Getting better at bigger - Smik 10' Hipster Twin Longboard

There has been much talk about going smaller, and smaller, and lower in volume, and floundering, falling off a lot, and generally not enjoying Sup surfing as much as we should be......

And this is where I found myself.

And as my old longboarding mate said, "If you're not enjoying it, get out of the water...."

And he was dead right.

So I contacted Scotty from Smik, originally about a Style Lord. We talked about what I wanted out of the board. I listed everything I'd owned and surfed over 10', and what I liked and didn't like about them. So we picked that to bits, and he suggested a hipster twin longboard. A feckin' what?

I've toyed with the idea of a twin fin Sup for a while. Even asked one shaper to make me one, but he shied away from it. I started surfing my Nalu a while back as a twin, and it was just bat sh1t crazy loose. Fun, but kinda out of control. I've tried all my boards as twins, some performed better than others.

There's a lot of people surfing with smaller centre fins nowadays, myself included, just to make these mostly large craft work. So after looking in to it a bit more I thought, "What the hell, what can go wrong?" I've had one Smik board before. There was a few things I didn't like about it which I told Scotty about, and he seemed to take it all on board, really listened. His energy is infectious, as shown with his boards and world wide movements to get them to customers personally.

I wanted something that looked fairly subtle, that really carved for a big board. In a size that I could handle in crap conditions. I started at 30" wide (nah, c'mon man you can do better), talked myself down to 29.5" (c'mon mate, that's hardly a change) and ended up at 29". It made me nervous but we pushed play anyway....







I have been afflicted by new board curse, and the conditions have been atrocious, but the last 3 days this board has been wet, and I finally managed to nail a half decent punchy wave yesterday. Yes, just one. And I loved the carrrrrrve. So glad I went 29" wide, it is super stable, even in sloppy choppy poop.

When I first eyed the board I was impressed, the finish is awesome. The colour was perfect. When I picked it up I was even more impressed. Light as, at 8.8kg. I fitted the fins and went "holy sh1t, those sides are huge, and that centre is so small?!".

But it works. It really does. And I can't wait to get the business end of this big girl out into some decent juice.

Looks sweet Brenno ...

i always wanted one .

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MangoDingo said..
Brenno!!!
That's a sweet lookin' stick man - lovin' the swallow tail. And the finish looks rad.
How thick is it? And what's your height and weight knackers?
Reason I ask is I've got a 10'6 Style XL which is 4 1/4 thick x 32 wide. I friggin' love this board eh but I'm also pretty keen to get a bit more looseness in the tail.
I'm gonna swap the centre fin for a smaller FCS 7.0 and see how it responds. So not as significant a drop as what you've got on the Hipster but I'll be keen to hear how your new stick goes - it looks pretty sweet man.
May your weekend be blessed with stacked lines cob! And keep us in the loop with how she goes too eh!

I've had to go back to work to pay for it, but from memory it's around 4" @ 130 litres.
And the height and weight of my knackers? Well I've been married a while so, quite large.
Oh, MY height and weight. 6'2" and shrinking, around 100kg depending on the season.

that's a nice performance longboard, well done.

Nice looking board Brenno.... I may have to try a tiny in the middle, sounds fun

Sick looking stick

Sweet looking ride buddy
make sure you share with us all how it surfs ??

That's a great looking board Brenno!

Twinnie big stick! Can't wait to hear how that rascal works for you.

A couple of cracking offshore mornings over the last 2 days. Not much size, but enough shape to see that I've made a good decision.
I smacked her about a few times before the rail tape and hexatraction showed up, but not a mark. Tough as. She is now dressed for punishment.
I love the way that wherever you stand on this board you get a different reaction. Some boards are meant to surf from the middle, and others you really need to stomp on the tail to get a some action. This does it all. Subtle movements get great results. I haven't scored the right wave to get up on the nose yet, but it will happen in time.
This must be the first board that I haven't grabbed the stock fins and chucked them over my shoulder. They actually work. I won't be able to help myself eventually, which should be interesting.
The handle is perfectly balanced in the centre, but I'm finding that standing just behind is good to have the quite narrow, almost step decked nose lifted just enough ready for a take off.
Glide is awesome, and getting from one break to the next in a straight line seems really quick and easy. Getting on to a wave is really a piece of p1ss. As long as you're in front, you're on it. Pulling off a wave is simple too. A good thing when you're messing about on beachies on a 10 foot board.
I love the stability. I was dubious about going 29", but the tail being pulled in quite a way back on the board helps.
The grip is quite hard and bitey. I like it a lot. Great for critical manouvers in the surf. No sliding off at the wrong moment.
There is some juice turning up on Monday just as I go back on shift, and I'm sure my young bloke will tell me all about it, but I'm determined to get her out on some big drops. Soon.
Two thumbs up Scotty.

