Yesterday I had my first proper sail on the board. Fully powered up 4.7 overpowered at times, rough and messy Port Phillip Bay.
Well I am super happy, the board performed exactly to the design brief. It planed up well considering fatso was on board and accelerated swiftly to an impressive top speed. It felt smooth but at the same time stiff and crisp, the V and concave really doing the job while the construction felt solid. It appeared to have the ability to really vary the turn radius, could snap it really tight when I pushed hard but also do nice high speed carves.
The speed was excellent, I found that if I really got my body weight out more like a slalom stance and pointed my toes to keep the board flat it just got up on the tail and flew, the V and concave really flattening out the ride. When I wanted a bit of a breather I could stand more upright and just cruise, nothing phasing the composure.
The board has noticable spriral V in the tail so when you really got it over on the rail it turned amazingly well and smoothly.
I am super impressed and happy...nailed it! a great freewave board.
The new Shock Wave fin prototypes
It was also first try of my prototype 'Shock Wave" fins. Again a big smile on my face, they felt great, fast and grippy. Let go a couple of times when I landed sideways but to be expected with my s..t jumping technique.
If I get a chance this arvo I will take more detaied photos of the design to explain it.
Oh and again a big thank you to Peter Ross at OES for his superb craftsmanship. We are so lucky to have great custom board builders here and across the ditch so I encourage you to support them, they make great products.
OK..so the design details. Its a Freewave board...230 x 61 x 97 litres. Quite parrallel to just in front of the rear strap then a noticable kick into the swallow tail. Most of the volume centred around the front straps so its quite floaty when off the plane.
The bottom shape is designed for rough water.
V and concave is a big part of the story. It has pretty generous V right through and as I said even more in the tail. the double concave is deepest just forward of the mast base and fades out at the tail.
The rocker is designed for all-round versatility. Flat enough to be fast but some tail kick to loosen it up. The V sprirals from 400 off so the rail has more rocker than the CL.
Tri fin setup..US box for the center fin and 130mm slot boxes for the side fins..this gives lots of adjustability. You can also see the new Wave fin prototypes 10cm side fins and 23 centre..you would run a smaller centre fin in waves but the bigger one is better for the bay mess. The side boxes have 1.5 degree tow in which it needs because of the V.
Built by OES the construction is fantastic. Its a carbon deck and S glass bottom with carbon and innegra reinforcements. Bullit broof but still very light. Corecell is used rather than PVC.
I am super happy with it, a fantasticaly fun design and I would say after my first session that it is the best freewave board I have ridden.
Peter Ross is set up to make them, there are 4 sizes designed..116 litre, 105 litre, 97 litre and 88 litre. He would love to make some more I am sure, contact me if interested.
I'm really curious to see how it performs in waves, that bottom shape really says control in chop which is very appealing. Would you say it's a very wave biased FSW or a blasting biased wave board?
Select to expand quoteGrantmac said..
I'm really curious to see how it performs in waves, that bottom shape really says control in chop which is very appealing. Would you say it's a very wave biased FSW or a blasting biased wave board?
Great question and at the moment I don't have a definitive answer. My design breif was for a real crossover board, majority use for me would be Port Phillip Bay bump and jump and farting around on the Bay swells. However I did intend for the designs to be capable of a dabble in Waves why I gave them some tail rocker and spiral V as well as the swallow tail and side fins. If you run a straight edge along the rocker at the ends of the swallow tail there is 5 plus mm of tail rocker which should be suffiecient for fun in small to medium waves.
Note that I am a hack wave sailor and I will need to get somebody with much higher skills than me to assess it.
An advantage of doing the boards as one off builds is there is quite some customisation that can be done, strap positions and configerations, fin box types and placements and we could even change the rocker, it would just be the case of having another rocker jig, certainly not out of the question. The CAD fine is easy to alter.
I will see if I can get a few more skilled riders on it to give thier impression of its Wave ability, but as a Bump and Jump board I can already say without hessitation...winner, winner chicken dinner !
Thanks Martin
interesting fins ,do you use different sizes or shapes ,on waves .
board looks great 
97 litres pefect size for me .
The center fins are prototypes. In the bay running a larger center fin and small side fins, in waves you would go larger side fin and smaller centre. In the bay you need a larger center fin as it is so choppy and messy.
I was really happy with them, lots of grip, fast and they pivoted well. I have a few tweaks to do but I am very possitive that I have the basis of a really good Wave fin for thruster setups.
I am really stoked with my first impressions of the board, I believe it will prove to be a fantastic all-rounder.
A couple of the local Pookipa crew had a fang on the board yesterday as Fatso was on Slalom gear
The feedback was very possitive..."really nice board".."lots of fun"..."great bay wave board" "smooth"
Those are almost words straight out of the design brief so I was really happy to hear them.
It even did its first loop, something that won't happen with me on board.
2 Sessions on the board over the weekend. Windy Easterly at Ricketts and typical short super messy chop that makes it really uncomfortable. The board excelled in these conditions, with the V and concave smooting out the smaller wind chop really efficiently, I have never been this comfortable at Ricketts in this much wind. Super happy, this is a really good board and meeting my design brief probably beyond my expectation.
Comfortable without feeling dead, fast enough, turns great with an ability to vary the turn radius at will and most of all just super fun.
Stoked!
The fins are working great as well, you really don't notice them. I had a few spin outs landing chop hops but just my crap technoque and yhey were easy to pull in again. Side fins are perfect but I am going to tweak the centre fin a touch to add more area so I can ride a size down.
Great weekend, great gear. Look out Dyno there is a new boy in town!!! Ha.
A great session on it again yesterday with 4.7 Killer. Loving this board, most fun board I have ever had.
