So, it's time to swallow my pride and lay myself bare to public scrutiny ... fuck it, here's a long read for ya.
I don't want to write off the board based on 4 surfs, but at the same time, we so seldom get sick waves and I don't wanna spend that time we have on a board I don't like, so turning to you for some insight I might be missing.
My experience with my new board really is bugging me a lot, and I'm not sure what to put it down to, whether;
* It's 100% me kooking it / too fat
* Fin choice
* Conditions just weren't right and my home conditions really are sh!t
* Some design element that doesn't gel with my dorky style
The issue with my options above, all seem relevant, but at the same time I have a counter to all of those in equal measure.
The board is slightly wider up front than a standard HPSB, with a round tail (more like a thumb tail) and about half a little more foam (not that it would be noticeable) than my benchmark board I use a "every day board".
I know comparing the boards is NOT comparing apples to apples, but, it's to illustrate a point I will make later.
* Daily board: Pyzel Phantom. [5.10, 19 1/2, 2 1/2 30L]
* Good Wave board: Dylan RX5 [6, 19 3/8, 2 9/16, 30.5L]
Just after I got the board, I took it out in dogshit conditions as I just wanted to feel it out, and unsurprisingly it didn't feel great (stiff, felt like it surfed like it was longer than it was, and the tail felt like it was sinking and "too long" / got an anchor tied to it). Just this last week we had a run of pretty great swell (4ish maybe little bigger at times feet, not particularly powerful, but plenty of round barrels) for about 3 days, and I thought it's finally time to get my feet in the wax on it again. Unfortunately, the same feelings I had taking it out in crap was there in a good swell. I tried the following fins to see if it would make a difference;
* Mick Fanning large (tri)
* AM2 aircore large (tri)
* Matt Biolos shaper series large (tri)
* AM2 aircore large, performer medium rears (quad)
Nothing really made much of a difference, perhaps the quad was slightly better, but it could just be down to the waves I caught on that set up, it certainly was not a striking difference (and I'm not typically a quad guy). I got a few absolute bombs on the board and had the widest deep round barrel on it, that I had to do two pumps to get out of (not typically something I get a chance to do around here), as well as a a couple of searingly fast cutties, so there's certainly something there, but on the face it was just struggle street. On the last session I swapped back to my Pyzel and the difference was night and day in regards to get up and go speed / wave face.
On one of those sessions, it just so happened that there was a girl on the beach taking pics, which further illustrated to me what I might have been feeling.
Context:
This was about the size it was on the day.
This was on one of the smaller ones that really illustrates and exaggerates all 4 of my bullet points at the top.
The images aren't great, but notice both rails are bogged / sunken (in a bad way) ...and I simply couldn't turn the thing.
What say you ... cut my losses, wait for proper conditions, try other fins, get more foam, or other?
I don't want to write off the board based on 4 surfs, but at the same time, we so seldom get sick waves and I don't wanna spend that time we have on a board I don't like, so turning to you for some insight I might be missing.
My experience with my new board really is bugging me a lot, and I'm not sure what to put it down to, whether;
* It's 100% me kooking it / too fat
* Fin choice
* Conditions just weren't right and my home conditions really are sh!t
* Some design element that doesn't gel with my dorky style
The issue with my options above, all seem relevant, but at the same time I have a counter to all of those in equal measure.
The board is slightly wider up front than a standard HPSB, with a round tail (more like a thumb tail) and about half a little more foam (not that it would be noticeable) than my benchmark board I use a "every day board".
I know comparing the boards is NOT comparing apples to apples, but, it's to illustrate a point I will make later.
* Daily board: Pyzel Phantom. [5.10, 19 1/2, 2 1/2 30L]
* Good Wave board: Dylan RX5 [6, 19 3/8, 2 9/16, 30.5L]
Just after I got the board, I took it out in dogshit conditions as I just wanted to feel it out, and unsurprisingly it didn't feel great (stiff, felt like it surfed like it was longer than it was, and the tail felt like it was sinking and "too long" / got an anchor tied to it). Just this last week we had a run of pretty great swell (4ish maybe little bigger at times feet, not particularly powerful, but plenty of round barrels) for about 3 days, and I thought it's finally time to get my feet in the wax on it again. Unfortunately, the same feelings I had taking it out in crap was there in a good swell. I tried the following fins to see if it would make a difference;
* Mick Fanning large (tri)
* AM2 aircore large (tri)
* Matt Biolos shaper series large (tri)
* AM2 aircore large, performer medium rears (quad)
Nothing really made much of a difference, perhaps the quad was slightly better, but it could just be down to the waves I caught on that set up, it certainly was not a striking difference (and I'm not typically a quad guy). I got a few absolute bombs on the board and had the widest deep round barrel on it, that I had to do two pumps to get out of (not typically something I get a chance to do around here), as well as a a couple of searingly fast cutties, so there's certainly something there, but on the face it was just struggle street. On the last session I swapped back to my Pyzel and the difference was night and day in regards to get up and go speed / wave face.
On one of those sessions, it just so happened that there was a girl on the beach taking pics, which further illustrated to me what I might have been feeling.
Context:
This was about the size it was on the day.
This was on one of the smaller ones that really illustrates and exaggerates all 4 of my bullet points at the top.
The images aren't great, but notice both rails are bogged / sunken (in a bad way) ...and I simply couldn't turn the thing.
What say you ... cut my losses, wait for proper conditions, try other fins, get more foam, or other?
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