WHY WE DO IT - GIVE UP THE GHOST - FAT ASS QUADS

THE FAT ASS OF THE ULI FAT ASS 9'3 X33"

The amazing run of swell over the last few weeks finally petered out in time to coincide with my day off. So whilst everyone has been coming in and telling me what bloody good waves that they have been slicing up I have been keeping an eye on Magicseaweed and hoping that the swell would stay Northerly, the Easteries would drop to a manageable sub 20mph and I would be able to get my sorry ass out of bed in time for a morning session. BUT the evenings are getting longer and the mornings lighter so before and after work sessions should be on the cards soon.

It wasn't looking overly promising. Swell was levelling off at a dizzying one and a half feet at 10 seconds thankfully Northwesterly and with the wind between 12 and 17mph from the East we were in with a shout of getting wet at least.

Pitching up at the car park at 8:45 and I could see that Gary was already fully testing the Glide characteristics of the 9'Hokua. I think this was his 2nd outing on it and it looked like he had the little Naish firmly under control. I find that when it's small the more performance orientated boards are harder work, they need 'juice' to get them locked in and tight but my 9'3" Hokua actually copes really well with small conditions and from the clifftop it's 9' replacement was picking up everything that Gary was paddling for. My old 10 C4 BK Pro was an amazing surfboard but a total mare to catch waves in small swell and if it was at all choppy - forget it. Naish have certainly got something special going on with these boards.

Changing quickly and fitting the GoPro to the nose of my board I trogged off down the cliff track. The recent combinations of rain/freeze/thaw had seen off some major portions of the cliff face slipping away down to the cove - it can only be a matter of time before this way down to the beach is going to be off limits.

Finally managed to get my head into gear enough to work out how to turn the GoPro on to shoot video - not sure but think that the stills slideshow may look a bit better, anybody out there actually reading this care to leave a comment and let me know, I wont charge. The whole self-picture thing does feel a bit odd and feels faintly like I might be somewhat up myself but the blog's going to be pretty dull with just my keyboard drivel.

Conditions were hardly 'EPIC' knee high with the sets almost towering over our waists! But it was clean and apart from a soul longboarder who was practising some pretty nifty footwork we enjoyed endless amounts of waves to ourselves until 10:30 ish when the wind started to pick up and mess things about. Credit to the boards though, the only time they felt at all unhappy, mine anyway, was at the end of the wave when the speed had dropped out leaving a slightly nervous feel as the dynamic changed from planing to displacement. Bigger swell makes kicking out of the wave whilst carrying some speed easy, slow it all down and it begins to wobble, but it was fun.

A decent session in conditions that were at best less than average and you could get a tan off Gary's stoke! That's why we do it! Because it's fun, and it levers the best out of the least.

Playing around with some heavy editing on the video makes it all look good, well I think so, but apart from all that it gives me an excuse to play 'Give up the Ghost' as the soundtrack. Amazing stuff from the new Radiohead album King of limbs, it's a slow burn album but I reckon it's every bit as good as OK Computer, well almost.

IF you are a Radiohead / Thom Yorke fan you may have already seen this but it's always worth checking out again. It's a live, solo performance of Give up the Ghost played at Cambridge - absolutely mesmerizing - treat yourself and give it a go - trust me!!

How good is that - of course it might just be me - I played it to Charmaine who said

'I'm bored now' and got up halfway through to turn the TV on. AArrrgh!!

Anyway the ULI Fat Ass Quads have pitched up - looking forward for some inflatable fun time.

New Boards In New Boards Out Sunday's Session

What a week!! The new ULI Fat Ass gets officially launched and I think - that's got to be worth a wiggle - a 9'3" x 33" that looks like it surf's reasonably well and with a few 'D' rings added to the front should take a fishing box and at 33" wide ought to be stable enough to double up for that task. Theoretically that means I can get away with just taking one inflatable away with me regardless of conditions and maybe make some use of it through the summer at home as well. The fishing is something that I have been meaning to play around with a bit more and the heavier built FAQ should lend itself nicely to that.

So - I need to sell an inflatable and one thing for sure - it's not going to be the MUNOZ. Having tentatively punted the prospect of letting the Lopez go Gary, a recent SUP convert expressed an interest in trying it, he currently rides a Starboard Element. I got the impression that he was quite impressed with it, so impressed in fact that he opted for a FAT ASS as well - bugger!! Fortunately at the same time Jussi, who we met in Costa Rica asked if I knew where he might get a used ULI. Sometimes things just fall into place.

