i seem to be seeing a lot more longer boards ie sic bullets on fb and I know a goldie shop that sells sic have been selling quite a few.
have paddlers had enough of pretzel narrow rockerless boards for dw ing
or what , why
and are any of the other brands going to come to the party
excluding the 17'4 ace which I know nothing about other then it has no rudder
Mate of mine has been on a DC 17 for a good while now, he loves it but he doesn't DW it. I am waiting for him to move on from that board and I will buy it :)
If you ask me big boards like the Bullet are fast, stable, fun and easy. If you can take the time to remember to relax on them and focus on timing they will do the work for you but frantic paddling will exhaust you fast as they are big, heavy boards.
In most conditions over 12 knots or so in the ocean I've found they are faster the best race 14's with a much higher top end speed on bumps as they extend and open up. Once you got that speed and acceleration, linking become easier that you'd think and that's when you come in talking of best ever's.
The Ace GT is one I can't wait to paddle. Much more stable than it's 14' counterpart and the talk from people who know is that it gets on bumps easier like the 14' Ace but doesn't need as much wind and bumps as the Big Bullet. Won't have the top end legs of the Bullet but will almost certainly leave the Bullet in the marginal, fickle stuff. Time will tell on that one for me but it's good to have options.
Why more people aren't paddling them is sad. For all but the young elite who need to race 12'6" and 14's these bigger boards will make your ocean time more fun and you'll finish runs closer to the elite which just makes sense.
Too many people have fallen for the great stand up paddle swindle that the fastest board is necessarily the most fun. Eventually they will all come to their senses and realise that downwinding and racing go together like spicy food and haemorrhoids. One may lead to the other but it isn't as enjoyable.
Just come in from a DW run, three of us have the 17'4 sic and one on a 14' sic. Too much fun, runners runners galore, board does the work for you. My mate on 14' is with a doubt a quicker and fitter paddler, but the 17'4 just pulls away. Great boards, love em!
This topic got me reminiscing about Bullet's, Maui and the footage of Connor towards the end of the Maui 2 Molokai race.
Enjoy!!
I borrowed a bullet once from my experience and view point it was a great board but just too big for me , 70 kilos dripping wet ATM , but yeah the wind was really good a I did a quick short down winder and I'm pretty sure I got one of the longest runs I've ever had to date but getting out at the end was a friggin night mare and getting the board all alone up onto the roof racks was even harder in the wind
so for me I would never be able to use one the storage issues at home and the pure size of the board is most likely the reason you don't see too many off them around , I felt and most likely looked like a kook failing around carrying that board about that day
I for one seriously hope that Unlimited's make a bit of a resurgence, because when your my height/weight etc they're basically a 14ft-er!!!
Levels the playing field a bit…!
The design philosophy of SIC's Mark Raaphorst is what got me onto a SIC 14 Bullet in the first place, and that is that "you're faster if you stay on your board". Hence they never did 24' wide boards.