Which long friendly board for a low skill pilot?

I currently have a Naish Nalu 10.6.5 and it's staying in the stable ... but rather than look for shorter for number two - I've decided to go for something that can give me some real paddling exercise. To that end I'm looking at 12'6" and 14' lengths, but wanting 30" or greater for stability (one day I may suit something more competitive).

There seems to be a lot on the market and the JP Cruiser 12'6" has got my eye.

I would like something that can downwind, carve through messy ocean and still get by on flat water (yeh I know, that's three different boards).

Any pearls of wisdom from the SUP tribe?

i had a mana 10' ast as my surf board and a fly 12'6" white carbon as my flat water board. just sold them both for a glide gs touring 12' and so far, so very happy

the hybrid displacement nose cuts through chop sweetly, it picks up any lump so easily and surfs like a long board a long as you don't dig the nose in

it's perfect for me at 100kgs

pete

i haven't had a big d/w yet but it picks up small chop very easy and from the photos of the girl above it should be great

the rails are pretty sharp all the way

the board looks very chunky on land like all glides do but on the water you can't see it - just that beautiful pointy nose and gun like tail

there is very little on the net about them yet as they really wont be around in any numbers for a while, being a 2013 model

it's called the glide touring and i'd love to see it seperated from the racing range and developed into it's own category in a number of sizes. an 11' and 10' next please mr naish

The JP Cruiser 11-4 & 12-6 were designed just for that to cruise around, but they have turned out to be a bit of a darkhorse out in the ocean down winding. For it's subtle design and great stability they are really quick , surprising a few of the race crew here on the Gold Coast .They are by no means race winners but definetly worth a demo and the cargo straps on the front are a real bonus plus the 11-4 is really light for it's size. You do not need to go to a 12-6 for what you want to do.

I looked at the glide cruiser at Sam's ... I can imagine it being a pretty good one board "jack of all" solution - but two boards are a far better result for me (wife in water).

The JP is shaping up to be of serious interest on paper.

As I refine my thinking I'm discounting a 14' for now as I would like to get a light 12'6" that's still viable to man handle the short distance from home to water.

I don't like the rocker profile of the Starboard Touring and many other boards I've look at seem too purpose build (good for their purpose, but I want the forgiving solution).

Sam has the shorter JP Cruiser that I can take for a demo ... also just want to eyeball a big Fanatic to see if it takes my fancy as well.

yeah, when i dropped into surf fx to look at the new range, this board caught my eye more than the others. looks like the kind of board that would be great fun and probably be a blast in the wild stuff. the nose shape looks smart

i would like to see jp do some narrower models of this type of board and shape.

i was told i could demo the cruiser 12'6 anytime so i'm waiting for a big blow to have a crack on it

got my chance yesterday to dw this board. 25 knts north to south run kingscliff to hastings. swell pushing in, wind and windswell slightly off shore.

so without ever paddling the board it was out through the surf at cudgen near the reef

some awesome runs but tricky because of the swell pushing in.the board went really well. the stock fin is under sized for the amount of board here in dw situations,but it goes really well. really fast on the bumps. i had a quite a few 'waves 'out there- just big take offs. i didn't go to bad against a bullet 17'4 which would have been lapping this stuff up

this the kind of board i like for our north runs- something that stable but still goes in tough conditions.
we had a section after caba where the wind backed off and what surprised me was the board went even better- even edged out the bullet at this point. it has lots of volume so it was grabbing every thing.

the stock fin is a nine inch surf type fin which in imo is undersized for a board of that volume for dw ing. a decent sized hatchet type fin or so would be the go.


the conditions were as tough as you could expect and a fair amount of swell. i did come off a couple of times when i was turning the the wind got under the board and flipped it and once where i got a 'wave' and the board got away from me lol, but pretty impressed overall

I paddled the new 12' Glide last week and it was great.. Very stable and easy to paddle.

I took these pics.

DJ



















New 12' Glide

I was really amazed at how well it did kick turns.. .. Must be the tail shape.

DJ