Quiver Clearance C4 Boards for sale

I really ought to clear some boards out from my shed - I just can't get to half of them and as I'm settling on just a couple of wave boards it strikes me as a good time to shift a couple. PLUS as anyone will tell you check out the prices of the new stock that the dealers are getting in. Some are up in price 20 - 30% due to the currency fluctuations. This should make the used boards look like very good value in comparison. So (deep breath) here go's.

My Lovely C4 BK Pro 10' x 27"

This was the first ever board that actually took my breath away, truly mental, and if it were not for the fact that I now have the NAISH I would keep it. The thing is the Naish will do everything this will AND it's only 9'3" long.

The BK is a challenging board - but as I found with the Naish it takes a bit of persistance and a few sessions to dial in, and when you do EVERYTHING else feels pedestrian in comparison when you go back. If you have only been used to riding a JL 11' this may be a step too far unless you dont carry the urrgh reserve insulation that I do, however if you are used to a Starboard, Ultimate Blend, 9'8" or 9' Extremist this board will take to a world you never knew existed.

The BK needs a decent wave, waist high plus, to get it going, it's not a lover of mush, unless it's big mush, it paddles well but you will be taking off later in the short boarders zone :).

Multiple fin set ups on this one, five fin box's mainly for Quad or 2 plus 1 - I preferred the latter.

The board had some typical C4 paddle chips on the rails which I had Whippet repair and spray in (TOTALLY UNDETECTABLE. A first class job.

The board is now in A1 - MINT - PERFECT condition. apart from the dirty wax on the nose - oh yes you can!

This is from the C4 site -

Originally built for Brian Keaulana, this Dave Parmenter shaped 10 foot wing swallow is 27 inches wide and 3 7/8 inches thick. It comes with five fin boxes so you can run it as a thruster or quad. The BoardWorks TEC construction makes this board light and strong. Wing-Swallow Tail Width: 27.0" Thickness: 3.85" Fin Array: 5-fin cluster. Adaptable to any fin combination, i.e. single, twin, tri, quad, or 2 X 1. DESIGN NOTES: The Brian Kealuana Model is the end result of a design evolution that commenced with the very first SUP short board back in 2003. This board combines a constant-curve Hawaii rocker which is calibrated to accelerate at nose and tail in sync with the pulled-in outline. The thickness distribution tapers toward the tail to allow harder turns at higher speeds, and the wing-swallow reduces tail area under the back foot, and grants greater adhesion and torque in carving turns. If you are keen on progressive, full-tilt SUP surfing and really want to push the edge of the performance envelope, this is the board for you.

C4 price the board at $1587 which works out at £1087 without any taxes and duties
Prices UK side vary from £869 if you can find one, to £1110

I want £650 Check out the Pics.










AND my very pretty C4 10' Diamond Tail Classic - which has been my first 'turn to' board since October Last year. This is what I would call 'A Gateway Board' Its takes you by the hand and gently moves you on from Tankers'ville to that magic land of 10' and below. You know the place - it's where you want to be when you walk back up the beach on a windy day with a 11' plus gliders wing.

Its fast and fairly stable but is still more performancey than my Starboard 9'8" ever was. I really liked the Starboard Extremists and Gav's 9'0'r is just magic but they dont have the nose rocker that the C4 has and that makes it difficult sometimes - The 10' classic just feels that must more 'racey' and does not complain or bog down dropping into late waves. At 28" it is more stable than the BK and as I have said it's been my first choice board whatever the conditions.

It noserides - better than I ever will - it will 'snap off the lip turns' better than I ever will. And it punches out through white water nice. That's the good stuff the bad stuff is when I got it I thought that I would protect the rails with clear tape, which I did, however like a total MUPPET I did not extend the tape far enough down the rails. Result 6 typical C4 paddle chips near the tail. There are also acouple on the nose. Not serious just normal, annoying and as such I can't describe the board as mint.





From the C4 site the price is currently $1520 - £1034 Ex taxes and carriage.

Again UK prices vary between £869 and £1050

I would take £600 (bloody chips)

OR would consider selling both as an instant ready made quiver for £1150

What a Week!!

We have been so lucky with the waves this month - not huge but pretty consistant making for some great sessions. Conditions have varied between a steady waist to chest high and generally clean. This has allowed me to get some great board time on the Naish. Tonight it showed. Smell that? It's me oooozing surfsmug.

I had planned on giving it a miss tonight as the winds were forecast to go north easterly (bang onshore)and freshen to 20-24mph.

4.38pm I get a picture text from Gavin. It was clean and building. Last nights session at Pete's was so good I decided to get down there again asap after work in the hope of resuming where I left off last night. It's the pig in me I suppose.



Gav's text piccy - looking really nice - it didn't stay like that for long!!!


Gavin was already in and the waves in front of the car park were, lets say, impressive.

I was getting changed a guy pulls up and beeps his horn - 'still light and too early for doggin' I thought and it's Ash and his mate that we met at Lafitenia in France last October - Small world.