So that was that - I was selling the Lopez, getting an ULI FAT ASS and had sort of resigned myself to stepping up to the mark regarding the HOKUA 9'0 that I had just bought before Christmas. I mean the board is ace and with the bigger fins and thruster set up I knew that it would be fine with time and patience. Having said that I got Whippet from Willis surf boards to put the FCS plug needed for the Go Pro on my old 9'3 Hokua.

Email from Naish Sales Heaven -

"Hey Fatboy - the Mana 9'0 has just arrived - make up your mind cos if you don't have it someone else will"

Double Bugger - There is no way that I'm getting that past the shed door - in fact now that I've got a Fat Ass I don't need it anyway - so you can stuff that in your HOKUA board bag that doesn't fit - what do you think I am STUPID? How many boards do you think I need?

Reply to Naish Sales Heaven

'Ughh yeh ok - I'll have it, can you give me a few weeks to move on the 9'0 Hokua first?

This is going to cost me - but if I keep the 9' Hokua and don't use it that's just daft! Better to take a hit while it's new and get what I wanted in the first place.

Quick add on the forums - SupGlobal and Standuppaddlesurf UK and I reckon it must have taken all of 20minutes before someone who is obviously as afflicted, affected and patently SUP sick as I am sent me that magic "I'll have it" email. We can work out the finer details later.

As I said sometimes things just fall into place, got to say it though decent kit pays off in the long run.

So - the surfing?

We have had an amazingly consistent run of swell recently - must be at least two weeks straight with waves that have been lighting up all the sheltered 'secret spots' - trouble is there aren't that many secret spots any more, last Sunday we were out house hunting and counted 50 surfers tucked away in a little corner that 5 years ago you could guarantee having quietly to yourself and a few mates when the big south westerlies kick in.

All week I was watching the forecasts and although it was consistently showing at 10'+ with looooonnnnggg swell period (for us) 12 - 17 seconds the winds were banging through at 20 - 40mph on the Sundays that I was up for it. That's half the problem with going away and getting three weeks of solid perfection - I just don't feel too inclined to get up early on a Sunday morning to get a full sinus rinse with 9-10 degree water. Jeez I must be getting soft!!

This Sunday was different - wind was going southerly - big spring tides with a 7am high and it was all looking good for a bash at Hayle rivermouth. This mark used to be capable of insanely long rights up the river when everywhere else was closing out. Just going out the door thinking I ought to text Gav but spookily I don't have a board to lend him when I got a text from Phil -

"Just heading to the Bluff (Rivermouth)"

Fumble fumble -

'So am I'

Not really much of a conversationalist me!!!

Quick change - bolt on the GoPro - sort of a bit embarrassed about doing that - hope nobody sees me - don't expect fireworks - I'm a bit shit - What??

Down the path with Sam on her Sup and Phil who took his longboard out - they swapped about a bit you can spot them in some of the slides later - yeh I know more slideshow stuff - to be honest I thought I had it set up for video but being a bit of a milky eyed old codger I still don't really know how it's menu works yet.

Long and short of the session was I paddled out in the River to the Bar took a couple of steep ones and paid for it paddled back in to where everyone else was and wished that I had stayed outside. Chest to head high closeouts beating the crap out of everyone in cold grey shallow water - not ideal, certainly not the epic session that I thought it was going to be but good fun and a filthy good excuse to listen to the Verve Lucky Man as sound track to my slideshow, unfortunately there is an issue with the track with you tube so . . . . Have some Radiohead.

Next up new board stuff - and hopefully I should be back on plan to sort my quiver out with my cunning masterplan. Boards that are easy and fun to surf in most conditions and don't make me wish that I was on something else. Used 9'3 Hokua anyone ?? - Only kidding

Mana Fat Ass Mana Fat Ass Mana FatAss - Twat!!

ULI Munoz Nicaragua Costa Rica

So long story made short - here goes - we fly into Managua in Nicaragua, rent a 4x4 drive to our beach, stay a night, drive to the border drop the 4x4 off, get totally ass raped by touts at the border, hand our passports over to some unknown quasi official, get them stamped with exit stamps, walk across the border to Costa Rica Immigration, drive to Nosara, drink a beer and think how lucky we are to be at Casa Romantica and then start to worry how the hell we are going to fly out in three weeks when we have non transferable Continental tickets from Managua. Fun Fun Fun.

So back on familiar ground, woke up at 5:00 am and trundled down the path half an hour later with the ULI Munoz 8'11" - it's still dark and I can hear the surf even if I can't see it. I got to admit I'm a little bit scared. Last year I was pretty much always first in the water but all I could think about this morning was sharks and stuff I was really rattled. Weird how the mind messes with itself. Anyway as I gingerly knee paddled out, got some steam up and popped to my feet I began to get my first feel of the new ULI with some proper water moving under it's fins. Fortunately it gets light as fast as it gets dark here - and that's very fast - so the heeby jeebies were soon left with dawn's dark.

