I'm thinking of buying a used 9' Laird Surfer or 9' Laird Surfer Hybrid. Look at the images below and you'll see that the Surfer (blue & bamboo) has a classic longboard nose and the Surfer Hybrid (yellow) has a more drawn in nose.
A few questions, please.
1) Was the construction of the Lairds with the BAMBOO DECKS (blue Surfer below) any good?
2) I have heard that the Surftech Lairds were built really well. Does the "EPS" sticker on the tail mean that it was a Pearson Arrow Laird made by Surftech?
3) The boards on his website www.LairdStandup.com have a lam on the bottom that says "Xterra Boards." I looked that up and the only Xterra I see makes (or made) inflatable sups. Does anyone know how well the Lairds by Xterra Boards were made?
Thanks
Hi, no they are not Surftech tuflite construction. The boards pictured were know for their build quality issues. The bamboo might be a better choice if you want either.
I have 2 Laird 10'6 Classic nose rider Tufflites and they are bullet proof. Love them both.
However the construction that you mentioned are known to be renown as a weaker, softer build as they are glassed epoxy.
Surftech is a whole different technology and is heavier then the epoxy boards pictured in your post.
Personally I don't mind the heavier more durable surftech Lairds. Have a good look over the board and see whether it has any soft spots of water stains on the bamboo deck.
I would hold off any look for a tufflite construction Laird.
However,If it is well looked after grab it as they are pretty rare.
Thanks for your input, guys.
I was just talking to a guy that used to carry the later versions of Lairds boards and he said he preferred them over the Surftech because they are thinner and lighter.
Below are a couple from Lairds now defunct website. The grey one is the 9' CARBON Surfer at only 16 pounds would be sweet! Used Lairds are hard to find in the US too. People really hang on to them here.
Zoom in and on the bottom of both boards in front of the center fin box you can see the "Xterra Boards" label. Couldn't find anything online about Xterra. Anyone know?
No experience with any version of these boards but the Xterras seem to have a considerably different planshape as well as quad placement. It could just be that the graphic isn't accurate, or they made some pretty big changes at some point.
I have the 11 footer in that dodgy construction. Almost every time I use it it gets an injury. It keeps dinging and I keep repairing it. But for an 11 footer it is a nice board to surf. I have been told the 9 ft boards were good for surfing in their day.
A lot of "big names" (shapers, riders) were tempted in the early days to save money by avoiding the established Asian manufacturing companies (Boardworks, Surftech, Cobra, ...) and go directly find some small Chinese companies to have boards made very cheaply.
Just like some fools built on the cheap carbon fiber deep water submarines to make a quick profit...
Of course, disasters ensued, and these numerous companies disappeared.
I thought the painted boards from the laird website did have a really good construction and shape. I had a carbon one held up pretty well until I sold it. I took some small chips out of the rail with my paddle as it was one of my first boards and was just wide enough to hit combined with my technique. Didn't seem to bother my carbon paddle though. The deck was really resistant to dents, but I think carbon is more brittle in terms of impact resistance.
Nice shapes but poor construction.
Keep looking for a Surftec Laird which are classics and will last for ever.
If you have doubts walk away ..... plenty more boards out there
Select to expand quoteslsurf said..
I thought the painted boards from the laird website did have a really good construction and shape.
I happens, not all boards were bad at these cheap factories.
But if 30% of your boards are defective, you go bankrupt.
... meaning that 70% of the boards were still good enough, so you CAN find not-too-bad ones even if the construction was bad enough to doom the company.
In Perth we had the Australian importer close by so saw a lot of the early Laird models come through. A lot of my mates loved them as the shapes were timeless and you still see the odd one popping up. The Surftech ones were heavy and built to last which suited some surfers. The other construction on the EPS ERA were a LOT lighter but you had to treat them like a custom and take care of them. Unfortunately we never saw the carbon boards in Australia which was a shame as they looked awesome.
so in summary Magentawave great boards, awesome shapes that are timeless but you do have to look after them and find a good 2nd hand one
phil
I remember a rep on Maui for Hot Sails Maui telling me that if you wanted stuff made in Asia that you had to have a guy there always inspecting the product and basically baby sitting to make sure the quality was consistent. In the case of Hot Sails Maui then, someone would fly over and personally inspect the entire order before loading everything into the containers.
