I have a 6'10 mini-padi.
Long time no post, but I have lurked here and there over the past few years.
I will not be showing anyone my (.)(.)......
I wanted to chime in on this as I got a lot of good input from the gang above and then some, on the ghost thread and other pyzel threads, and wanted to reciprocate. Sorry in advance if this is more info than Maz wanted
I have quite a few customs from local shapers and others that I love and use, but was looking for some boards I could start to use and get used to, that were more easily "repeatable", if not replaceable. Some of the spots I surf trash boards and travelling with one off favorites stresses me out. Yes, its about another grand all in if a pyzel is trashed, but you could just get the exact same thing again.. maybe not magic, but repeatable.
So, enter Pyzel's shapes for me, who is really the first (now) "big shaper brand" Ive bought boards from in a loooong while.
I liked the look of his shapes, kind of seem old school meets modern, but in a no BS way. I like volume forward boards with beef that can also surf well. Thats nothing new for old school shapers in Hawaii, but Jon is doing something really well with his production and glassing and customer service. I first bought a 7'10 padillac and really liked it. I wanted somthing bigger than my 7'6 travel gun that would still fit in an 8'0 board bag. I use it at certain spots when its big, but Its not my only gun. I like other boards for more open faced big waves. The Padillac is pretty money for me when its throwing, and even though its 7'10, it will surf smaller ( like overhead and a half) waves really well. That super foiled tail shortens the board IMO
I got a 6'10 mini padi in anticipation for a surf trip that I just came back from. It is a really interesting board.
LOTS of beef in the middle, foiled in the rails and super foiled in the tail. I got a chance to surf it frontside in overhead waves with punch a few different days before my trip and the thing is crazy fast and very maneuverable for a board with so much paddle power. I was surfing it as a quad, with EA quads. Backhand on a few felt a little tracky to me, but it was probably my foot placement not being used to it. I then surfed it on a smaller day ( shoulder high, less power) just to see what that was like. I used the narrower NVS aipa quad horseman fins and it was super fast and loose frontside, less tracky backhand, but still my foot placement was off there.
After those sessions in both juice and meh waves, I knew this was a good travel board.
As you guys said with the ghost, there is a weird sensation with the mini padi- it paddles really well but it GETS INTO waves great.. kinda like a delayed reaction where youre not sure youre getting into some, but then it zooms in...
Up and riding with the EA quads on solid overhead sets it went great and no wonky foot placement backside, as I was just naturally further back because it was friggin heaving...
Smaller days I played around with it as a twin plus trailer ( i think I had the NVS taylor knox twins in there) and it was clearly not designed for that but ended up being really fun, as I didnt have a small wave board with me.
Downsides: is it is very beefy in the center of the board and you need to recalibrate your paddle position on the board ( and be way more mindful of critical duckdives.. there is more foam to get under a pitching lip than your hands on the rail is telling your brain! Almost got sucked over on a few lazy duckdives...). That downside of lots of foam turns into a plus, if you are one board quivering it somewhere and the surf goes blah.. with all that foam, just can add smaller fins and you can make it work in gutless stuff if you dont have a groveller on a trip etc..
other downside is, Im sure you lose performance vs say a ghost, but thats not a concern for me. Its plenty maneuverable for what I'd want a board like this to do.
Gotta say, the stock glassing on this and my padillac is really good, and Pyzels customer service ( at least in Haleiwa) is great.
Can definitely see this being a good wave board anywhere and even a so so wave board for places where current and rubber is a factor.
Hope this helps!
www.pyzelsurfboards.com