I'd love to say that I picked up exactly where I left off last time but that would not be the whole truth. There was a LOT of water moving through and I was definitely a bit sketchy, once on the wave however the board just lit up. It took any drop without fear of pearling, snapped back to the curl like a short board and hung in perfect trim for the longest nose rides, any worries that the fin placement was wrong were soon dispelled.

(Disclaimer : obviously these descriptions and any others that follow have to be applied to and taken in context with my own personal standard of surfing - average is generous - Shane calls it geriatric - which I'll settle for!)

Between the waves however it was another story I had not quite dialled into the conditions which were a steady head high plus at 16 seconds and double that on the sneaker sets. Maybe not huge for some but still challenging when you had a bit of a wave drought for a month or so. (Roughly translated into Cornish reads as a tad munchy)

For the evening session which is always a bit busier I took out the LOPEZ and immediately got it wired, the LOPEZ is a lot more stable and very forgiving in comparison and for the next few sessions the LOPEZ was the board of choice. I hate falling off the board at random and the Lopez was rock solid. The swell was still building.

The signal for my last session on the LOPEZ came as the tide dropped back and the swell built creating steeper faces, I pearled two or three waves on the trot and found the ragged mid beach rip a little more difficult to paddle into, so I swapped out in favour of the more rakish nose rocker of the Munoz again. This proved to be a good move and the couple of days board time that the Lopez had given me stood me in good stead as I felt much more comfortable on the 8'11" than I did on the first day. There was no more pearling.

Me and Mr Munoz just got down to business for the rest of the trip.

I'm not going to bore you all with a session by session account - here's the figures:

17 days - 36 sessions - 74hours give or take - I was and am totally shagged!

I'll stick up a few slide shows which naturally will be the smaller days- they always say that (it's the fisherman in me), - and thanks to DW over at ncpaddlesurfer I'm messing about with my daughters MacBook and my GoPro in order to liven up the blog a bit.
Dwight has been brilliant with encouraging email's and messages like -

"Jeez Steve - give the keyboard a rest will you - life's too short to read all that shit - just give 'em pictures"

So here is a little slideshow of a mix of pics taken from the one session that I did with the GoPro clamped to the paddle. Its all a bit sycophantic but what the hell this blog is my SUP diary as much as anything else and with the sorry state of my memory I need all the help I can get, besides I needed an excuse to mess with the Mac's picture stuff.



This is the Arty one with music combining some GoPro stills with some of Jeff Logans beach pic's.

My last session of my last day was probably the most memorable. The swell had started to build again and the full moon had brought the hide tides to the evening sessions. The back wash off the beach was noticeable 200 yards off shore and could still sweep the board from under me if caught unawares. The waves were held up by it creating some magical left and right handers of biblical proportions (length if not height). All we had to do was dodge the logs and trees that had been washed off the head of the beach. The vibe in the water was amazing - such a cool place - I even got hooted into waves by some local Tico short boarders who were obscenely good.


I finally got to meet and surf with Scott Allen a mate of Glen GJB Atlantic Paddle Surfing whose blog I follow. Scott's a great guy and was taking some time off the paddleboard to get in touch with his longboard again, I was tempted but I was having way too much fun to .

Made loads of new friends Jussi,Hanna, Pete Wickistone, Dick Hilmer and reacquainted with some old ones Pete and Pam, Alan and Pam, Brian and Pat and of course Reimo and Sylvia at Casa Romantica along with the guys at the Guilded Iguana and Jeff Logan whose efforts to make my surfing look good via his big lens was much appreciated.

I don't want to make this blog seem like a commercial for ULI - cos it's not. I take ULI paddle boards with me through choice because they don't cost me anything to travel with, (Pete got charged $100 each way for his 5' fish and they dinged it!), they wont hurt me or anyone else if I loose it, you can't hurt them, and although they may cost a bit more to buy when you factor in postage and tax I can sell them dead quick second hand after a year or two for decent money to help me finance the next one, but the main reason is that I have got no reason to take a hard board - I get all fun with none of the fuss.

One thing that does make me smile above all else about the boards though, there was not a single moment when I thought

"I wish I was on a Hard Board"

I mean come on these things have no rails - or hull concaves - or 'v' channels or fin options, and the fins that they have are so flexible that they could easily be made from recycled products taken out of the Anne Summers warranty returns bin. So whilst I accept that at my standard of surfing (best described as mediocre to average) I am unlikely to appreciate or test the finer points that some of these design features offer, and a lot of this stuff is probably lost and waisted on me anyway - I don't think that I could have had a better time than I did. Makes you think?

