite up which I don’t fancy. My take is it’s the rocker line. Hard to change that one once the board is done 🙂
The other day I had enough of testing and took my skimmy out, leaving the yellow snail on the beach, when a surfer stopped by and took it for a ride. Now he had a blast! I watched him having fun in our small slow shore break, and when he came back in, he said he really liked the board for being so small and so easy to ride.
Funny. I thought the board’s just crap. Turns out it’s just not for kiting. Alas, my kids just won a new toy to learn surfing on, and I have space in my trunk for a new board or two which I will build the next couple of weeks. I do already know what it’s going to be. A FAST board, in an ideal size for the LTS stickers I found in the post this morning 🙂 Thanks Lonny!