Hey bros.
whose on a mutant?
what type is it?
what do you like about it? what don't you like?
if you could have the perfect mutant what would it be?
PS i'm talking about kiteboards not disfigured women.
Love my mutant. Would not ride anything else. But many would disagree with me
Shinn Wave mutant 146 x 43. I changed the straps to a narrow soft surf footstraps to free up the feet a bit and put smaller fins up front.
It carves beautiful turns in the surf and on flat water. You can ride it backwards out through the surf with ease and quickly hop to toeside for carving on the face of small waves. Toeside is a breeze as well on flat water.
Downside - needs a bit more thickness in the rail midship and a V in the tail would be nice.
This is me
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Hi Robbie
The Shinn has 3 fins in the rear. The outer fins are slightly smaller but still big by TT standards. That said, I have put a bigger fin on the toeside rail to give a bit more bite in the toeside turns. It helps. The soft surf straps are a must too I feel.
The Shinn only comes in one size 146.
It doesn't ride like a TT. Not as loose as a TT but will get going in lighter wind due to the width. It really excels in carving fully power turns. I get a lot of comments on how hard it carves. In small surf it's great fun. If you treat the surf like a skate park and don't concentrate too much on just the wave face you can have a ball in small rubbishy waves.
Not sure what TT is equivalent. It's totally different. It doesn't ride like a surfboard either. Somewhere in between.
I have Ozone Reo's now and found they are well suited to the type of riding I like to do. After seriously breaking my foot 3 years ago on a bad landing I no longer jump and have adapted my style accordingly.
I had a mutant last season, but got rid of it as I felt it had a fundamental flaw. Mutants can ride backwards, but in a compromised way, which for me felt awkward and uncomfortable. This leaves toe side which they do pretty well, but not all that much better than a freeride tt. Mutants are too small to gybe. For me riding toe side all the time gets tireing very quickly. I much prefer to gybe and ride heel side both ways and just switch to toe side when actually surfing the wave.
I also think that to get the most out of a mutant on a wave you need to have your back foot back as far as possible over the fins, but due to the small size of mutants this compromises your ability to get up on a plane as quick as you would if the foot straps were more centered over the board.(example I can get going on my 132 x 39 tt as early as my mutant 151 x 43 when the back foot strap is all the way back). As a result I think mutants are best suited for stronger wind/no good for light wind.
Don't get me wrong I think mutants work quite well for there intended purpose, but considering you spend 50% of your time riding the opposite way to your natural stance, the above mentioned issues ment this board was no good for me. I think that if you don't want to go the surfboard, a wave specific twintip such as the underground srf is the go.
Cardboards wave,its an awesome board rides both ways like a dream and is awesome for toeside its so versatile its great in all conditions wouldnt be without it.
i have the rear strap set up slightly further forward so board gets up quick and you are driving flatter on the 3 rear surf fins when riding the opposite way you can crank it over hard out like a tt, have used it in anything from 10-40+ knots and it excells on gusty days with big lulls as you can just cruise through the lulls.
Interesting comments. i'm gaining enthusaism for a mutant. I may have to make one.
that cardboard shape look like the surf fins had some toe in but the shin doesn't?
It also appears that the shin leans more to surf style and the cardboard more to TT style?
What i would like is a board that goes backwards out through the waves like a twin tip and carves up the waves on the way back like a surfboard.
If I was to make a mutant or have a surfboard manufacturer make one for me I would use the Shinn plan shape but put some V in the tail, concave through the middle and soften the rails midway with tucked edges. A little tail lift would also help when riding backwards. What bennie says is true but you can ride toeside all day after a bit of conditioning. Get the back straps as far back as practicable as well.
I've had the Shinn about 3 years now and tried a few boards since. I keep going back to it. I'd like to try the Cardboards but have not found one locally.
I think this summer I'll get a board made with the above specs.
Note: No fin toe in on the Shinn.
Plummet - If you ever come to Sydney give me a call and have a go on the Shinn. I know Kitepower has one for sale too.
Yep cardboards has toe'd in fins(def the way to go) and double concave rides just like a twinnie backwards on the edge,and more like a surfboard on the fins,has a lot of tip rocker and you can ride it real shallow and carve it real hard on the surf fins, well worth a demo,would have to say its the only board i've ever owned that i wouldn't part with,tried quite a few different mutants and none came close to the feel of the Wave.
Ridden the shinn, great board. But the CB wave Sh1ts all over it in my opinion. It rides backward with ease and actually points upwind better surf fins forward. You rocket upwind. It is so good the other way I ride it like a TT and only turn onto toes when in the surf. It also allows you to do most of the transition, loop moves etc. gave it to a young bloke once who was doing all the wake style stuff with ease. Not as good as a tt for this stuff but doable. Do yourself a favor and get hold of both and try them. You may differ and like the shinn, but doubt it. As Radman said, it is the only board I wouldn't part with actually it is now the only board I use. Don't see the point in having any other unless I had access to 4 foot perfect waves, then I'd have a surfboard as well.
I have had thoughts along similar lines.
It probably has something to do with being bored out of my brain for the last 6 weeks, recovering from a shoulder operation but ....
I was thinking of a blend of a surfboard and a twin tip, shaped from a surfboard blank.
Most twin tips have thin square rails. A few like the Jimmy Lewis Model 3, Underground SRF etc are close - they have a type of surf shaped rail but are still very thin like a snow board.