ULI PROTOTYPE 8'11" Sshh you ain't seen me right!

I'm always pestering ULI for new boards and Jim,Chris and the guys being the nice people that they are sent me a pre-production prototype to shut me up for a while.

As I started writing this (Late November) I still do not know how much of it, if any is going to be published. As mellow and easy going as the ULI guy's are when a board comes with a warning like -

'Ride it and enjoy it - but photograph it, forum it, it or blog it and we will send the Steamroller around for some personal correction therapy!'

- well you just don't argue with that - do you? Jim finally gave me the green light following some customer requests for shorter boards and some 'spyshots' breaking cover on the Standupzone relating to a thread started by alap - another avid ULI fan. Reading this thread makes you realise how strong the vein of ULI brand loyalty runs through their customers. ULI make you feel like one of the boys.

The thing is the inflatable standup market is becoming quite a crowded place and although some of the raw products may originate from the same factories the subsequent work and tuning that is done on the boards does make a difference, resulting in the endorsements and inputs from shaper's that ULI have been involved with, like Gerry Lopez and in this case Mickey Munoz - there I've said it. Thats the sort of thing that sets these boards apart from the others and in the pre-production stages creates the need for an element of secrecy in order to maintain a commercial market advantage.

So whats with the board? - My sample measured 8'11" with a 28 1/4" width and just a smidge under 4" thick. The nose and tail are both pulled pretty tight and there is 4" of nose rocker.




Those figures would make pretty exciting numbers for a hard board I was worried that the board might not even float me. My fag packet maths put the volume at around 100 - 110 litres - pretty much borderline for my weight at 90kgs.

First time out was during that long spell of Easterly airstream that we had during November - barely any swell and glassy. I struggled to find anything more than a lazy knee high bump but you know what it's like when you have a new board and desperation sets in.

The board floated me - some of the deck was just above the water but I was definately on the dry side. The side to side 'tip to recovery' point was incredibly sensitive and although I thought that I was used to fairly small tippy boards this one was going to be a challenge for a while. The board is unbelievably light, 16lbs on our shop scales and this was also noticable on the water as the boards reaction to paddle strokes was instantaneous.

Don't get me wrong the board tracked straight and true and I could easily paddle half a dozen or more strokes on each side but dig the paddle too deep or too wide and she would either tip or turn - no messing. Stationary stability was hard to judge given the conditions, absolute glass, however get the board moving and she felt fine.

The 4-5" of nose rocker made light work of the knee high wash that was pushing through the inside section. Waves were tiny with barely enough power to tighten the board up however I caught a few ripples and was stunned at how easily the little inflatable accelarated and caught the bumps however the waves were so slack I was struggling to work them to any degree and fell frequently. The nose, although narrow, held firm and was stable paddling in and did not show the tendancies of my Naish boards to 'dive away sideways' if I got the entry wrong. The session was too short and lacking in any significant wave power to come to any significant conclusion about it's surfing performance however, if anything it felt a bit lack lustre in the tiny slack conditions.

DECEMBER 6TH SUNDAY
Just got back from my second session on the MUNOZ. Managed a little session last Sunday in tiny clean ankle slappers, I thought then that the board was a bit tippy and that it was fairly hard work even in super clean conditions.

TODAY however was a totally different story. This board is a beast. We had a bit more swell to deal with, still very clean and small, sort of waist high and a bit on the sets but what a difference some speed and punch makes to the board. I was able to make a total pig of my self and caught everything going. The ability for it to turn both on and in front of the waves is nuts. I was in with a couple of freinds who are just starting out with stand up. Sam had a 10' x 30" fish (local home grown board) and Phil borrowed my 9'3" Naish Hokua. We swapped around boards during the session and honestly the best tool for the job was the Munoz. My Naish is a real hi-performance board lots of nose rocker and tippy as hell. I would normally ride it in most conditions but the Munoz was just a wave machine today. Even Sam who had a quick go on the Munoz found it easier than her 10' Fish. I think that ULI have got a winner on their hands with this one, they would need to pitch it at the lighter or more experienced user, but honestly it's one of the best boards that I have ever ridden, no bull I am serious. It has a real longboardy feel about it yet it will snap 'flat' turns on the wave so easily.

