Just wanted to write a board review for my latest custom board collaboration with Simon Hunnybun from DEEP. (It's a bit long winded but hey surfs been flat and if you don't want to read it all just look at the pictures.)
Back story is that like most of you reading this I am on the perpetual journey of trying to continually improve and develop my surfing prowess and ability and to maintain my love for the ocean and for surfing in general. Factoring into this ongoing journey over the years has been many contributing factors such as available time, family and work commitments, my individual wants and needs as a surfer, my personal competency / skills and my experience and aptitude, coupled with my age, injury history and my overall ability and or inability (Umm Beer) to maintain a level of fitness that will enable, allow and support me to do what I wish to do etc. All of these factors have of course multifaceted aspects and issues that continually influence and impact upon the style and type of surfing that I can and more importantly want to achieve and therefore also upon the type and design of board that I can or cannot ride to achieve the end state that I personally want.
One particular aspect of my personal surfing journey has always been a willingness to push my own boundaries and to try new board designs and concepts. I have found that this is especially relevant in the genre of SUP surfing as the sport is still relatively in its infancy and therefore open to variations of basic board design and development. As I have progressed along my own SUP journey, which began after my third spinal surgery some years ago, I have, like many of you, tried numerous brands and boards etc all of which have assisted and allowed me to progress to what I would like to believe (well in my head anyway) is an okay level of competency and prowess. This progression has also now empowered and encouraged me to where I now wish to have a greater personal say and involvement in the design and construction of my boards. Without appearing xenophobic or prejudiced in any way I also want to support locally designed, developed and manufacture products etc.
And so, for the last few years I have continued to develop a basic shaper / surfer relationship with Simon from DEEP which has led to my latest custom board.
My initial brief to Simon was for a 'Hybrid' shape, under 8 foot at about 100 litres, basically a composite between my MV2 and JC custom performance boards. I also wanted the board to have a slightly fuller nose than the JC model with a wider outline towards the tail but really pulled in and thin with flyers to a swallow tail with 6 channels into the bottom which run out through the flyers. The idea being to have a board that gets up and goes very quickly, is super-fast with a lot of bite and drive through turns. Imagine my surprise to find that Simon has also been thinking along the same lines and in fact used to work for AB years ago and sort of knew exactly what I was after.
One of the biggest aspects that I really wanted to incorporate into my board was that I wanted to have channels. I have previously had Chris Christenson surfboards and really liked them. (If you want, watch the following for a review of the Christenson 'Gerr' surfboard)
Yep, top read Skeee, and mate, the new stick is off its noggin!
I'm a massive fan of swallow tails and channels. Cripes - its like readin one of me old man's SW mags from 1974.
Goin' off
Damn Skeeee, that board looks so sick!, time to email simon. Need to get one!! Mrs is going to be spewing, oh well!!! She'll get over it!!!
Awesome. Like channels. Had some Hamish six-clinker short boards in my youth.
And soft channels in my SMIK Short Mac.
Beautiful board mate!
Out of curiosity- how do you find the stability in terms of yaw and pitch? I used to have a board with a flyer channeled tail, loved the performance but all the reduced volume cut out of the tail made it really prone to not only side to side rock but also front to back as it didn't want to sit flat or linear in the water. What are the bottom contours on yours aside from the channels?
tried it as a thruster yet? I found the channels amplified the difference in feel between thruster vs quad, thruster more pivotal while the quad tended to be even more drawn out with the added channels
Sorry just read through more of your post- I've been experimenting with fins heaps on my JL supertech. Tried my fave quad after a thruster, and then the same quad with a Knub in the conditions below a few days ago. Quite a different feeling to just the quad- immediately stiffened it up but also still had looseness when pushed. Would be interested to hear how you find it after just your Normal quads-
No doubt, I must have faith in that board if she would be mine.
One question please, what kind of bottom shape is it. That looks like a single concave from the nose, isn't it...
Nice board Skeeee and I appreciate the detailed write-up.
I don't see any other way to transfer information without an in-depth discussion..... Kudos!
I have only had 3 custom boards made in my life.
2 shortboards and my original Creek..... all 3 had channels. I am a big fan!