I would have it shaped with surf rails, a sharp edge near the tips becoming more round and soft towards the centre of the board. It would be shaped like a surfboard out of a blank and then glassed. The thickness could vary but basically 1 1/2 maybe 2 inches (depends how many pies I eat over the next 6 months)
This would allow the board to have more thickness than a traditional twin tip and hence more floatation and hopefully not be as power hungry as a Hammer or Jimmy Lewis type board for a similar length.
The bottom shape would be a single concave in the middle for speed blending into a slight double concave or vee through the fins.
You could have it set up with ether a twin fin setup on both ends to be loose or a thruster fin setup on your back foot and twin tip setup on the front foot like a Cardboard Wave. It would be pretty symmetrical so could be ridden either way like the Wave.
I believe the advantages would be a board that gets up on the plain early due to the extra thickness/buoyancy and a better carving quality of a surfboard.
The disadvantages, less strength/durability, and less pop due to the surf rails.
(I have a Cardboard Wave but it doesnt quite do what I want it to and I find it a little long for a twin tip. I am still yet to dial it in. I am not sure why and am still playing around with the footpad placement - maybe next summer I will sort it)
Anyway I would be interested in any feedback
I may even start shaping one in the next few months.
Select to expand quote
(I have a Cardboard Wave but it doesnt quite do what I want it to and I find it a little long for a twin tip. I am still yet to dial it in. I am not sure why and am still playing around with the footpad placement - maybe next summer I will sort it)
Anyway I would be interested in any feedback
I may even start shaping one in the next few months.
On the Wave it took me a while to dial in the footpad placement ,i lent it to a mate the other day and he changed it all round ,he's natural and i'm goofy took me three rides to get it back to how i had it set.
Definitely like to try the Cardboard wave. Flying High, I'll give you a call when the weather improves, if that's OK, for a demo.
The Shinn has a large foot pad, front and back (see photo), that doesn't lock you into one particular spot on the board while riding. The down side is that it is not thick and mine is pretty compressed these days and makes for sore heels after a few hours on the water.
One thing I found that helped the ridability of the Shinn was to get rid of the wide, hard foot straps and replace them with soft Cabrinha surf straps. They made a huge difference by giving more freedom of foot movement and saved me ankle injury on many occations when things didn't go the way I planned.
ok v concave. hmmm.. that might be difficult to make. i'll consider it.
PS when i make one it won't be a foamy. it will be bamboo.
Radman. what does your cardboard have in the way of concave and rocker?
righto. i'll consider ways to put a double concave in the back and then feather it into a single concave moving to the front. At this point i envisage the front having more rocker and the back less. . . .. . . .... . .. .. .
It will be an amusing build. i've built a number of boards of the years. longboard skateboards and landboards mainly.
This will be my first kiteboard. And i'm going to do a mutant with varying concave rocker and make it out of bamboo carbon and glass.... whoot. no point starting easy. I might as well go balls to the wall.
my plan would be to use either Vlam bamboo 5mm or 2 x 2.6mm 5ply. it will be easier to press the complex concave with the 2.6mm ply layers. So i may run with that. But cooler to have a Vlam board...Time to do lots of thinking.
I made a kite surfboard out of pollonia timber a while back. Fun to ride but a bit on the heavy side and a lot of work. Plummet - would you consider making a prototype out of foam/fibreglass before going to the trouble of bamboo? Either way post photos and review.
mate. that is a thing of beauty.
Nah i'll just box straight into the bamboo build. But it wont be surboard style thickiness. it will be 6mm total thickness more TT style. I want flex in my design. I don't like the complete rigidity of the surfboard foam core construction.
my Ideal mutent board would be something between the CB Wave and Ocean Rodeo Mako 150 or Mako King.
151x43
From the Mako:
- i like the rounded tips
- large deck pad and with straps
From the CB Wave:
- similar outline of the board but with rounded tips
- double concave bottom
- 2 small fins on the front, thruster at the tail.
i also think foot straps that are much wider (2-3 x wider than your foot) would be a good thing to try out.
your feet would not be locked in as much as normal straps so you can move your foot position back and forth on the board from central to tail bias.
I've always loved the look of the Jimmy Lewis mutants. I used to have an old Airush Hammer which used to go well too. Would love to have a go on the K-Rad though.
Have tried quite a few mutants, hated them till i tried Jimmy lewis Rad F , have used it from small chop to 4 meter waves at margs, lacks lenght in the bigger waves but all mutants do ,worth trying, been on one for 3 years now, quality built and preformance.
To Sunseeker
I have a brand new Krad that has only been used once. It's a year old but I simply don't ride anything else but surfboards so just sits there looking pretty.
It's not even stored in the shed it is so clean, it is in the spare bedroom.
I am open to offers. I haven't even got it for sale on Seabreeze cos I always thought I would get around to using it.
Wal
sorry
Krad is the Jimmy Lweis mutant you posted a pic of, only difference is that mine is blue.
Here's another possible construction.
Wood core with ABS rails fibreglassed top and bottom with a thick deckpad.
www.iksurfmag.com/issue32/?t=Nobile-Infinity-62-2012-Review-and-Test&page=136
You could maybe have better shaped rails.
I am thinking about building a mutant based on the cardboard wave. I want to keep construction reasonably simple for my first board so was going to use a few layers of thin marine ply resined together to form the rocker. Then to seal the timber I think I will use marine varnish.
For the front fins I will just use standard tt fins but for the rear thruster setup I was thinking I could resin some fcs plugs into the ply
Then I could cut down some old fins to the right size.
does anybody know if this could work?
