New 6'10" Simmons SUP

Colas: you prefer Gong Faking 6'11" over the Shake 7'4" ? The kick-up nose of the Shake has its' advantages

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Rory4053 said...
My apologies Ozzie for the late reply.

Thanks for your comments, still only ridden a handful of boards so I expect this is going to be a learning experience

Might actually catch up with you in a couple of weeks. I'll send you an email.

All the best
Rory

Rory all good mate. I was really anticipating the opportunity to catch up with Casso this weekend at Caves beach but child care duties over the
school holidays has got the better of me :(Am hoping Casso can organise a demo day for the minions. Here's hoping anyhow.

ozzie

Is your 6,10 simmons style available from anywhere ive looked on the site and cant seem to find one??
How can i get one..

makntracks, it was just a prototype. The closest you can get now is either the One XTR 6'8" in a more modern shape, or the same shape but in 8'0", the AS

TJR, sorry no trip planned at these dates...

Just an addition, I now have in my Gong quiver:

6'8" One XTR 125 - A modern small-wave shape, for quicker/tighter moves than a Simmons
6'10" Proto AS Simmons XTR - my favorite
6'10" Proto Fatal 120 XTR - for hollow conditions, wider than the 2014 but thinner and more curvy than the 2013
6'10" Fatal 120 2013 - my stabler board, can face huge chop and weird conditions
7'7" Nano 2013 - seventies shape, wide nosed single fin swallow/stinger, for carving
8'2" Final XTR 125 - incredibly fast, for fast sections and long paddles to outer reefs. But tiring (narrow). Also my board for flat water training by adding a central keel fin.

I will probably replace the 6'10" Fatal 120 2013 and 7'7" Nano 2013 in the future by only one board geared for confort when I am tired or the conditions are very hard.
Logically I also should sell the 6'8" One XTR 125, as it kind of doubles with the 6'10" Simmons on weak waves, and the 6'10" Proto Fatal on powerful waves, so that makes my "core" quiver about 4 boards. But I won't sell it soon, as I have much to discover in this shape yet.

I toy with the idea of a 5'10" / 6'2" "Vanguard"-like shape.

Note that I do not have any noseriding board: I like the longboard glide (provided also by the Simmons) but am not found of noserides
And no flat water boards. I train on flat water to gain strength & balance for surfing, which is done best on a small Surf SUP shape. I tried 12'6"and 14' boards but found them not worth the hassle for my personal tastes.

Also:
8'1" Fract (fish) and a Gerry Lopez 8'10" for my daughters
9'0" Border (noserider, so yes I can borrow it) for my wife

Patrice is trying to get organized better to be able to do prototypes more reliably, but for now he doesn't want to take orders for prototypes anymore, as the current batch has suffered some quite long delay (my Simmons took more than a year to glass after the blank was shaped). The reason is that he is always busy solving things on the production side (managing enough plants to keep with the demand, new technologies to develop like kitesurf boards & sails, inflatables, kite foils, ...).

How protoypes work for now: you chat with him, telling him ideas. If it strikes him has an interesting approach, may be to be the base of a new production shape later, he will begin to think of it, interpret it, and make it part of a batch of prototypes one day (the current one is 60 boards: www.gong-galaxy.com/magazine/news/protos-60-new-ones/ ) to see how they work, and then he will put them on sale on the shop (used or news), giving priority to whoever initiated the discussion on this shape. It will take months, with no predictable delays. The 6'10" Simmons was done this way, the 120l 6'10" Fatal XTR I just grabbed it as it was part of a batch of prototypes put on sale without pre-attributed owners.
So it is not like your custom shaper where you order a board and can have it not too long afterwards.

For the forum, just retry a registration and at the same time mail dv@gongsup.com (in charge of the website) telling him your registration nickname that Colas told you to mail him to say you are not a spammer robot :-) They get hunders of fake registration daily so often cancel registrations if they look like bots (no personal details).

For your replacement, I think you can find what you want (modern performance longboard shape) now in the production line with the Miracle or the Zero, that get rave reviews from their owners. They are also tough as nails (the kevlar rails do wonders against dings). Or the ultimate: the freak 105 l XTR: 6,5 kg, carbon sandwich, hammer-proof, ultimate nervosity... if you are OK to adapt to the 24" width.
Also a second hand 100% carbon Zero ("Pro" or "Semi pro") could be nice. More prone to dings, but the nervosity of the 100% carbon combined with a a flexible skin and confortable width are great too.
Or you can be lucky and grab one of the prototypes from the current batch www.gong-galaxy.com/magazine/news/protos-60-new-ones/ (I guess available in ~ 3-5 months) if one fits you.

Hi Colas,

I noticed patrice has shaped sups for drops, what are the other brands he has shaped for?
The drops site has a 7' board called the moon trip which looks cool. They have done some wicked sailboards over the years was wondering if he had shaped them.

Cheers Chris

Hi Colas

Thanks for the info, you are really keeping the conversation going on the site.
Maybe you should move out to New Caledonia so you can send some of your Gong specials over to Aus!
I take a school group over there every couple of years and I love the mix of French and Island culture.

Cheers Chris

Actually, some New Caledonians locals organize shipping boards to them from time to time, so it is possible. You may want to contact "Crafter" dv@gongsup.com who I guess is in charge of handling these special cases. The best solution is of course to try to find transport options yourself to propose them to Gong

As a comparison, at last I whipped my lazy ass in making a video of a March session with a more "traditional" 6'8" board: The Gong ONE XTR 6'8" www.gong-galaxy.com/magazine/pics/1-hour-4-boards/

the one compared to the Simmons in the first page, see post with this picture:



A bit the same dims, same volume, just no concave and a pulled in tail with wings, and a quad fin placement (with C-Drives of course).
Compared to a Simmons, this board is more "pumpable" - must be pumped - and release nicely the tail. It is for more "amped" moods than the Simmons

Actually, I found out that for best results you actually need to wait before the critical paddle stroke, to be sure to dig the paddle at the exact time to "haul" yourself along the wave bump.
It is best seen on the video at 0:40, you see the slight pause before the second stroke.

Basically now my take off is in 3 paddle strokes:
- one very progressive to set up speed so that fins get grip with enough water flow and block the row. Too much power at the start of it and you spin around and complain that these short SUP have too much row.
- wait for the second one for the right time. Feel like Captain Ahab waiting to see the white of Moby Dick eye before harpooning :-)
- apply all your power in one deep, long powerful stroke. Just like a "pop up" take off in a shortboard.
- and that's all, you dont need the extra paddle strokes afterwards, but I still do them, I guess just out of old habits.

On proper waves, you can take off with any kind of paddle stroke. Everything works, even the fast cadence shallow strokes. But on weak waves with a wide ShortSUP, too much paddling will kill your speed: at the second stroke, the board will climb up on its front wake wave and stall. I guess this is not the same for the ultra-narrow world cup shapes that encounter less resistance from the front wake wave.

Very nice colas, love the smooth paddle action and such a small wave but your riding was great to watch x3

Actually, I haven't had "medium plus" was for months, so my tempo is off sync when things have more juice... I need to practice more on bigger waves!
I am glad that "winter is coming" here :-)

Here is a vid the next day in Hossegor, you can see I don't have the tempo wired yet (plus I was trying this board as a quad, but I surf it normally as a thruster)

Some small sunny waves, both on my 6'10" Simmons and 6'8" One:

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stm said..
Just wondering whether you get those 2 lobsters at 1.59 and 2.05 that you were diving for .

Thanks... that's the drawback of changing boards often: I was surprised by the nimbleness of the 6'8" One after the Simmons... I have always have some adapting to do :-)