Obviously I'm guessing, but I assume Laird stopped making boards because the SUP surfing market pretty much took a nose dive. (At least that's the case here in Southern California.)
I don't like heavy boards so I'm going to make my own again by having it CNC'ed and then I'll finish shape and glass it myself. I am already going through the Shape 3DX Warehouse and looking at longboard surfboard designs that I can tweak the dimensions. The reason I'm going over the longboard surfboard designs instead of long SUP designs is because most of the long SUP designs there are funky. Not done yet, but there's some pretty nice ones. Ultimately I will end up with a very surfy 9'er with an outline and rails similar to the yellow or carbon Laird in the images I posted previously.
Select to expand quotemagentawave said..
most of the long SUP designs there are funky.
Really?
If I lived in California, I would have a lot of Infinity in my quiver :-)
I have briefly owned several Infinity's and didn't care for them. (To each his own.) The latest was a factory carbon 8-2 RNB. I wanted to like it cuz it was so light and looked super cool, but for me the rails were way too thick, outline was too straight and the tail was too wide. Having said that, the construction of their factory carbon boards are super light and absolutely bombproof. Like a moron, I jumped off a little retaining wall and the full weight and force of my 200 pounds jammed the rail into the top of the pointy edge of a boulder and it did NOTHING! Unbelievable but true.
You must a least like The New Deal. I seem to remember you were considering buying a used 9'x26" just a few weeks ago.
This is may be bigger than what you are looking for, but there is a 10'6" Laird surftech on CL in Ojai. ventura.craigslist.org/spo/d/ojai-laird-surftech-sup-by-pearson-arrow/7625606856.html
Select to expand quotemagentawave said..
I have briefly owned several Infinity's and didn't care for them. (To each his own.) The latest was a factory carbon 8-2 RNB. I wanted to like it cuz it was so light and looked super cool, but for me the rails were way too thick, outline was too straight and the tail was too wide. Having said that, the construction of their factory carbon boards are super light and absolutely bombproof. Like a moron, I jumped off a little retaining wall and the full weight and force of my 200 pounds jammed the rail into the top of the pointy edge of a boulder and it did NOTHING! Unbelievable but true.
It took you several Infinity sups to decide you didn't like them?? 
Select to expand quoteSurlygringo said..
You must a least like The New Deal. I seem to remember you were considering buying a used 9'x26" just a few weeks ago.
I do like the New Deal and would like to find a good deal on a clean production carbon that is 9' to 9-6 x 29. After the initial major drop off from new price of $2000+ they seem to hold their value fairly well in the $1000 to $1200 range.
Select to expand quoteSlab said..magentawave said..
I have briefly owned several Infinity's and didn't care for them. (To each his own.) The latest was a factory carbon 8-2 RNB. I wanted to like it cuz it was so light and looked super cool, but for me the rails were way too thick, outline was too straight and the tail was too wide. Having said that, the construction of their factory carbon boards are super light and absolutely bombproof. Like a moron, I jumped off a little retaining wall and the full weight and force of my 200 pounds jammed the rail into the top of the pointy edge of a boulder and it did NOTHING! Unbelievable but true.
It took you several Infinity sups to decide you didn't like them??
Yes because each design was radically different than the other. The one commonality that most share are thick clunky rails which I don't like. The V2 (I think that's the name. It's the one with the step rails.) looks super cool though.
Sorry it took forever to reply but this forum won't let me quote you when using iphone of ipad. Finally remembered now that I'm on my computer.
I have often thought how good would it be for the original lairds to be redone in the latest pvc/ carbon build,light/ strong ,I personally think they would be popular again
Select to expand quoteRossall said..
The new 2023 Kalama's are pretty dam close and built to last.
Rossall yes, Kalama,Infinity,Jimmy Lewis,all kinetic by the way!that's the build quality I was referring to ,but with the timeless lines of the Pearson/ laird,
,just saying.
One of our local crew just picked up a non bamboo version which is in immaculate condition for $500. Slightly yellowed but for a 10 year old board it's not bad. I think if you find one in good condition at the right money they are a keeper you just need to treat them with respect
