Sunday, August 17, 2008

Last Weekend


No surfing today, so here is something from last weekend. Me on the 10 BK Pro.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

DW: I've been riding a 9-8 Starboard and loving it ... until a pal got himself the 10' Jimmy Lewis and I tried that one. Relatively speaking, it's a rocket ship. It's somewhat more difficult to paddle around but it's way faster on the wave. As I recall, you once owned the JL10. In terms of stability and zippiness on the wave, how do the PSH and BK Pro compare? The Starboard is fat all around, so you can really get up on the nose. I take it the others are meant to surf off the rear. Am I right? Thanks!

NC Paddle Surfer said...

It's hard to compare accurately something I last surfed in Dec/Jan, but I will try.

You're right, the JL was a rocket ship. It was a love hate relationship. Hated for being so unstable at 200 lbs. Loved for its speed.

JL revised the rocker of the 10' for 2008. It now has more rocker than mine did. I have not surfed the new rocker.

The PSH and BK Pro are both fast. I can't be sure exactly how fast compared to the old JL 10. What the BK Pro and PSH did better I can recall. They pearl less, make steep drops better, and turn quicker.

The PSH is the most corky of the three. The BK Pro the thinnest.

I prefer the PSH and C4s over JLs.

The cost to own C4s right now is less than other brands for us. A local shop now stocks them, so we get the locals discount. Figure in the included deck pad, tail pad, and no shipping cost to me, and it's a good deal. JLs and PSH cost more. Maybe this is making me biased.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the info. There's no C4 dealer in my neck of the woods but there is a PSH dealer in NJ, about five hours south of me that I might go see in the fall. So far, I've gotten all my boards sight unseen and undemo'd (no choice)but I'd like to change that if I can, esp as I go shorter, narrower and thinner.

NC Paddle Surfer said...

I was surfing tonight with my friend who rides the JL 10'4. He asked to try my BK Pro, so we swapped boards. His reaction when he returned my BK, was FAST board. He also liked the nose scoop.

My reaction surfing his board, was wow this rocker feels straight. I had to get way, way, back to keep the nose from sticking.

You should start seeing more C4s in local surf shops. C4 has reps for each zone on the east coast. It has been a struggle to get ignorant surf shop owners who don't SUP to pick up unknown brands (to them) like C4.

Anonymous said...

I did try a C4 like yours for about 5 minutes a while back and it was wayyy too unsteady for me. It was so thin and narrow it felt like a potato chip. Probably I could get used to it with time but I was more than happy when my 5 min. were up.

So far, I haven't owned a board with what I consider sufficient nose rocker. The 9-8 Starboard seems pretty flat to me. I guess the tradeoff is stability but the 9-8 is so stable to begin with, I wish the company had shaped at least a little more rocker into it.

NC Paddle Surfer said...

I'd love to try the 10 JL again, just to gauge how much my balance skill has progressed. Boards that seemed impossible to stand on one year ago, are effortless today. It just takes me longer to progress than younger guys. Us old guys can get there too. That makes me stoked to get a 9'3 this Winter.

I will say, none of the C4s I've seen are lacking in nose scoop. That seems to be one critical feature they got right from the beginning.