New NSP Carolina

I have now seen two images on Insta of a new NSP race board. Zooming in on the image it looks to be carrying the name Carolina. From the limited viewing (on Nalusurfoz and NSP AUS's pages) it looks awesome. Does anyone know anything about it?

Yep it paddles unreal. Alain has killed it with this one and the name says it all.

www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=NSP%20carolina%202019

Sonic on steroid?

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AndrewG4 said..
Be interesting to see how it compares to the 2018 sonic ? Any view John?

I can't say too much Andrew but I've been lucky trying both the Fanatic and NSP protos. All I will say is that I was really impressed with the Sonic and the new board.As the name suggests it is a great all rounder. There's going to be some hard decisions when it comes to buying boards this year as there's some good ones coming. Demo, demo, demo is the way to go.

Hey Guys...... The new Carolina is a mash up of the Ninja and Sonic. Basically it's got a lower rocker than the Sonic for flat water speed but still has a little kick in the nose for the bumps and the tail is a little wider than the Sonic for turning. It's going to be a one quiver board. For more info check out page below. Yeeew Jonesy
www.nspsurfboards.com/product/nsp-carolina/

Hey Seabreezers! I've just joined the NSP Team, Last week while in Hood river for the Columbia Gorge Paddle Challenge, I was lucky enough to play around on the new 2019 NSP Carolina. Along with Titouan and Travis we all raced on the 21.5" wide version of the board. I have never ridden a board that narrow, so the first of many things to impress me was the stability. While at first it is a little daunting and also a different feeling being on a dugout it felt like I was standing (at least) on a 23" board, with the added secondary stability from the high side walls it was great for rail steering. My first DW on the board I definitely had a bit of adjusting to do, I got the wobbles a couple of times, but once you got on the bump, the board surfed phenomenally well! To get back down to the tail to lift the nose was a breeze. I was only in town for a short time and I only got to paddle the board once before the race. During the first run of the double downwinder I took my time while still adjusting to try make as minimal mistakes a possible. I paddling conservative - potentially paddling not as hard to chase the bumps so I would not fall. For my second run down the Gorge I felt so much more comfortable on the board and paddled at full pace, paddling over the top and overtaking bumps the whole way to the finish line. I now know why the team has been raving over the board, It did everything that I wanted it to. Hats off to Alain and NSP for making a master class board for all conditions, just look at day 2 for the course race. T2 won after the gruelling 4 lap upwind, downwind and sidewind course. Even after a couple errors while rounding the turning buoy, for the most part it was made easy with the wider tail giving the board good stability for kick turns (I made top 10). That race definitely put the board to the test! If you have a chance, try it and let the board speak for its self! -Ty

Any of you guys can help me choose betwen the Carlina 14'*22 or the Ninja 14'*22" as my "smooth conditions board"?

I know I want a Carolina 14'*24.25" as my open ocean/rought water/downwind board but I have doubts choosing betwen the Ninja and the Carolina as my second board since I know the Ninja has much less stability than the 14'*23" Sprint I've been using during 2018.

How much is the difference between Ninja and Carolina, both 22", in flat water?

Thanks in advance!

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BWD73 said..
Hey Coque, I now have a Carolina 24" and I love it. I have come off a 2018 Star Allstar, and for me, the Carolina just feels so much more alive.
I have raced in flat, it was awesome. I have done down-winders in up 30Knots, and I felt that was it's limit, for the average paddler. I have even surfed in head-high surf, be it a pretty soft reef break (my mates where very impressed when I sent them I registered top speed of 27Km ). The board does everything I want.
I am not a small paddler at 189cm and 85-90Kg but I considering a 22.5 as a step down, to use in flatter conditions and bay chop, which say's a lot for the stability. In my opinion the Carolina is so good I wouldn't consider a Ninja unless you're only on rivers and lakes.

Hey BWD73, thank you very much for your feedback and my apologies for the delay replying you.

Shortly after my last post I took the short route and ordered a Carolina 24" that I'll receive in a couple days and a Ninja 22'' that I'll receive in two weeks. I also own a 2019 Sprint 23'' and 2018 25'' ACE, and my wife owns a 2019 Allstar 24.5" and 2019 Puma 26" so I'll have a few to compare. ;-)

Does any one know how strong (or not) are the Carolinas?
I've seen a lot of them breaking, specially on top of the side rails. It looks like the boards are super light and super fragile...

Anyone have any opinions on 21.5" vs 22.5" Carolina? Trying to decide for a one board quiver. 80-90% of my paddling is on flat water but I live near some pretty sweet DW stuff as well. Any ideas on speed difference in flat water? Assuming balance etc is no issue...
Thanks!