Only one board, decision made, in the van and after a quick change I was trotting off down the track to Pete's.

It was clean, but only between the waves - outside was quite choppy and getting steadily worse BUT I seemed to be coping with it. I'm sure that my efforts at staying topside resembled my amazing dance moves - you've seen them before but I don't get out that often.



I know, I have no shame - But tonight I was staying upright and catching waves - and having a total ball. It was hard work and my knees, calves and thighs bear testament to it but so much fun.

One thing - quick confession here - I got all righteous the other day about not bailing my board in order to preserve my leash and not treat it as a retreival tool. Tonight after getting caught inside I bailed and not just once or twice. Sorry guys - I'll work on it.

There I feel better now that I have got that off my chest.

If, sorry BIG IF, anyone is still reading this, drop by pull up a chair, tell me all about it - at least say hello.

NAISH REVELATION

Funny how things can change so quickly sometimes. A couple of weeks ago I was making enquiries about a C4 Subvector, buying a nice woolly cardigan and toying with the idea of swapping my NAISH 9'3" for a 9'6 quad. Bloody glad I didn't.

Late last year I had some ripping sessions on the little Naish but this spring I have been struggling a bit and as a consequence been taking the easy option and riding my C4 10' Classic.

Easter saw a prolonged high pressure give us light winds coinciding with some decent, proper swell and suddenly I was like a Pig in Sh1t. Getting the Naish out at every opportunity.

Shane sort of summed it up for me today, he said -

'Dad - don't be a twat' Which I think roughly translates into

'You can have one board BUT you are really going to have to compromise on your wave expectation' (and wear a woolly cardigan).

I'll explain - Having spent a lot of time early this year on the ULI Steamroller (about 64 hours) my wave expectation was set by what I could get from the board, which was pretty much paddle in - bottom turn - nose ride (sort of) - maybe tuck in for a little cover up - glide, cruise and grin my way down the line to paddle board heaven. Nice - Comfy - Safe.

My ability would not allow for any major snaps or heroics even if the board was capable of it in the right hands (feet)! So my parameters were pretty much set.


9'3" x 29 1/2" x 4 1/4"


Jump on the Naish now and there are no limits - AT ALL. It just took me a few sessions to truly dial in to the board again. I'm probably not the most patient of guys and my spare time is as precious to me as it is to anyone else. Having convinced myself over the last twelve months or more that I can actually do this standup stuff here I was falling off again.

Dont like it - Didn't like it.

All my usual tricks - bigger fins etc. actually made it worse - so what a bloody total revelation it was when I finally got it sussed, re-fitted the 5.5" centre fin thought about where to stand and went surfing.

So pick the right board for the conditions and surf accordingly - not exactly rocket science is it?


Choppy days any size - bigger board ULI 10' (possibly the new Lopez) C4 Classic

Clean small days up to waist high - bigger board ULI 10' (possibly the new Lopez) C4 Classic

Clean bigger days Chest high plus - send me straight to NAISH 9'3" Heaven


I wasn't like this on regular surfboards. I always had a few boards kicking around but they were the 'old ones' or 'the new one'.

And I always surfed the new one until it became the old un, usually a two year life cycle.

Now I have and can see the need for a quiver. My surfing is never going to be described as radical, I'll settle for softly progressive - a bit like REM, BUT now I know that somewhere just over the next wave is a swell coming that I can do more with than just set the board up and cruise down the line - and I now know that, conditions allowing, with the Naish I have the board that in my own geriatric, sedentary way -

I can rip the crap out of it.


9'6" x 29 1/4" x 4 3/8"


And this has got me thinking - How much more stable in choppy conditions is the Naish 9'6" than the 9'3" and could it be used to replace the C4? It has a fatter nose and a more parallel plan thanks to the swallow tail than the 9'3" and is wider than the C4. It also has 25 litres or so more volume than it's smaller brother . . . . . . . . AND where the hell does this leave my BK PRO?
Its the narrowest of all the boards - almost as loose as the Naish But it is 10' long and if you are going to have a surfboard as opposed to a cruiser you might as well go shorter so it's pretty much redundant and as a result still for sale.


Length: 10'0" Nose: 18 3/8" Width: 27" Tail: 16 3/8" Thickness: 3 7/8" Weight: 23 lbs
Fin Boxes: 4 future side fin boxes 1 standard center fin box.


Damn shame but there you go.

Making Friends with a Naish 9'3"

What a weekend - magicseaweed was shaping up for a perfect combination of swell. spring tides and light offshores, all this and an Easter bank holiday giving us a couple of extra free days off - things were looking good.

Friday and I made my way to a mid beach mark for the evening high tide - it was big and munchy with the tail end of the onshore winds. The full fat, wedgey beach break was getting jacked up double by the backwash from the head of the beach. Not pretty, very testing but great fun. Paddling in felt a bit suicidal and the rides were short but rewarding.

In the car park prior to paddling out a couple of prone surfers pulled up with short boards - I didn't see them get a wave but did see them spat out further down the beach. And that was nice!

