2016/17 NEW Jimmy Lewis "Sidewinder" Race Board

A great review on Standup Zone of the NEW Jimmy Lewis 14' Sidewinder Race Board. Looking forward to getting my hands on one soon & taking orders now. It looks awesome & all reports say it goes great downwind at Maliko :)

pic: Jimmy Lewis Sidewinder Review (Read 401 times)
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Jimmy Lewis Sidewinder Review
« on: June 10, 2016, 08:17:36 AM »
The Jimmy Lewis Sidewinder is intended to be a 2017 model in the US. It's already available in Europe and a few have been shipped to Canada and even fewer in California. I accidentally have the only one in the rest of the mainland USA. A few months ago a friend invited me to help Rep for Jimmy Lewis Boards in Florida. One of the benefits has been that I became the caretaker of a 14'x25" Sidewinder left behind after the Carolina Cup by a young European Pro . I will be bringing it to Surf Expo in September.

To give you my background, I have been a recreational SUP racer, surfer, explorer for the past 10 years. I'm 51 years old, have a family, maintain an 8-5 desk job, and despite losing 50 pounds in 10 years, I am still 190 pounds and probably have 15 pounds more to lose. All that is to say I am definitely not a pro level paddler. Still I train regularly and get out on the water surfing and racing enough to have plenty of fun. I have decent form as Paddle Fit Pro and Kalama Kamp devotee. I also had a weekend mobile lesson business, and have taught dozens of people to get started in the sport and plenty have gone on into racing. Over the past 10 years I have owned more than a dozen different race boards from at least as many different brands and demoed plenty more. I have tried race boards of nearly every size and shape but my favorite have been bulbous nosed boards based on prone board shapes. I especially like the way they get up on a semi-plane so easily. They never feel down in the whole. They get up to top speed easily with partial effort and adding full effort they ride up on top of the water far better than any other shape. They seem to catch every bump and every bit of energy in the water going your way without penalizing you in the opposite direction. I don't know how it's possible, but they seem to go up over everything against you and yet get sucked into everything going with you. It took a little effort to learn to paddle that way but it became addictive.

Prior to owning the Sidewinder I would have told you that bulbous nose boards were not without obvious drawbacks. For one, most were quite heavy compared to displacement boards, making them tiring on flat water. They could be as fast as displacement boards in the flats but carrying the extra weight took extra effort. Next, most used a a pin tail prone board shape in order to keep their speed. The pin tail made it nearly impossible for me to control a buoy turn, and took away a lot of stability. The combination of a rounded nose and a pin tail creates a floaty feel that takes months to get used to. Even more, they are especially difficult to stand on in side chop. The same boards that I loved in upwind, downwind and quartering conditions, I loathed in side-chop. The result was that as much as I loved being on a bulbous nose board in my training, where I could pick the direction of my paddling, I very often handicapped myself in races involving side chop or significant buoy turns. Occasionally, I would get to a race and borrow a board just to be able to survive rough side chop. That has all changed with the Sidewinder!

The Sidewinder combines a prone style bulbous nose and outline with a more traditional SUP race tail shape. I have owned other boards that have attempted to do just that, but they ended up being horribly slow in all but pure downwind conditions; and they didn't handle as well as true downwind boards. I was beginning to think it was impossible to create an all conditions race board with a bulbous nose, but the Sidewinder has changed my mind.

After living with the Sidewinder now for a few months, my opinion is that the Sidewinder offers all the benefits of a bulbous nosed board without any of the drawbacks. As expected the rounded bulbous nose stays up on the surface of the water always ready to go. There is no effort wasted getting out of the whole and you can paddle at high cadence or slower cadence and still keep it up on semi-plane. It is not intended to be a downwind board for technical spots like Maliko. Jimmy Lewis and others offer great choices in that category. But as a race board that will be asked to go downwind in small and moderate conditions, it is a blast! In a recent local race, I was definitely not the best paddler, but I was the first board to complete the downwind leg because of the Sidewinder's downwind ability. Turning around and grinding it home against the wind, I did get passed by a few stronger paddlers, but I won my division and was happy to be on a board capable of getting up over the swell and not getting slammed around by small whitecaps. Even the wind wraps around the nose better than it does on a displacement board. Just as important, side chop is not a problem for the Sidewinder. The rounded nose and rails allow side waves to pass over the board with less resistance than the broad side of a displacement board and the stability of the board is still as expected regardless of the direction you are paddling. In the 3 races I have entered, I have paddled better on the Sidewinder than on any other board I have used regardless of conditions.

