Sunday, February 27, 2011
Surfed at the House this Morning
It feels like summer. Heavy fog and pretty clean corduroy at sunrise, turning to summertime wind blow surf within an hour. No gloves or hood and burning up in my wool suit. The good times are returning.
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| Jacky |
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| Jacky 7'3 Hokua |
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| Jacky, another one caught deep |
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| Jacky |
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| Jacky, one that got away |
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| Jacky too deep again. Elusive devils those sets. |
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| Jacky |
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| Dwight 7'8 Hokua |
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| Dwight |
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| Dwight |
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| Dwight |
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| Dwight |
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
The 14'6 Carbon Twins
One came out of the bag at 20 lbs. The other at 22 lbs. The 22 lb board has a larger double carbon zone on the deck to handle my lard butt. Jacky gets the 20 pounder. The board will gain about 3 lbs with hot coat, finbox, and deck pad.
FYI, the variations in black color are caused by the peal ply.
If you wonder why 14'6 and not 14', it's for glide. My gliding increased when I added 6 inches. Also, when I swapped between my old 14'6 and a Glide 14, the loss of glide was noticeable. Since I only do downwinders, fitting into racing classes is not a concern.
FYI, the variations in black color are caused by the peal ply.
If you wonder why 14'6 and not 14', it's for glide. My gliding increased when I added 6 inches. Also, when I swapped between my old 14'6 and a Glide 14, the loss of glide was noticeable. Since I only do downwinders, fitting into racing classes is not a concern.
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| Identical Shapes |
Monday, February 21, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Busy Times
I'm taking 4 straight days off to laminate the twins. Bottom of board one done yesterday. Deck of board one done this morning. Bottom of board two Sunday. Deck of board two Monday. Hot coat, fin boxes, handles, all next week going into the following weekend.
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| Carbon layer |
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| Glass layer |
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| Peal ply |
Friday, February 18, 2011
Did SUP just go the way of Windsurfing?
Remember when high performance windsurfing killed the sport....
Are we seeing this issue creep up on SUP surfing?
Take this morning for example. Summertime lame, wind blown surf. Not the sweet Winter surf we've been spoiled by lately.
Break out the longboard SUPs, or stick with the shortboard SUPs. We tried both this morning. Wow, after being spoiled by the 7'3 and 7'8 Hokua's, everything else bores us to death. We all quit after surfing maybe 1 hour at the most.
A reminder of the good old days on the 7'8 in this video.
Are we seeing this issue creep up on SUP surfing?
Take this morning for example. Summertime lame, wind blown surf. Not the sweet Winter surf we've been spoiled by lately.
Break out the longboard SUPs, or stick with the shortboard SUPs. We tried both this morning. Wow, after being spoiled by the 7'3 and 7'8 Hokua's, everything else bores us to death. We all quit after surfing maybe 1 hour at the most.
A reminder of the good old days on the 7'8 in this video.
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| Jacky this morning on 9'0 Mana |
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| Jacky |
Ideal Weather for Laminating
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| Wetting Table |
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| Mixing Resin |
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| 6 oz carbon under 4 oz glass |
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| Bagged on the rocker bed, vacuum pump doing its job |
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
FCS is full of Marketing B.S.
The FCS Press Release:
FCS introduces an innovative new cord/coil stand up paddle surfing leash. This leash is specifically designed for stand up paddling, which features a short section of coil that will not tangle like a full coil. That coil functions as a shock absorber, reducing the board’s tugging force on your leg and helping to pull the board through the back of the wave quickly and evenly without having it rocketing back at you. The coil also allows you to noseride while minimizing the amount of leash dragging behind the board. This is an exclusive FCS innovation and it comes in calf and ankle cuffs and big and regular wave sizes.
Time for a history lesson folks at FCS. I invented this leash during the summer of 2007.
It took several attempts to convince XM Surfmore to make it for me. I first introduced my design to the SUP world in Oct 2007 on the standup zone click here
I gave up on it simply because the coil wore out too quick and it was a huge pain in the butt to get more made. I had them build two batches for me. 4 leashes in total. Hunter at Blowing in the Wind gets credit for talking XM into doing it for me.