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JZOrewa said..
Does any one know how strong (or not) are the Carolinas?
I've seen a lot of them breaking, specially on top of the side rails. It looks like the boards are super light and super fragile...

Unfortunately the first versions are quite fragile I think. A friend of mine got one of the early ones and the top of the rails is broken as well.

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JZOrewa said..

JonesySUP said..

JZOrewa said..
Does any one know how strong (or not) are the Carolinas?
I've seen a lot of them breaking, specially on top of the side rails. It looks like the boards are super light and super fragile...

I spotted this which is a great idea to help with the top edges.

Great idea!
Just got a 2nd hand 22'5", one side was repaired as it cracked.
Tried this morning, looks fast! It was ok on flat water and a little of wind. Stability is similar to my 2015 Starboard Race 25".
It is super light, probably why it is so fragile.

Had My first race on the 22.5 board in flat/chop conditions, 8km total. It feels good, easy to drag behind another board. Doing turns is not so easy if it's not flat, the board gets very unstable when I come back to lift the nose. Managed to fall once while going straight, lost balance and couldn't recover. The board was half full of water after jumping back, and it takes a while for this water to drain.
Yesterday had a couple of short up and downwinds on 12 knots of wind. Going upwind you have to go back and forth on the deck to avoid having water pouring in. Going downwind, the same. It catches bumps well, but if the board tilts you'll fill the board with water.
It also surfs really well, the only thing again is that it gets full of water when the wave breakes.
I think all this issue with water coming in is due to me not knowing where to step on the deck. I see other guys with the same board nit having this problem. Thats my first dugout, so I guess it is a bit different than the flat deck boards regarding position on the deck.
Here are some pics of the board.

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JZOrewa said..

JZOrewa said..

JonesySUP said..

JZOrewa said..
Does any one know how strong (or not) are the Carolinas?
I've seen a lot of them breaking, specially on top of the side rails. It looks like the boards are super light and super fragile...

I spotted this which is a great idea to help with the top edges.

Great idea!
Just got a 2nd hand 22'5", one side was repaired as it cracked.
Tried this morning, looks fast! It was ok on flat water and a little of wind. Stability is similar to my 2015 Starboard Race 25".
It is super light, probably why it is so fragile.

Had My first race on the 22.5 board in flat/chop conditions, 8km total. It feels good, easy to drag behind another board. Doing turns is not so easy if it's not flat, the board gets very unstable when I come back to lift the nose. Managed to fall once while going straight, lost balance and couldn't recover. The board was half full of water after jumping back, and it takes a while for this water to drain.
Yesterday had a couple of short up and downwinds on 12 knots of wind. Going upwind you have to go back and forth on the deck to avoid having water pouring in. Going downwind, the same. It catches bumps well, but if the board tilts you'll fill the board with water.
It also surfs really well, the only thing again is that it gets full of water when the wave breakes.
I think all this issue with water coming in is due to me not knowing where to step on the deck. I see other guys with the same board nit having this problem. Thats my first dugout, so I guess it is a bit different than the flat deck boards regarding position on the deck.
Here are some pics of the board.

You will get use the the dug out im downwind on the 22.5 it now

Well, as predicted the rail cracked (in 2 places), so I decided to reinforce both rails before it spreads.

After removing the rail tape I could see the cracks better, but just after grinding I could really see how bad it was. Once you grind the board (took me 3 hours) and remove the all the filling (and there is a LOT of filling) you can see how bad the construction is. The carbon layer is so thin and the foam has a so low density that you can squeeze the rails like a soft ball. And after grinding the board I found a place where there was no carbon fibre at all. It looks like there as a wrinkle on the fibre when it came out of the mould, and this wrinkle got sanded to make the surface even, so where the wrinkle was there's a gap of about 150mm long and 1mm wide where you can see the foam.

For this job I ended up using a 240g carbon fibre that comes in a roll like a tape, 100mm wide. I put the tape on the top of the rails, going around it, and put another 50mm wide tape inside the rails. The result after the epoxy is cured is really strong.
I'm doing the filling again, but using very little epoxy as I used peel ply over the carbon fibre so the surface is almost ready to be painted. I'll upload more pictures when the job is done.

Just one more thing regarding weight; the board was 10.98kg before I started the fix (without the fin), and after the carbon fibre and epoxy it weighs 10.75kg, so you can see how much filling was took out of the board. They could've put another carbon fibre layer like I'm doing now and still have a light board without compromising the structure (NSP website says the board weighs around 11.43kg).

Great work.
I love the spray booth/trough. Maybe if you sand all that paint and filler off you could loose some more weight off the board!
I'm not an expert but carbon isn't great in compression. Lots of load/ compression in that area on the rail.
The problem is everyone wants a sub 10 kg board like the pros. Then it breaks.