Jacky's Newly Painted Paddle

This is a Shaka Pu'u cut down 1/2 narrower than stock.

Fun Morning at CB Inlet

Aug 16 CB Inlet from fishersfort on Vimeo.

C4 Carry Handle Improvement

Handle Hole Plug in C4 Bat Tail 9'0 from fishersfort on Vimeo.

I love the new handle holes in our C4s, but they do scare me. Twice in 10 sessions now, my toes have dropped into the hole.

I don't want a broken toe! I already have one toe that will never bend again for the rest of my life because it was broken a few years ago. It hurts like a bitch when it gets bent beyond what it can take.

My home made plug is a white nylon block drilled and grooved on the bottom for bungee clearance. I stuck a small piece of deck padding on the top side. The bungee is held in place with a small drop of epoxy in the bottom of the hole.

Rocker Comparison C4 versus PSH

Here is my rocker jig sitting on the 9'6 production PSH. The jig is set to the rocker of a C4 9'0 Bat Tail.

The rocker aft of center roughly matches on both boards. The rocker forward of center is pretty close until you reach the nose, then the C4 has way more scope.

When you place a straight edge across the middle, side to side, the C4 is flat in the middle with a slight roll (or chine) near the rail. The PSH is single concave in the middle.

What does this mean? Nothing, its just fun to compare and know the difference.

By the way, this comparison only applies to these two sizes. My C4 10 BK pro has a straighter rocker than my 10 PSH.

C4 goes QUAD

Jacky's new ride. 9'0 bat tail C4 QUAD. Yes, C4 has gone 5 fin on all the high end sticks.


Where's the nose?

Potato Chip!

Fun Times at CB Inlet

My Shaka Pu'u paddle blade all sexed up.

Great weekend of glassy endless rides.


CB Inlet Aug 10 from fishersfort on Vimeo.

Magic Surf

Sorry no photos yet. Might be getting a photo taken by a friend later.

Mirror glassy waist high surf all morning with super long rides near the CB inlet. Surfed 3 1/2 hours without rest on the 10' BK Pro. I love this board. Tried it thruster and quad. I prefer quad. Faster!

P.S. the PSH is SOLD.

10' PSH versus 10' C4 BK Pro

I made the mistake of walking into the local surf shop selling C4. I spotted a beautiful BK Pro on the rack. They offered me a deal I could not refuse.

I surfed it this morning and tonight in small waves. Here are my first impressions of how it compares to my 10 x 29 hand glassed PSH.

C4 heavier.
PSH super light, which explains all the repairs it has needed.

Paddling, C4 goes much straighter. I feel like I can paddle all day on the same side. My paddle technique is better too. The narrower (27") C4 allows me a more vertical paddle stroke.
PSH, 3 paddle strokes per side max.

Punching through surf paddling out. C4 wins here too. I love the nose shape. All boards need a similar nose.

Catching waves. The C4 wins again. I can paddle into waves with less effort and catch waves that are more swell, than a real wave.

Surfing, the PSH wins. It turns quicker, with less effort. I'm getting better swinging the C4 around with each session, but it does take more strength and more paddle help to really rip in small surf.

Pearling. Tie. Each board makes late drops with ease. Two of the best out there for this.

Paddling down wind with a strong breeze at my back. The C4 is easier. The flatter rocker makes it more pitch stable.

Stability side to side. PSH wins. But, C4 is also comfortable. Not tired at all. Easy to ride at 200 lbs. Stabilty in pitch, C4 wins.

Conclusion, the PSH is a more hard core ripper and better surfer. The C4 is easier to deal with and catch waves. Both are fun, just different.

I surfed the C4 quad and thruster. I need better waves to pick my fin preference.

Grip Makes you a Superhero

Grip, you need it on your paddle too. Jacky finally gave in and allowed me to put ReDeck traction grip on her paddle shaft. I've been using it all summer. Today she felt the power, like a ninja warrior with her paddle.

Do yourself a favor and super charge your paddle shaft with abrasive grip. You'll wonder how you ever went without.

Same goes for deck pads too. Today I rode Jacky's 9'6 PSH with NSI deck pad. It felt like a greased pig. On my board, I'm used to standing on Dakine's longboard pads inset into my deck pad. The same way all the guys at Paddle Surf Hawaii do it. The Dakine pad is textured like a stomp pad, with an aggressive diamond pattern. What a difference this makes in your surfing.

Check back tomorrow for info on my new board! Yep, new board in the house.

Pop Out Board Repair

Jacky dropped her 9'6 PSH on the driveway and dinged the tail. This lead me in search of better do it myself board repair skill. Thanks to www.boardlady.com for some tips, I've just completed my best repair job effort to date.