FCS introduces an innovative new cord/coil stand up paddle surfing leash. This leash is specifically designed for stand up paddling, which features a short section of coil that will not tangle like a full coil. That coil functions as a shock absorber, reducing the board’s tugging force on your leg and helping to pull the board through the back of the wave quickly and evenly without having it rocketing back at you. The coil also allows you to noseride while minimizing the amount of leash dragging behind the board. This is an exclusive FCS innovation and it comes in calf and ankle cuffs and big and regular wave sizes.
Time for a history lesson folks at FCS. I invented this leash during the summer of 2007.
It took several attempts to convince XM Surfmore to make it for me. I first introduced my design to the SUP world in Oct 2007 on the standup zone click here
I gave up on it simply because the coil wore out too quick and it was a huge pain in the butt to get more made. I had them build two batches for me. 4 leashes in total. Hunter at Blowing in the Wind gets credit for talking XM into doing it for me.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
The Twins
get their high density foam inserts for the finbox
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| I'll be doing spackle and sanding all week getting ready for lamination |
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Basin Magic Today
The Basin magic wind went-off this afternoon. All that strong NW wind went SW at 2:30. South of the Kure Pier, the ocean was lit up with whitecaps. I took the board shown below for a quick run. I'm thrilled with the boards performance and behavior. No changes needed for the next two under construction.
I went with my Werner Nitro surf paddle on the run. The previous run about 2 weeks ago, I used my Quickblade Elite (8.3"). The feature that makes the Nitro a great paddle for short SUPs, also makes it ideal for downwinding. The extra narrow width (7 3/8), combined with the tip scoop, make the downwind board accelerate like a top fuel dragster. Downwinding is nothing but a series of hole shots. Burst of acceleration, followed by lots of gliding. The QB Elite is FOR SALE as of now.
I went with my Werner Nitro surf paddle on the run. The previous run about 2 weeks ago, I used my Quickblade Elite (8.3"). The feature that makes the Nitro a great paddle for short SUPs, also makes it ideal for downwinding. The extra narrow width (7 3/8), combined with the tip scoop, make the downwind board accelerate like a top fuel dragster. Downwinding is nothing but a series of hole shots. Burst of acceleration, followed by lots of gliding. The QB Elite is FOR SALE as of now.
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| The board I used today. The heavy carbon DW/windsurfer board. |
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| 2 identical copies of the board used today. Fresh spackle applied. Ready for light carbon glassing next weekend. |
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Jacky's Back on the Water!
I only spent 10 minutes taking photos today, so not much to show you. Today the waves felt weak. A day when the 9'0 Mana would have out-ripped all the little boards. I need to start loading the Mana on the truck too.
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| Jacky on her 7'3 Hokua |
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| Jacky |
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| Jacky |
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| Found this on the beach |
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| Surf Machine |
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| Surf Machine |
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
New Downwind Board Gets Wet Tonight
I blew off work an hour early hoping to catch something before the wind shut down. I found fog thick as pea soup at Fort Fisher. Less than 200 yards visibility. Just up the road at the condos we sometimes launch from, almost clear skies. So I launched there and ended up with a very short run to the house. The wind felt very off shore once on the water. Wind gusts were definitely WSW and very few of them. The wind went from 15, maybe 20, but only brief blasts. Nothing sustained that was worth a hoot. 10 minutes into the run it turned into a leisure run waiting on a miracle return of the wind that never happened.
I was able to confirm in my own mind, the new shape is what I was looking for. Improvements in the function of the nose, just the way I envisioned it when I shaped it. Stability is good. Weight is not. I'm used to lighter boards. I'll be hitting the shaping room this weekend to knock out 2 more identical to this one, minus a few pounds and without the windsurf insert. I have stocked up on the high end light carbon needed to get these right.
Below is the speed data from tonights run. The other charts are some runs from this past summer. The new board has some good speed, even though it felt like I was pulling a truck with the board not being 22 lbs.
I was able to confirm in my own mind, the new shape is what I was looking for. Improvements in the function of the nose, just the way I envisioned it when I shaped it. Stability is good. Weight is not. I'm used to lighter boards. I'll be hitting the shaping room this weekend to knock out 2 more identical to this one, minus a few pounds and without the windsurf insert. I have stocked up on the high end light carbon needed to get these right.
Below is the speed data from tonights run. The other charts are some runs from this past summer. The new board has some good speed, even though it felt like I was pulling a truck with the board not being 22 lbs.
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