If I was super picky I would say that it could possibly do with some tweaks to the fin placement. I not quite sure why but I seem to 'loose it' a bit if I try and crank it around super hard on it's rails. The Naish or the Lopez will take it but this one washes out a bit soon, possibly needs the front fins pushed forward some or maybe even a quad set up?? Or maybe I just need to ride it a bit more. I had some of the longest cheater fives on it today and dont think that it would take too much for me to get the fins out and spin it, amazing. I dont think that you would need to do too much to this one to make it perfect, thats perfect compared to any board not just inflatables. Perhaps if it was a inch wider it would have a broader appeal but as it is it could easily double up as a travel longboard.

The way that short performance sups are taking off at the moment I think this would compliment anyones quiver and give them a travel board to boot. In fact thats how I would pitch it

'A performance Standup - that just happens to be a travel board as well', this puppy is a real peach and it's definetly going to Nicaragua with us. I love it

OK This was all written before January but kept as a draft until the cat was out of the bag.

New Years Day - Glass

Had a quiet'ish new years eve, packing the kit ready for our holiday, boards, paddles rods and reels and a ton of other stuff that all needs to pack down into a couple of 23kg holdalls. No bother.

Forecast was looking great for New Year's day - and it was spot on, 2-3 foot and clean as a pin - no wind. I swapped out the rear Quad fins on the 9'0 and popped in a single 8" longboard fin hoping that it would steady up the board a bit. It did. That and a slightly shorter 8' and thinner leash and the change in the boards manners was amazing. Stable and quick to accelerate it was beginning to feel familiar and comfortable. Phew!! The 9'0 is definitely borderline for me and I would say a step on from the 9'3, the larger fin evened out some of the differences between the two boards but the nose would sink away at the first sign of incorrect weighting making foot placement more critical than the 9'3. I probably only fell about four times today when holding station - hopefully that will get better.

I picked up a GoPro HD from a chap recently - brand new, unused and unwanted. I can hear the groans reverberate around SUP'dom. Anyway it was a good price and I thought why not? Today's trip was a bit experimental and I mounted it on the paddle shaft. The effect when paddling is really comical as it gives the impression of the paddle remaining stationary and me sliding myself around the paddle arc. Dead impressed with the picture quality - unfortunate how bad it makes my surfing look. Don't worry there wont be too much of this as a board mount is being sorted.

This is the spot where I was going to post a little GOPRO video but the damn thing wont load up and I cant convert the mpeg4 file into something that Windows videomaker will recognise. PC's are giving me so much grief at the moment, time for a Mac I think!

For me the 9' is everything that the 9'3 is but with a little more chili. It has a better handle and obviously it's shorter with all the practical advantages that offers. Above all if it is going to stay it's a board that is going to keep my weight in check.

January the 2nd and I managed to snag another early morning session (without the ball ache of the camera). Again this session was so much easier than the last one, again it was like glass. I had some decent waves but the swell was dropping off and the peaks were shifting about making decent shoulders hard to find.

There was a chap out on a 10'4 (I think) Jimmy Lewis this morning, it was Gut's Griffiths old board and as we chatted during the session we swapped over boards. The Jimmy was really nice, so easy to paddle and early into waves, compared to the Naish it felt sluggish to turn (unless your Guts) but still easy as. Why am I making things difficult for myself?

As good as the Hokua is (VERY GOOD) I'm still not convinced that it's for me. It will float me I can surf it but I have to be honest I'm too damn fat and just a bit too shit to get the best out of it, and that's a shame.

I was missing too many waves and felt awkward like I did in the beginning, and I don't think that I want that anymore. The trade off, more surfability versus ease of use just was not stacking up for me today. My little Nah Skell was more stable, shorter and could surf it's tits off but you really had to 'work it'. Always having to be in the right place, always having to make the correct last paddle stroke and for me with the 9'0 never being able to relax and that's in glass. I just want to surf now, I'm done blazing my own trails.

When's that 9'0 Mana available??

Naish 9'0 Hokua versus the Christmas Coma

I started writing this entry on the 8th December, funny how things can conspire against you sometimes, I'm now posting it on the 28th December. Christmas has come and gone and no doubt the shops will shortly be crammed full of Easter eggs. The joys of consumerism! Anyway back to the 12th.

What a week, spent most of it thinking that I should hold out for the Mana, but that would mean waiting until February and I'm just too impatient for that, so I ordered the new 9' Hokua.

There was a small swell forecast for last Sunday, the 5th, which gave me the opportunity to have a second spin on a board that I had first ridden the week before. Last time out conditions were so weak it was a struggle and difficult to make any judgement at all, this time however it blew me away - totally.

