Sunday, February 28, 2010

Got myself a new one!

Had a great little road trip up the coast with my friend Kiwi. We pulled out just as the rain started pouring down. There were lots of accidents on the freeway; spin outs, rear enders and even a couple flipped vehicles.

The report was for big, out of control surf. It looked small most of the day but the surf forecast was correct, it did get big:



Photo: You know it's big when you can see white wash at the end of the road.

Happily, we made it to Tim Stamps' surf board factory uneventfully. This is always the best part, you know there's something killer in there for you and in a couple of minutes it's going to be yours...at this point, the waiting is delicious!



Photo: Seems like every time I run by the Stamps factory he's got four or five SUPs going through the doors- always full custom... and that means full custom paint as well. Check out the leopard print... that's going to be one mean kitty.



Photo: I peeked into the shape room and there she was... stoked!!!!



Photo: How cool is this new back foot pad... a little bump to let you know when you're really back there.



Photo: We're really stoked on how this one came out. It's hard to see from photos but there is a lot going on here. If you just look at numbers you'd say, "Dude, you just came down three inches on length... big deal" And you'd wrong... this is a totally different beast- built for a totally different application.



Photo: Here's what I really like, I can fit two stand ups in the back of my regular sized pick up truck (yes, regular is an 8' bed).



Photo: Today the sun came out but the surf was just too big and basically out of control- not to mention polluted. I did get a chance to paddle the Vike Bump and the volume is right on- CAD programs rule.

Here's my opinion on volume. If you're building a board primarily for surfing, you want the least amount of volume that will still allow you to stand on the board and catch waves. When I'm on this board, I'm sinking it. My feet are not high and dry. If I hold still the deck is barely above water, the water line is the bottom edge of the deck pad. If you want to rip, you want less board not more- like my friend Sheldon told me, "If you want to lay rail, you've got to drop volume". Agreed.

This is not a "do it all" board. The board was designed for ripping beach break waves in a wave field a couple blocks long. We're not expecting to paddle this thing for miles. This is a surfer's stand up board- it's meant to be driven, not cruised.

Now it's just a matter of waiting for the right day to let her rip... I'll keep you posted.

11 comments:

Joe Agliozzo said...

What is the volume?

John Ashley said...

Hey Joe-

Volume on the new one is a tad under 130L - I'm 235lbs.

Joe Agliozzo said...

Wow! that is low, I'm looking to get a smaller SUP and was thinking about 140% of your weight was the minimum.. I am about 95 kg - so that is about 130 ltrs.. (I only have one year of SUP though..)

Looking at the Naish 7-9 Mana..

Capt Ron said...

SWEEET John,
I agree with you on volume. To a point I have been finding with winter and us having to wear a fullsuit booties gloves and a damn hood here my summertime foils are to thin. I weighed my suit and all the warm crap and when its wet its 29lbs. I was wondering why I was floundering wobbly on my summer time boards and sinking them bad. Right now I am riding a 9'4 round nose 411/16ths thick with a fat rail hard edge nose to tail to release but my goal was to be as stable as possible with all my stuff on. Well its stable for me floats pretty good and I found that if I am not riding a board right on the edge of me falling over or sinking I can rip even harder with the extreme confidence a realy stable board gives me.
But of course our conditions are a bit different here. We have chop alot even when its glassy my home break is a jetty river mouth we get a refract wave off the jetty, coupled with boat wake and chop from wind or tide and we many times have 3 swell directions in the water. So this becomes at times quite a challenge to stay on the deck. I find my small SUPs 8' or so are a real challenge to stay on top of unless the conditions are realy clean.
Man when is winter going to end. I got away with a spring suit all last year but I have been in a full with booties for months now. The wind here is brutall;y bitter there has been ice on the car every morning for weeks it seems. I cannot wait to shed the heavy full and not be freezing half to death every time I go surf. Some of my buddies are wearing 2 wetsuits I have a thermsal liner and this cold damp wind will blow right through and our water is still 50.
When is summer coming.
Peace,
CaptRon

John Ashley said...