Good stuff. Scotty is the man!

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Bighugg said..
Awesome ???? Great to see the reality of nose rider twin ??, I have been considering this combo for a while??. Loving your feedback .
Whats the lead time on a custom like your board ?
Would be so good for Bali at end of Nov-Dec ??
Thank you

7 weeks to the day, from pushing play to getting her wet.
Hoping to get the blue beasty out on a decent wave or 2 tomorrow.
Fingers crossed.

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Bighugg said..
Choice. Travel / finance director say custom is a go with a fun colour clause. Looking at 4", 140 - 150lt , width ? Request SENT
Wishing you a bountiful run of good waves Brenno, with feedback
Enjoy

Nice one.
Well yesterday was a good day to develop some trust in this board. Roaring 20 knot cross shore pushing up some big lumps. 50 people crammed up against the point, a few of us braving the shore break. Made every drop without pearling which was good. Still working on my footwork. Been a while since I've had a 10 footer out, and getting allllllll the way back. Big full tide early, surfed the outgoing with the stock fins. Very short rides so hard to get a feel of these again. Changed these out for AM2 sides and a trailing nubster for the afternoon session on the incoming tide. Made the board feel very skatey and nearly didn't make a few turn offs. Quite sketchy.
Today a quite different story. Onshore lumpy crap again. Booooo! Chucked in my old faithful C Drives, XL sides and small centre. I love these fins, they work on anything, and once again didn't let me down. Made sh1t waves feel like fun. This board is fun.
This arvo I'll chuck the stockys back in and see if I can't get some waves with a bit of length to them, and get my fat ar5e down the back and push it. I'll be away from the ocean for a few weeks soon, so gonna cane it whilst I can!

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Supted said..
Looks cool Brenno,I picked up an 11'4" twin from Scotty last year.great board . Try changing your centre fin for a nubster works well . Nice & loose Good to hear your enjoying your board so much

Well only 3 days left before I go back to alcatraz for an extended period, so even though it was blowing it's ring out onshore, I chucked the centre fin over my shoulder and took it out as a dedicated twin. The conditions were disgusting, and another great tick in the box for stability. Managed to pick 5 "waves" (lumps) up out of the washing machine. Pretty wild. I liked it. More of a short looping turn, rather than a longboard carve.
I had big ideas initially of not having a centre box at all in this board, but Scotty reckoned the small centre helps to smooth out the rail to rail transition, so I relented. He may be right, I definitely felt this once and it's good to have the option, but I'm certainly going to keep playing with fins.
One thing that is really reassuring about this board is it sticks to a wall really well, and you can tuck in all the way to the sand if you want.
More fun to come!

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colas said..

Brenno said..
I had big ideas initially of not having a centre box at all in this board

I reckon that you would need the boxes farther aft for this to work well.

Reckon you could be right Colas.
Do you mix your C- Drives up with other fins?

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Bighugg said..
Colas re, fins farther back.
You have mentioned this before, running twins in rear quad box's.
I have done this with mix of sizes up to big keel fins, in my efforts to get rear foot right back on the pad. Makes you work for tight turns.
Am not sure wear rear rail box's would sit on Hipster,
had thought of quad rears box's in split twin quad placements which sit closer. Just for the big day nose'es 7 fin box's

Brenno re, no center box. no way ! Got some cutaway's and other fun singles lined up to make me tickle hidden personality out of this board to be. YES its registered in progress
So with you on last days water time cramming regardless.... just cause
Hopefully it will swing around great for you

Mate she's already working for me. Gonna surf this as a single, twin, thruster, 2 + 1 and every other combo I can think of. Wouldn't it be great to have just one board and change out fins to suit the conditions......?

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Bighugg said..
You have mentioned this before, running twins in rear quad box's.

It would only work in very wide tailed boards, I guess (or powerful waves). Normal position for twins are quite close to the thruster front fins.