Saturday, August 29, 2009

Big Chad Report: 10' Stamps Viking

I knew I was in trouble when I saw for the first time John doing a bottom turn with the new Stamps Viking model. It was the first time I had seen one of my paddle board friends really "surf" a stand up board. I knew it was going to change everything.

Paddle boarding for me changed from a very mellow long boarder mentality into thinking about true cutbacks, hard bottom turns and putting the board up in the lip. What I didn't know is that the speed it generates going down the line and the maneuverability that it offered were better than expected.



You can see from the photo this is not a long board nose, even if the board is ten feet long, and I notice not only when dropping in but it is also way easier to get up on top of the lip or the whitewash to get around sections.

I love the tapering of this board. Doesn't it look so sexy? I got a pintail, well a big guy's pintail anyway, and this thing turns fast. Every time I change change edges with this board it doesn't lag and slow down, it speeds up.



Stamps did a great job of keeping the volume almost the same as my last board even though this board has a much smaller and thinner nose and tail. The nose and the tail have made all the difference in the world.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Man, that is a sweet looking board. Tim sure knows what he's doing. Hope we see some pics of it in action soon.

John L.