Just for anyone interested after asking for recommendations I went with grant miller for my new board - pics below - cant wait to get out on it!!
Now had around 6 hours on the board, it's a custom size so not much point me saying what it does well/badly etc but I am extremely pleased with it and would highly recommend working with grant to anyone in the market for a quality board
Thanks, yeah I thought the angle looked kind of extreme but does kinda make sense - I'm intermediate so not chasing giants just yet and told him the board was for sydney conditions so should be ok.. Sure he knew what he was doing
As for the time yep sounds poor but at the age of 28 I had 2 slipped discs in my lower back less than 2 months ago so I am easing back into it gradually as paddling position puts a fair bit of load on it
Nice board mate - I also have a Miller V-Skate, although alot bigger.
I contacted Grant to come down off a mal (after buying a Firewire Addvance that I hated) and he shaped me a V-Skate (8'0" X 22 1/2" X 3 3/16).
Board doesnt feel like as long as 8ft and feels like a shorter board than what it is. When I originally ordered this I was alot larger - 124kgs. Thank god I have now trimmed down a bit (110kgs and dropping).
Grant is a great bloke and I highly recommend his services. He spent over an hour and a half chatting to me in the initial design of the V-Skate assessing what it is I was wanting etc... You definetly cant complain about that level of service at all...
I have another Miller on order now - F-Skate - 7'2" x 23" x 3 1/2.
Ill post some pics of both boards once I get a chance...
Molly, just curious, what didn't you like about the addvance. The paddle?, too corky?, didn't turn well? or something else?.
I got the addvance as I am/was a larger lad. The addvance provided what I needed at the time, lots of volume. To be honest I fell into the trap of buying off the rack and believing the marketing.
CONS:
I had it set up as a quad mostly and found this to be sluggish, when changed to a thruster it was slower.
The turn was not responsive (definitely worse as a quad), found that I was waiting for it to respond to what it is I was wanting to do - most likely rider error, but what can you do? If it doesnt work it is surely the boards fault and not mine
INBETWEEN:
Paddle was ok, no mal but definitely no HPSB to paddle. Duck diving was easy but again I was a big bopper when riding this.
PROS:
I will give the board this though - it held up very very well. Cant fault the construction of the board thats for sure.
For the price I paid for the Addvance (over the $1000 mark new, inc fins and leash) I believe I have received a far superior service and product from a shaper. Grants boards are not cheap, however they are in line with the Firewire prices and far out perform them in every way.
Molly,have you seen grants new model the subx single fin? Looks pretty good after reading his info on it.
Firstly I have no association with grant, I don't get a discount and he has not asked me to write anything on here
Honestly before you buy another Asian made off the rack board - give him a call
Before I ordered my board I was so concerned about whether my level of surfing warranted a board of the quality he produces I.e I'm pretty crap - am I really going to notice any difference between this and a cheap board...
Thing is a good surfer can make a plank look awesome
For the other 99% of people we need all the help we can get!!
The rate at which I have improved on my v-skate is insane compared to the cheap mass production board I bought off the peg in bondi and struggled with for 18 months
Most importantly I'm enjoying surfing more and that's gotta be worth the investment!
This post is credit where it's due and nothing more