My first step was getting a Pantone color guide. They cost over $100 new, or $25 used on Ebay. Printing professionals are required to replace their Pantone guides each year. It's a quality control rule (possible color fade with age). That is why used ones are easy to find. Pantones includes every color you could ever want. Find your match, then go to Home Depot for some exterior gloss latex and you're half way there.

Next step was buying an airbrush to apply the paint. Cost $20. Set the air compressor at 25 psi, thin the paint with 20% water and I was ready to paint!

The actual board repair was done with Marine-Tex, then feathered with gel coat putty.

The last step is yet to be done. Polish to a gloss and blend the paint edge. The gloss paint came out flat due to spraying really light coats with the airbrush.

5 Board Design Myths

The local C4 rep sent me this article written by C4 on board design. I thought it was VERY interesting and worth sharing with the world.

It seems the new hybrid sport of stand-up paddling and surfing is getting more popular everyday. That’s great, but things are moving so fast that it is getting hard to keep up with all the advances. It seems like each day another SUP-oriented business sprouts up, and each seems to have its own ideas about equipment and techniques. Frankly, this infant sport is in an awkward phase-----------its explosive growth has outpaced the formation of a core elite. Simply put, at present there are very few seasoned authorities on SUP surfing out there, yet an increasing number of insta-experts are inflicting all sorts of baloney on the gullible SUP newcomer.
With that in mind, we thought we ought to tackle a handful of the most common SUP errors we encounter in our travels….

#1. Stand-up surfboards are just oversized long boards.

Nope. Don’t listen when you hear a little voice telling you this--------that’s just all the misfit SUBs in the used board rack whispering in your ear.
Given ample flotation and girth, just about any sort of watercraft will let you get out there and start stand-up padding. But for the discriminating surfer and paddler, there’s a lot more to progressive SUB design than merely widening a tanker.
When blown up to jumbo proportions, the drawbacks inherent in typical longboard designs-------rolled bottoms, soft & round rails, old-fashioned rockers---------become magnified. Drag is increased, response grows more sluggish, and once the board gets on a sizzling wave face the surfer finds he must wrestle an unwieldy sloth that has all the handling characteristics of a Greyhound bus with the power steering out.
Properly designed SUBs are not oversize long boards, nor are they blown-up short boards. They are stand-up surfboards-------a wholly new, rapidly-evolving class of surf craft, one that borrows design components from all the existing types of surfriding craft and combines them in a finely-tuned matrix that allows the progressive SUP surfer to lean on the paddle and push the board into places and angles no big board has ever been.

#2. A Stand-up Paddle Surfboard Must Be Wide To Be Stable.

This is one of stand-up paddle surfing’s biggest and most widespread misconceptions. Simply put, excessive width is the poor man’s solution to stability.
There are other ways to grant considerable stability to an SUB. When the outline, rail volume, bottom contour, rocker, and rail shape are put together in the proper configuration, an SUB can be amazingly stable even at 27” or 28” wide. And get this: All those boards you see in the racks with overly soft, round rails? Well, they can subtract 1 or 2 inches from a board’s stability quotient------one more reason why SUB widths are relative.
A narrower plan shape with a perfectly balanced set of design components will paddle straighter and easier and, of course, perform much more like a conventional high-performance surfboard.
Much like an airplane in flight, a stand-up surfboard is stable (or unstable) on three axes: Pitch, Yaw, and Roll. Roll instability (side-to-side) is usually the first thing the novice notices, but as SUBs become shorter or curvier you must also contend with pitch instability (the angle the nose dips up or down) and yaw (the tendency of the nose to swing side-to-side with each stroke).
Additionally, when a stand-up board is over-wide the paddler is forced to extend his paddle slant-wise off the rail, thus losing the optimum mechanical angle of the paddle stroke. The more vertical the paddle shaft as it is pulled along the rail, the more power you get with each stroke. It’s also a matter of ergonomics: The slant-wise stroke forced upon you by a too-wide board can create needless torque on your arms and shoulders, and saps your paddle power like a engine sputtering on three cylinders.
Furthermore, the wider the board, the more likely the nose and tail will be drawn in sharply to conform to aesthetic and control elements. Excessive outline curve, especially from the center-point to the nose, brings a considerable problem with yaw. It’s no fun to struggle with a nose that whips from side to side as you are perched on the ledge cranking to make a late drop…

#3. The Best SUB On Which To Learn Is A Long Single-fin.