Another surprising feature of the Sidewinder is that it is very light with just the right stiffness. Jimmy Lewis has tweaked their carbon construction and this board is definitely lighter than you would expect, but at no point does it ever feel flimsy or flexy. The result is a board that flies across flat water. Granted I am more experienced on the bulbous nosed shapes, but I am faster on flat water on the Sidewinder than on any other board I have tried even displacement boards designed for flat water sprints.

As you can see I am super excited about the Sidewinder! For me it is the holy grail of a bulbous nosed board without any drawbacks. My race times have been a full 1/2mph faster on this board than any other race board I have tried in any shape. Since I am willing to own two race boards at a time I intend to buy a second Sidewinder in another size; that is, as long as they let me keep this one, otherwise I will be buying two of them. In the past I have been most comfortable on 14' race boards between 25" and 27.5" wide depending on the conditions and the stability of the board. The Sidewinder is more forgiving than most boards. If you are in the same category as me you will immediately be comfortable on the 14'x25" model. In 2017 the Sidewinder will be available 23", 25", 27" or 29" wide in 12'6" or 14' length. For the conditions in my area (Tampa Bay and the Gulf) I plan on owning the 14'x25" for most days and a 12"6"x27" for the really rough days or to lend to my wife or other newer racers. The all out pros and agile lightweight riders will want the 23" wide models, and big guys will want the 27" and 29" models.

I am anxious to see how this board is received by the SUP world. Nearly every racer that has demoed it from me has raved about it. If you are headed to the demo at Surf Expo in September make sure you give it a try. Jimmy Lewis dealers should be able to get there hands on them shortly after that.

Aloha,
Kurt...

No problem Grasuper it's locked in :)

That's great to hear, thanks Area10

Hi kikaha, they should be in the country in August if you'd like to try one...Let me know. Cheers Rob

Select to expand quote

Slab said...

Area10 said..
I've just been demoing the 14x25 for a few days. I'm generally impressed, and have been particularly surprised at how fast it is in flat water. Surfs well too.

Yours will be the first and only truly independent review of this board to be online that I have seen IMHO.. I'm pleased for JL if this board is a winner...he's a good lad.

I still don't like the look of this board's nose from certain angles but if it works then good.

Yes, from certain angles it isn't the prettiest board. But still prettier than similar offerings from several of the competing brands.

It's a really good design IMO. I've written a fair bit about it on the 'Zone. The jury is still out for me as regards DW performance because I did not get to try it in the kinds of lined-up downbreezer conditions where you'd expect a board like this to shine. But otherwise I liked the board a lot. In particular I was very surprised at how fast the 14x25 was in pure flat water. You could actually use it in a flat water race, especially a choppy one or that has lots of buoy turns or where drafting is important. It's very light and feels quite rigid for such a light board, and the fit and finish put some other brands (not mentioning any names...) to shame. Plus they are full carbon/PVC sandwich and yet are quite a bit cheaper (in Europe anyway) than an equivalent construction Starboard.

I think this general type of design - basically a prone paddleboard shape up front with a SUP rear grafted on the back - has a definite future for people wanting an all-conditions race board. The Sidewinder reminds me a lot of the Bark Vapor (which I absolutely love) but is lighter, and faster in flat water. The Sidewinder probably isn't as good as the Vapor downwind, but it has other advantages. These shapes are just so nice to paddle. Their handling is so neutral, they have a lot of glide between strokes, and are very stable for their width. So in terms of the hard-to-define characteristic of being "nice to paddle", they have it by the bucketload.

I'd definitely recommend you try one.