I rode three different boards on Sunday in a dead clean, waist high, mid tide wave and can honestly say that one of them stood out head and shoulders in those particular conditions.

Phil was on my 9'3 Hokua and struggling a little which is hardly surprising as he has only just made the leap from longboard to Standup and until now has been on my 10' Steamroller.

Sam was picking a few off on her 10' Escape and I was on the 'new un'. We swapped boards about during the session and I found the Naish and the Escape bloody hard work compared to what I was on - hard for different reasons, the Escape was wide, stable and held it's speed but was a lot slower than the others, nothing wrong with the board but I would think TURN and after a while it t u r n e d . The Naish as always was clinically brilliant, always begging for more juice and never showing any signs of a refusal to go, but just not as much fun in the conditions.

Fun - remember that? Fun's why we (I) do this, the opportunity to act the goat and mess about on the water. In fact I reckon this could well be one of the best (read most fun) boards that I have ridden since I started on standups, and I truly did not expect that.

This board is a beast and I wish that I could say more. I had a bit more swell to deal with than the last time out, still very clean and small, sort of waist high and a bit on the sets but what a difference some speed and punch makes to the board. I was able to make a total pig of my self and caught everything that I went for with the minimal of paddle strokes. The ability for it to turn both on and in front of the waves is nuts. Really nice noserides, for me anyway, cheater fives, backwards, mini slash cutbacks, little fin first slides and all preceded with a full thrust rocket launch into the catch - truly amazing. And that's it! For now, but watch this space.

Anyway the 9' Hokua pitched up yesterday at the shop, how pretty is this board? Naish Yellow with white accents and the bamboo deck, I know that most manufacturers are getting smacked with the Bamboo stick and it must be difficult to keep things like graphics and image fresh each year but Naish have created a clean look for 2011 product that instantly dates my old Hokua. Clever.

First things first, sliding the board out of the supplied travel bag proved loads easier than the thin foam lined cover that my 9'3 came with and my first impressions were that it would last a lot longer than a couple of trips. Out of the bag and slipping my hand into the new 'undercut' hand hold. She's reasonably balanced, I think with four fins and a leash the tail will dip but we'll see. One things for sure - finned up it ain't going back in the bag despite the fin slots. That's a bit crap.

She looks sleeker and less porky than the 9'3 which makes the narrow nose look even more rakish. The rails however look positively huge and until I checked I would have put money on them being almost 5" thick, they weren't. The tail has a slight 'stinger' mullarkey going on that blends into a thinned out step deck arrangement before finishing in the mini bat tail. I have to be honest here, aesthetically this was my least favourite element of the whole board. I'm sure that there is a sound reason for all this additional mold work but it just seems an unnecessarily complex finish to such a pure shape that works well on my 9'3. I do like simplicity.


Whipping the board over I had expected to see a dead flat hull but there is a very pronounced keel line and that surprised me. It's not as full on as on the 9'3 but it is there. The rail edges are softer than the 9'3 as well with significantly less obvious nose rocker. Five fin placements and it's supplied with 4 FCS fins and a Naish ??" centre fin for the longboard fin box.

Back over on it's belly and the diamond cut 3/4 length Naish deck pad with kick tail is factory fitted. I hope it stays that way as I had a mare with my 9'3 before I finally replaced the Naish pad with a Dakine that has stayed stuck.

So the figures

Length - End to end top side I made it 8'11"
Around the hull curve 9'
Nose 1' from the tip 15 1/2"
Middle 28 1/2"
Tail 1' from end pre stinger 18 1/2"
Tail 1' from end after stinger 17 1/2"
Thickness 4"
Nose Rocker @1' 4"
Nose Rocker @ Tip 6"

The hull has a double concave creating a 'v' keel that starts 3' from the nose and finishes 16" from the tail at a point that is level with the front fins. The deck hollow starts 43" from the nose and finishes 40" from the tail. All up she weighed in at 18.2lbs 8.27 kilos.

Standing back and checking her out I started to question my last minute swap out from the Mana 9' - this board is very similar to my 9'3" which although well used is still in excellent shape the BIG differences are the Quad fin option and the lack of three inches in Length and 3/4" in width and how that will translate on the water I had no idea.

So back to today - Xmas has been and gone preceded by one of the hardest cold snaps for decades bringing much of the UK to a complete standstill . The North Easterly airstream that brought the snow and ice to us usually results in clean offshore conditions however bar a couple of days there was no swell giving me a three week dry spell. That had me checking every predicted 1-2' pulse. Even Dwight http://ncpaddlesurfer.blogspot.com/ was getting impatient, email from Dwight. -

'What the hells going on over there fatty, you got that board wet yet?'

