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SoCal winter thunderdome: Blackbird vs. Ghost
- Thread starter oeste858
- Start date
Did you get to try your ghost yet. There has been plenty of swell. Curious how you like it.
Well sh!t, sorry for steering you wrong! I guess it's possible you got a bad can. Maybe give regular-old contact cement a try?
Been riding the Blackbird while I can with this swell, so only a couple times so far.
I did take the ghost out again today. As others described, it works well when the waves are clean/steep/punchy/hollow. Handles late drops like a champ. Surgical carves and snaps in the pocket. But it doesn't carry speed through slower sections as well as I hoped, because unfortunately, I usually surf spots that have at least one softer section on each wave connecting the racier sections. It's definitely the most HP board I have, so I am still getting used to it. Wish I surfed better waves/cleaner conditions to really take advantage of it.
EDIT: I was actually eyeing the Shortcut on the Pyzel site last night, which looks a little fuller (or "less refined" as someone else noted) than the Ghost. Maybe that or wider BB for next winter
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Lol. I definitely would want to feel one up. Maybe when the Cardiff store reopens. I wouldn’t order anything until next summer anyway.
have now ridden both a 6’2 blackbird and 6’1 ghost, both stock dims. only one (really good) session on the ghost but a few things stood out switching from the blackbird on HH+ days -
for general board duties, blackbird is more an all arounder and ghost is for ripping.
BB is stiffer, better in chop, and less paddle form required in the deathzone/soup. It kind of damps things out which is welcomed in rougher seas but that leaves you wanting more performance on a clean day or the right wave.
for san diego and one board only, I’d lean towards the blackbird as it would get more use. But, when conditions are right, way more fun will be had on a ghost. the ghost really does feel longer than it is so I wouldn’t go any longer than my height for socal. blackbird rides true to its length and could easily scale it up 6-12” without much thought. Sized at your height, it’s a meaty shortboard that can handle slop and backwash like it’s not there.
if you’re not an HP board person, go with the blackbird. If you can get both, get a ghost at your height and blackbird a few inches above it. YMMV, and only one session on the ghost in pretty dreamy SD conditions.
for general board duties, blackbird is more an all arounder and ghost is for ripping.
BB is stiffer, better in chop, and less paddle form required in the deathzone/soup. It kind of damps things out which is welcomed in rougher seas but that leaves you wanting more performance on a clean day or the right wave.
for san diego and one board only, I’d lean towards the blackbird as it would get more use. But, when conditions are right, way more fun will be had on a ghost. the ghost really does feel longer than it is so I wouldn’t go any longer than my height for socal. blackbird rides true to its length and could easily scale it up 6-12” without much thought. Sized at your height, it’s a meaty shortboard that can handle slop and backwash like it’s not there.
if you’re not an HP board person, go with the blackbird. If you can get both, get a ghost at your height and blackbird a few inches above it. YMMV, and only one session on the ghost in pretty dreamy SD conditions.
THIS. Exactly my impression too. I'll probably hang onto the Ghost, for those super rare good+clean days, but I struggle to find days (even during this last swell) when it's been clean enough to be "Ghost-worthy". It's easily the most HP board I own, and frankly more than I need for the waves I surf. BB just eats up the spread-out lineups, bumpier faces, and slow sections like a champ. Feels like it would take a wrecking ball to knock me off it too. I've already used it more the past month than I did the previous year and a half.
Agreed with the above. The reality is I bought my ghost for travel, and it was epic on those trips. I've got the space so I see no reason to let it go.
I've had both a CI Happy roundpin and a Xanadu Nitz in years past, and for the winter conditions I choose to surf, I don't know why I didn't just get a Blackbird earlier.
edit: both of the above were great boards, I just don't surf barreling conditions enough
edit: both of the above were great boards, I just don't surf barreling conditions enough
Finally felt up a 6'4 F-Rocket at the Patagooch store in Cardiff a few days ago. Looks & feels exactly what I hoped. Seems like it would have much more familiar feel to what I usually ride the rest of the year than BBs or ghost. But $950 is a lot. Wish I could try one somehow. Can't help but think "Oh, I can get two good used boards for that". You know how I do.
Haven't even ridden the used 6'6 Blackbird I picked up a few weeks ago! Pretty much been using the groveler quiver the past few weeks since winter swell season apparently ended with January.
Maybe I'll try to get the F-Rocket next winter...
Haven't even ridden the used 6'6 Blackbird I picked up a few weeks ago! Pretty much been using the groveler quiver the past few weeks since winter swell season apparently ended with January.
Maybe I'll try to get the F-Rocket next winter...
I’ll buy your 6’6 off you first Hurricane swell or in October. Whichever comes first.
also, yah, feel the pain. i put fins in my ghost a couple weeks ago just to remember what it looked like.
also, yah, feel the pain. i put fins in my ghost a couple weeks ago just to remember what it looked like.
Stupid Q: S California doesn’t see days where a step up type board is “needed” in summer when there’s a nice S pulse? I’d think there’d be some spots down there where that’d be the call.
Rusty Blackbird
Birders might say that this blackbird is rusty because it spends so much time in the water. In migration and winter it is usually in swampy places, wading in very shallow water at the edges of wooded streams. In summer it retires to northern spruce bogs; no other blackbird has such a northerly...
www.audubon.org
There’s usually a handful of times a summer where a step up could be useful. If I had owned my 6’ Ghost last summer, it would have seen two to three days of use, which is what it’s seen this past winter.