Flat Turn VS Hard On A Rail

I don't that it is so much the board as what "everyone" is doing and what the judges are scoring

Look at pro surfing to see where SUP surfing will end in up in a few years, those flat turns will go out of fashion

OG Sup, Yeah I do agree with you. I still have an interest in the small sups because they are fun in the right conditions. But the guys around where I live have gone back up in length. My main sup partner Scott Downing has gone back up to 10 ft sup's which suits he's style and approach. He's tried going smaller but he found the dish panning disease hit him. The critera has changed with comps which is why guys are now riding 7ft sup/s. The 10 foot section of the Noosa Festival will be highlight.

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comp sup surfing will die if it keeps heading this way imo

Agreed!

Nothing wrong with yours Hilly!

I have got a 9'2 Allwave, and whilst the 31.5 inch width and big rail volume is your friend a lot of the time, it definitely makes those turns on the rail difficult to pull off with any style. For me anyway...

Scott.

I think maybee 10 is a bit to big , better limiting boards to 9 and over. But i agree the ultra short sups look sillyExcept of course when guys like Keahi , Zane amd the wonder kid ride them. Just amateur comps should restrict board size not the pro,s , they need to push the limits.

teatrea- ten foot is the go for sups. did you checkout the dogman's latest vid. noseriding, tricks and some good old fashioned hacks.

i can see numbers having a go at that.

i can see sponsors being interested in that

Agree with that.

A 9 or 10 foot class would be attractive to bigger guys as we cannot compete with the young fit fellas. Would add appeal to comp surfing for the average joe.

nah, i've been thinking this for a long time

2 cents worth to add- I have a 10'2 laguna & a 8'10" starboard as part of the quiver for the very reason of different boards for different conditions + I love to surf both styles- short & long, I'm only hoping the local club- SUPSA eventually breaks the surfing comp into 2 divisions re 10 foot over or under as I think both will have great support.

Not a bad idea that!

Hi PeterP,

I dont know about ISA I wasn't there but I have seen a lot of team riders at Nationals in Australia on so called production boards and really what they are is a production prototype hmmm me thinks thats a CUSTOM. Even if its likely to go into production next year it still is a CUSTOM this year. Then next year yup you guessed it there will be another prototype also a Custom.

Exactly the same happens with race boards.

Then there is the infamous situation with Connor riding various SICs and surfing JLs stickered up as Starbys and that isn't an isolated situation by any means many others do the same but its just not publicised.

If your a kid mostly you only have one choice and thats you guessed it a CUSTOM.

If you have gone to a custom and then go back to a production board there is little comparison on weight and performance and depending on how you have them glassed longevity can be comparable.

It would be great to say it dosen't work that way but thats the reality.

Phill

but how many keahi's and jackson's are there that can surf these really small boards

what if they move on to something else can sup just rely on a few lightweights and freaks

and as dam good as they are my local board riders weekend comp round has more of that type of action done bigger, harder and faster.

and where are these so called sponsors right now

sup really needs to look at how and where they are going with the contest scene because its dying atm

Lacey i have been setting up to do junior development for kids in Vicco as there is a group of kids between 8 an 12 that want to have crack. What your faced with:

In racing there is only one board that even goes close to what a child needs and thats a custom Lahui Kai 9'6, I believe they are going to make it as a production board this year and it shows great fore thought that they will do this, the cost is about $1250 and then freight to the southern states.

If they are really serious and want to do down winding as well then you need a second board and you can probably add about the same $1200.

Note these are epoxy not carbon and your at min $1200 to $2400 ++

For carbon say $3600 - $4000 ++

On the surfing side there is only one option and that again is custom and min would be about $1200 up to about $1800 + freight.

If you have super deep pockets then go carbon and again double up the numbers.

Again if your serious you need 2 x boards one for HP surfing on good clean days and a more stable one for rough days as here we get onshore 150 -200 days per year.

You need to realise that once you buy these kids boards you can basically expect to between $00 eg cant sell them or maybe at best %50 resale.

Put this up against getting your son / daughter into surfing for a second hand shorty you can probably get one for say $2-300 probably less and sell it in 12 months for almost the same and pick up another one.

What is limiting junior development is simple COST.

NO JUNIORS NO FUTURE

SUP has being going pretty good up to date with out to many juniors? Pretty sure it's the fastest growing water sport and this is without juniors. Maybe a junior in our sport fir now is someone in their mid 20's?

Not sure about all the Starby's but the 3 Naish's in Semi's and 2 in wave-SUP-finals were production from what I was told from local Naish Peruvian importer (one of them was Chris Bertish and I gave him that board so thats one confirmed) - I'm sure Jacko can also confirm the others. On the race side I know Casper was on production (1st and 2nd). Kai was on a proto at Sunset Beach though. Dylan was on a production All Star 12'6 and came 3rd - also confirmed production.

Wrt kids boards it is a small market, but an 80 liter 8'0 from Naish high performance short board should suffice for all but the 8-10yo's.....I stand by my remarks that custom is an ever narrowing market place.

And disclaimer - yes, I pimp Naish.