'Uhh sorry guys' quick think of something . . . ' I urgh umm, well it's complicated, but it should clear up as soon as the Penicillin kicks in'

That usually does it.

It was pretty much total bollox until Xmas day, that looked perfect. Naturally we were entertaining our Mums, and Mums always trump surfing these days. Boxing Day looked possible however the winds had now turned Southerly and were increasing from 20 - 30 knots, and that's how it stayed until today when I woke to - silence. No tiles rattling - no wind - no second thoughts - I loaded up the Naish and headed for Gwithian. High Tide was 10:00am light South Westerlies and a slight WSW swell showing 10' at 12 seconds . Plus it was warm the air temp was 12'c and the water was 11'c paradise. The air temp has not been much above 0'c for the last two weeks and we now have permafrost in the garden!!

Quick change and off down the path and into the water - looking good. Usual story push the board out spring (did I say spring?) onto the deck and straight off the other side head first. Bugger! It was an omen of things to come. I struggled like hell today. I was like Bambi with broken legs and must have fallen off 20 times in the session. When I actually managed to get up and paddling I felt like my feet were nailed to the deck.

'For F**ks sake Steve, come on get it sorted you twat'

I often find that a little loud but positive verbal encouragement helps to get the tension out of my system, that's one reason why I surf alone,

'Look Mummy - see that nutter shouting at himself in the surf, do you think he's in trouble?

Probably!

The best way for me to describe what was going on was pitiful. It wasn't the board although the quad fin set up MAY have speeded the tipping recovery point to a pace that I just could not match. The tail was sinking under my Xmas cheer filled wetsuit and as I said my feet felt leaden and stuck down, I just could not shuffle and weight my forefoot and heels quick enough and as a result I had trouble not just staying still but also spinning the board around prior to a catch.

TIME OUT

'Come on think about this'

I had spent three weeks out of the water, I have just eaten pretty much a whole herd of roast turkeys, an entire flock of cows and half a pig along with endless cocktail pork pies, roast potatos, leeks, parsnips, some Gucci little bacon wrapped sausages, cheese, cake, cream and anything else that happened to be lying around the house in glittery wrapping paper. The resulting food induced torpor and endless diet of inane regurgitated Xmas television had dulled my previously highly honed Stand Up skills - in short I was shagged. Colonic irrigation was looking like an attractive and welcome proposition.

I managed a few lefts, badly, and paddled out again and tried going in later and caught a few more but the questions and voices were flaring up in my head.

'This boards got you beat' - no it hasn't it's just that I'm a bit shit today and then just to prove my point I nailed a half decent right and popped out the back still on the board. That took an hour to get to that point. Slowly I began to spend less time flailing and more time surfing and the board was good. I'm still not sure about the fins and made a note to put in a decent longboard fin to hopefully slow up the side to side tipping and give me a little more time to dial in.

Another left, cutting back to the wash and then hooking the nose around to the left again had me smiling, again I managed to stay on my feet and paddle back out. The Naish cuts through the wash well but until I get my timing and balance reset my feet semed stubbornly stuck to the deck. It was coming but slowly.

The tide was dropping back a little now and the set waves were jacking up a bit more. I paddled down the break a little and dropped into a decent right. Suddenly it came together albeit briefly. Bottom turn, up the face, cranked it around watching the wave feather a little just in front wandering if it would hold up long enough for another, crank the bottom turn and booosh off the breaking lip before another bottom turn and running through the wash for the green exit door. Nice!

So is it better than my 9'3 - well it might be but not based on this mornings performance. I think I need to ditch the fins for a 2 plus 1 setup and possibly change the leash that I put on. I thought that I would try a new 10mm cord knee leash and whilst the leash is very good in the back of my mind was the extra drag that the thicker cord was creating. Excuses? Definitely. But that's how it goes.

Anyway possibly one more chance to get in between now and the 5th when we fly out to warm seas and constant swell - hopefully I wont be dripping on about lack of water time then.

Hope that you have had a great Xmas and have a healthy new year - might try a few changes on the blog for 2011 - fiddle about with the look a bit, and try posting smaller entries more frequently with some more pics - let me know.

All the best Steve

Naish 9' Mana morphs into 9' Hokua - Reef Live.

There seems to be some form of synchronicity in the world of sports equipment manufacturing. Our bike launches are always around September / October with the finished product dribbling though from November to April. It would seem to be the same with paddle-boards. You get the odd few rumours and then some 'spy shots' then some outdoor shows followed by very limited stock going out through a few chosen dealers by which time the rest of us are salivating like a long term prisoner on the eve of release. Accident or design, who knows?