….Or a wide quad-fin or a short tri-fin, etc…
No, the best board on which to learn is a borrowed board. By all means, learn on the biggest board you can find, but before committing to a purchase go out and demo everything you can get your hands on.
If you can master the basics before you buy your own board, you will be more likely to end up with an SUB size and shape that won‘t hold you back when you begin to progress.
Purchase an SUB with an eye on where your skill level will be two or three months from now--------not for the first few days when you are wobbling over the waters of your local inlet or lake.
After all, there’s nothing worse than finally learning to crank a snapback while leaning on your blade, only to realize to do so on your 12’-plus leviathan will require a truss and two tugboats.

#4. The Towering Infernal: The Too-Tall Paddle

Wherever we go in the world, the most common sight we see is people using paddles that are way too tall for them. From San-O to Sydney, all too many SUB paddlers are reaching over their heads like children straining to reach the cookie jar atop the ‘fridge.
Aside from squandering the mechanical advantage of the proper and efficient paddle stroke, using too tall a paddle sets you up for some sort of repetitive stress harm to your shoulders.
While a general guideline states that the paddle should extend 5 or 6 inches over your head, some variability exists due to the thickness of your board, slight differences in paddling styles, and even the shape and angle of the paddle blade.
Try standing on a bench with your paddle and take a few pantomime strokes; this way you can simulate the blade depth of your stroke and lets you see how high the top of the paddle goes overhead. Your top hand should be at the height of your forehead and nose when you push into your stroke. Any higher or lower and you will be suffering a power loss.
Additionally, adjustable paddles, on which you can readily change the length of the paddle shaft, are great tools you can employ to zero in on the optimum paddle size for your board and style.

#5. Light Out For the Territories

It’s no secret that planet’s surf breaks are over-crowded and teeming with short boarders, long boarders, body boarders, tow-surfers, kayakers, and bodysurfing marine mammals. Why add an enormous surfboard and a six-foot paddle to the biomass?
Unless your name is Laird or Keaulana, there is no good reason why you should paddle out on your stand-up surfboard at a crowded name break------or any spot, for that matter, which is an established conventional surfing break.
Along every coastline in the world, no matter how jam-packed, there are countless overlooked breaks where there is little or no history of use as a traditional surf break.
The whole point of SUP surfing is to get away from overcrowded breaks and head off into fresh pastures. The fattest offshore reef, the tiniest beach break, the mushiest point------each becomes a J-Bay or Sunset or Superbank on a properly designed SUB.
So find a wave that no one else wants and paddle out with a few friends, and not only will you rediscover the original stoke of surfing, but you’ll be doing your part to ensure that stand-up paddle surfers and conventional board surfers enjoy a peaceful coexistence.

Jacky Orders a 9'0 C4 Bat Tail

Jacky demos the 9'0 C4 Bat Tail.

Brad, the local C4 rep, was generous enough to interrupt his plans for today and allow Jacky a quick demo. Brad rode Jacky's 9'6 PSH during the demo.

The board was a breeze for her to surf. She loved it. It was so fast and loose making the drop, she was out of control. That is a cool feeling.

She ordered one on the spot!


Brad on Jacky's board

Glassy Morning

Tropical Depression #3 Waves = Fun Weekend

Brad having some fun

Jacky
Z worn out and heading home
Some fun nose mounted video of our second session Sunday at Carolina Beach Inlet. Be sure to TURN ON THE SOUND!


CB Inlet SUP with nose mounted camera from fishersfort on Vimeo.

A Magic Bertha Day

This is what the surf looked like at 7:30 AM in front of the house. 2 second rides followed by a big explosion.

So we surfed the outer break at Carolina Beach Inlet.
Sorry, no photos of our session at the inlet. I didn't want to carry the camera in such big surf. We waited on the monster sets about 1/4 mile offshore and scored the longest most insane rides we've ever had there. All I can say is, you should have been there. WOW!

Afternoon Action at CB Pier

Jacky Stills

We struggled to get some good shots of Jacky today. She struggled to catch any waves and live to tell about it!

Video Captures of me Surfing Bertha Waves

Hurricane Bertha Waves!

Hurricane Bertha swell is here!

Surfed in front of the house this morning.

The video quality is very poor. Operator error. I finally figured out this still camera doesn't like to be zoomed too much when shooting video. It switches from optical to digital zoom automatically and KILLS the quality. I need to stay within optical zoom. I'll work it!


Hurricane Bertha SUP surfing from fishersfort on Vimeo.


Untitled from fishersfort on Vimeo.

Happy 4th of July

Meanwhile, my 4th bites.

Spent in China, but due home Saturday night. Yeah!