Yo Capt.!

Yep- agree with you... rip betta with less board but the stability trade off is always there. That's partially why I think this is the bottom end for me on shrinkage.

Good point you bring up with taking the wetsuit into account... and the additional lbs. that I pack on in the winter... even here in So. Cal. I slow down a bunch when the sky is gray and the water a bit colder.

This new one though has got my blood pumping... and it get's you fired up to get back out there. Isn't that the point of new boards too? To get you back thinking and wanting to paddle out?

Stoked!

John Ashley said...

Hey Joe-

Just got a note from Tim- total volume in cubic feet is 4.6.

Yep lower than most people would have you on if this was one of your first boards- but it's where I want to be for what I think the board should do.

As always, total trade off between float and performance. I think that this AND the whole scale issue (getting a board that is "fitted" to your size) are the two biggest things you can address on the way to getting a board to perform. And I mean perform like a surfboard!

Now don't get me wrong, if the surf is small, I like a big old cruiser... something to go "cross country" surfing on and in that case- I'd jump the volume way up... but definitely not 140% of my weight.

Good luck and let me know what you go with!

John Ashley said...

Oh yeah, with conversion 4.6 cubic feet comes out to a tad over 130L... 130.25 L... bottom end for my fat ass!

Joe Agliozzo said...

235 lbs is about 106 kgs, so 140% would be like 145 ltrs or so - I bet your older and more cruiser boards are right there, probably?

I picked up the 140-170% on the Standupzone forum as a rule of thumb on smaller boards.

I want to demo something short and wide myself, I have been on a 9-10 Uli inflatable for the last year, it's been fun but I want to see if I can ride one of these super short wide boards. Not for conditions as good as you plan on with your new board, I would probably still be mostly shortboarding it in good waves..

Enjoy the new ride!

John Ashley said...

Hey Joe-

Thanks for the correction! I blew it by not converting my lbs to kg - if I'm going to use metric for volume (L) I damn well better use metric for mass too!

You know this is how billion dollar mars probes get burned up in Martian atmospheres... but I digress.

My 9'4 (the last board that I was on) had a volume of 130L. The one before that was 10' and it's volume was 151, the board before that one was also 10' and it was 155L.

Those two oldest boards were super fun- but when I surf them now they feel slow and heavy and require Occys leg strength to turn them. I would classify them as more long board like than anything.

My feet were high and dry but at speed, those boards became a real handful to turn and control... so much of the board was out of the water.

I can't remember what weight you're at but I do know that guys around here who weigh 130 lbs or so are riding Vikings that are 9ft and below and 28 to 28.5" wide...

My advice is don't go below 28" in width if you like your boards relatively stable- the first boards we paddled were the Mickey Munoz Ultraglides which were 26" wide- they surfed good but were soooo tippy.

I tried those inflatable boards but found them, believe it or not, hard to balance on- they vibrated in the water. I surfed one wave and traded back. I think you're on the right track with short and wide... send us a photo once you get your board.

Capt Ron said...

4.6 cubic feet @ roughly 48lbs floatation per Cubic foot you are right there with room for a wetsuit. Awesome! That thing is going to go off.
I think you can go shorter on boards if you wanted to, just have Tim hold that volume, Shorter boards surf realy well. I have been watching video of that Kia kid ripping a 6'5" standup and he has some meat in that thing. I will try to find the video its pretty sick.
Peace,
Capt Ron

Capt Ron said...

John,
I like that pad but I like my Kicker right on top of the rear quads. My foot is hard up against that thing the whole time I have a solid face. It realy helps a bunch more leverage. I would get a arch bar and cut the pad out and put it from the kicker forward. I can hardly surf a SUP without a kick and arch bar now. Once you pry a hard turn out with your foot locked into that thing you will be stoked with the control and leverage you get and always knowing where your foot is.
This was the first day in a month I did not need a hood and gloves to surf it was fun little chest high glassy pealers this morning. Stoked to hear how that board rides.
Peace,
Capt Ron