Following on from this thread:
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Surfing/Shortboards/Shark-Shield-Freedom?page=1
The Wife organised my family to all go in and get me a shark zapper for my Birthday, they got me the new sharkshield freedom+ surf from Ocean and earth.
Thought i would share my experiences for anyone interested.
First thoughts i was surprised the unit is relatively weighty than i expected, and you can notice it even with the board under arm, however yet to see if you notice in the water.
The Kicker is taller then a regular tail pad, but not as bad as i thought from the first concepts of this design.
The install was fairly straightforward, although being a sign writer i'm used to applying decals, hardest part was removing the existing tailpad.
I've got a shock playing with electricity at the house once so i'm a bit nervous of the shocks
Pics of unit on my grovel board, yet to put on my everyday short board. I am in no way affiliated with shark shield, just thought I'll share for those interested.
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The Wife organised my family to all go in and get me a shark zapper for my Birthday
... happy birthday...
I've got the rpela housed in to a few boards. In the small wave board it is definitely noticeable compared to others without it. When the waves are decent with a bit of grunt I don't notice it at all except for the occasional zap
I had a ride on a board that has it and it's like sitting in a bath that has a current running through it. Bit off putting at first but it doesn't feel like a shock, just that you are sitting in an electrical field. You do get the occasional shock but they aren't painful or anything just annoying.
It's a bit more than static. You cop them if your standing up in the water and lift the board to jump over the whitewash or when you duck dive and come out the back of the wave with you hands on the nose. The thing I don't like about the rpela is the corrosion you get on the brass connections but I wasn't keen on stickers with salt water and sand. Not sure if I'm going to house them into my two new sticks
Mate I rinse it with fresh water and even do the bi carb with vinegar. Salt water and electric current = corrosion. It's ok if you ride bigger boards but in my 5'8 it's definitely noticeable.
I have one on my 5'2 groveler (24lts) and you notice the heel weight at first but quickly get over it. 5'2 is well under the recommended board size for this unit, and for that I cop a fair whack of shocks every session, but on the plus side I haven't been eaten by a shark yet. It comes with a soft plastic heel kick for the days you are feeling lucky or trips to the ments and returns the board to its pre-installation feeling. Not that it's a big issue.
the test looked pretty effective
but the only shark that is a worry is the GW
So sooner or later they need to test the shield on them
Not to many reef sharks ripping limbs off
Hey JB cheers for the response so quickly , I could imagine it is a hard task with so much red tape .
Someone on the normal surfers side is appreciated
Tried the sharksheild out today, i was a bit worried about the shocks as i saw someone on SS facebook saying he only uses the unit 10% of the time because of the shocks and it ruining his surfing experience.
I kept the unit off until i was past the whitewash and into paddling. And also turned it off before i pulled the board out the water.
Once out i wasnt sure the unit was working as i couldnt feel anything at all. I put my hand under the board i could feel what i would describe as a half strength mild static electricity shock.
Only time i noticed the kicker height was duckdiving because this board has heaps of volume i push the tail with my foot to sink it deeper.
I only got one shock and it was coming up from duckdiving some whitewash and i got what felt like a static electricity shock. Im not sure if it was a full shock though as it was nothing like what ive read people whinge about.
The electrodes show some corrosion after just one session but reading on the net this is normal and just requires regular cleaning with bicarb soda.
so far so good i didnt notice the weight in the water at all however this is a very big high volume board i was using. Might be different on my regular shortboard.
One bad thing i will say is the logo part on the tailpad doesnt seam to adhere to the backing glue so may have some lift issues (i have had this in the past with other tailpads logos) there was even a notice in the packaging saying sharksheild are aware of this and working on a solution. I hope they make just that part of the tailpad available for purchase cos i dont fancy forking out $100 if they crap out regularly.
When Dave wanted to make a surfboard shark deterrent, he opted for the placement in between the fins, for best protection from damage. Well in this photo i can say it worked a treat Sadly the two outer fin boxes didn't fair so well