I have been studying board designs and where they are going. Just in case I decide to shape new race boards this Winter. I'm willing to buy a production board, should I find one that blows my mind. This Bark was nice, and had one feature I found superior to my board, but the other performance features were about the same, just different.
The feature that impressed me was the template. The width/volume is biased toward the front. I think this promotes early planing and reduces pearling. I could feel that extra meat up front really help when the nose drops and the tail lifts, and you know it's time to paddle and catch that runner. The more pointy nose, balanced templates (F-14, Naish 14 footer, and my home built board) can't ride the nose as hard, making powering onto a plane more tricky skill wise.
What does it all mean? IF I ever build one myself again, it will have this style template. If any of my buds want to join us downwinding, I'd tell them to buy the Bark. For now, it's the best of the production 14s available on the east coast.
One final thought. If you haven't tried the Elite Racer from Quickblade, you must! Jacky was using this paddle. When we swapped paddles, the difference was amazing. The weightless Elite Racer allows you to maintain an insanely fast paddle cadence. Weight matters big time for racing strokes.
Foote with width/volume up front. I like it!
F-14 without width/volume up front. A balanced template.
Naish 14 without width/volume up front. But I like the tail design!
Bark with width/volume up front. I like it!
4 comments:
You hit on what I think I like so much about Bill Foote's downwind boards. The volume and width up front. If you look at his board from the side you'll see the top is almost flat despite the curve of the bottom....not so much rocker as rake. That adds a lot of volume. Its ridiculous how easily they get up on a swell.
Thanks Bob. I was hoping this post would solicit comments from you and others.
If the economy was better, I'd order 2 Foote's for sure.
What I want to know is how you got the Bark 14 in NC faster than we got it to Hawaii...aaaarrrgh. I have one on order but no eta yet. It's a good sign you got to ride one. Maybe ours will show up soon.
Sounds like you're doing a lot of downwinders which should be a blast in NC. That's the trend I see where we start off surfing and then get hooked by the downwind bug.
We don't officially have the Barks either. This Bark board is a demo that has been passed between dealers all over the mainland to generate buzz.
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