So Saturday got in after work at Pete's point for the evening session again on my C4 fantastic - had the place to myself all over the high tide and just did not want to get out - a real soul surf session. I had made loose plans to get in at 9.00am on Sunday morning but the evening session was so good it was no hardship getting up early and I was in the water just before 8.00am ON MY DAY OFF!!! It looked very clean so I decided to risk another session on the Naish.

It's been no secret that the last few outings on my Naish have been difficult. We have not been the best of friends recently, like a true workman I have been blaming the tools. I have just not been able to stay upright on the thing. The centre fin has been growing in size in the vain hope to give me some static stability - having used the biggest fin in my collection 10" I opted to plug in the the smallest - the original Naish 5.5".

What a difference! From the moment I paddled out everything just felt right - ok I still fell a few times but the sheer surfability of the board was magic. And in turbulent water the board felt more stable. Perhaps the leverage on a bigger fin contributes to the rails sinking and going past that tipping point - who knows -, who cares? I was grinning ear to ear. I conceded that perhaps Harold Iggy might know a thing or two after all.

The Naish really needs to be kept under way, you can stop but loose concentration and you need to dig the paddle in to gain momentum and stability. During the morning session I sort of realised as well that I had to 'inch' back on the board a 'tad' in order to keep the nose up. Just a bit too far forward and the nose is under the water and it's douche time. Its also easier to stand and paddle the board than to kneel on it - how odd is that? Pop up onto the board on your knees and a fraction too far forward and the nose is under like Captain Nemo's Nautilus.

The sweet spot is minute on the board - but in the clean 2-3' surf I had one of my best sessions of the year. I can't believe that I had harboured thoughts of moving the board on. It just needs the right conditions - ideally clean and a minimum of 2-3' but preferably more, and more importantly the right attitude. One things for sure I am never going to reach the limits of it, or get bored with it.

During the session I met up with Steve Carter and we shared a few waves before swapping boards (he was on a Starboard UB 11'2"). Very nice but it did feel like a tanker after the Naish. Both of us agreed the Naish has an amazing 'skatey' feel to it.

I was in for 3 1/2 hours that morning and eventually dragged myself out when my hands started bleeding and the cramp made my calves feel like they were exploding.

Back to Sunset Surf cafe for some coffee and incredible flapjacks and cake to re-fuel and then back in for a couple of easy, mellow hours on the C4 over the low tide.

Jay and a few of the forum guys were out at Gwithian having made the trip down for the weekend. Just don't really appreciate how lucky we are living here.

What a difference a few sessions can make.

I HAVE A NAISH 9'3"

And it's the only one in the UK. SMUG SMUG SMUG.

Short Board Blues

You know what? - It's been a funny few weeks - we have been busy as hell at work and even though the clocks went forward allowing for some evening surf time a few things got in the way to 'choke up the stoke' a bit. However a couple of weeks back the forecast started shaping up for a classic few nights of swell.

Clean. (ish)

Clean = Naish oh yes - get the zipper open and unleash the beast - in my dreams !!

The tide was a small evening spring - off I trots to Pete's and - it's small, much smaller than the 4.5' forecast. Never mind in I goes to an all too familiar routine. Jump on the board first 20 minutes no major problems - not much to work with but seemed to be making the best of it - paddled back to Gwithian where there was a bit bigger wave (still desparate) and proceed to make a total cock of myself falling off, getting stuck in the backwash from the cliff - anything but ride the board. I have had some excellent sessions on the Naish - tonight just was not going to be one of them. I sneaked out hoping that no-one would spot me.

Next night similar conditions possibly a tad bigger and I went in on the C4 10 classic. Fantastic. Almost like I could do it for real. Thoroughly enjoyed myself to the extent that I did not want to get out. In fact the struggling that I had been doing on the Naish made the C4 feel so easy. I surfed my way round to the middle of Godrevy beach and made a pig of myself on the break off the mid beach rock. Great fun.

Although the surf was good all week I did not manage to get in again until Sunday morning - pushing half tide up the wave was quite full and fat with a tendency to threaten then back off - it was good fun but I was making a meal of it - even on the C4. There were a couple of other guys in as well as Gavin and myself one on a Starboard the other on a Gong. The guy on the Gong was quite tidy and smooth and put us all to shame. Would of liked a bash on the board but was a bit reluctant to ask, plus there were a few prone surfers out and with four SUPs in fairly close proximity I felt that it was prudent to surf away from the pack. It's easy to see how intimidating and domineering a few standups can be in the line up. Not that there was any hassle or poor etiquette.

I have been exchanging a few mails with Casso from Seabreeze - he currently has a 9'3 Naish and a 9'3" PSH Ripper. It was encouraging to know that he has a few stinkers each session and a couple of sessions that just don't go well.

Perhaps riding the ULI Steamroller has spoilt me - who knows? However one thing is for sure after seeing these shots of Clinton -



with more shots here

http://www.standupzone.com/forum/index.php?topic=3601.0


I can't wait to get my hands on an ULI LOPEZ.