Anyway I have been waiting to get get my hands on the new Mana 9' and you know what it's like, you pretend to be all cool and chilled out

'Don't worry - it'll be here when it gets here'

sort of thing, but really deep down I'm bubbling up like a seven year old kid at Christmas. What the hell is it about new boards? It just doesn't matter how good the current one is we convince ourselves that the next one is going to have that special sprinkling of 'shaper dust' that will transform our surfing.

We consume every piece of information about the new board, we read every blog and forum comment we try and compare ourselves to the writers situation, weight / skill level / previous boards / conditions ridden in until there is nothing else to read and then - we start all over again but from a slightly different perspective. Each rehash of the same microscopically small snippets of second and third hand information is teased out of text and pictures and builds up the confirmation that this board is the one that will take me to the next level. Paddle surf Nirvana.

UUrggh you don't do that? Really?? Just me being a sad twat then. Bugger.

Anyway revved to the point of popping as week 46 approaches, (Mana Week) and the email comes in.

'Good news Steve, the shipments arrived'.

Oooohh here it comes.

'Bad news is although they have been booked and advised on the manifest, the Mana's are not on the shipment, there are some 9' Hokua's but the Mana's wont be here until week 2, Sorry.'

Have you ever looked into a seven year old's eyes and told him not only has Christmas been cancelled but you have also just run over his pet dog Bruno in the driveway? Not a pretty sight. Get a grip Steve. It's not as if you have been rejected for a kidney transplant is it? Email back.

'Hey that's ok, it's just a board, I can wait, its not a problem, it's not as if it's a life support machine is it? I'm away most of January so I'll have it in February.'

There, that was ok calm, cool and collected, no point making a fuss I got a board, I'm not stuck, every things cool.

New email.

'F*c& it! Send me a 9' Hokua please'

Deep breaths, . . . . and relax. It's an obsession, worse an addiction and it needs to be fed.

Last Friday Charmaine and myself went to see the newly reformed REEF at the Hall for Cornwall. I like REEF, I liked them the first time round and always regretted not making the effort to see them back then. They combined the full on heavy, youthful rock metal with a laid back Indie twist and a sprinkling of Stone Roses thrown in for good measure. Their breakthrough to mainstream hit 'Place your hands' was actually the least typical of their entire catalogue.

As I watched them last Friday I thought

'Either I'm too old for this or they are'.

It was a good gig I just felt that the guys were too old too be giving it the 'HORNS' maybe Ozzie could still get away with it but I felt slightly uncomfortable for them. Gary Stringer slipped up a couple of times on a wet stage - Incontinence is a bugger to deal with. I swear that Jack Bessant had actually been replaced by Robert Lenkiewicz. Robert Lenkiewicz died in 2002 I think.

I swear that the bass player was Robert Lenkiewicz!

JACK BESSANT



ROBERT LENKIEWICZ

It was a good gig and the band were sound - but just out of time. In hindsight it was probably me. I don't age well and what the hell do I know, I ride paddleboards and my nose hair is thicker than whats on my head.

My Movember Tash is coming along nicely though.

So the only other thing that I have to write about I can't, but that's the thing about secrets knowing that there is one is half the battle of discovery. damn I've said too much already.

ULI STEAMROLLER 10' For Sale ** NOW SOLD **

Got something very special on the way so am selling my trusty ULI Steamroller. The board is in very good condition. It has had the deck grip peel back and been re-stuck down a few times but other than that the board is terrific. An excellent standup board capable of much more than I can do. Complete with pump. £450 - Delivery possible from £25 to the UK. I could possibly chuck in a 6' ULI inflatable surfboard for £500 ALL UP plus carriage!!

UPDATE 2nd December 2010 - Many thanks the Steamroller and the 6'ULI is now sold! And will be living in Germany. Well they are travel boards!!!




I know they are old pics but I do like them.

Obviously as it's a travel board I could ship it overseas subject to having cleared funds but please be aware shipping costs to the U.S. for instance could be as much as £160. Way less to mainland Europe but Italy and Switzerland seem to attract a premium.

The Steamroller was brand new to me in July 2008 my first blog entry was here http://csx355.blogspot.com/2008/07/10-uli-steamroller-and-stuff.html

It was my second ULI standup board. The Steamroller was my last twin skin construction boards before ULI started delivering the lightweight single skin jobs. Hard to describe but trust me they are bombproof.

Construction is excellent no cracks or issues. As I said the deck grip has come unstuck through being rolled up and with the temperature differences in aircraft holds etc. but I have just restuck it down and I dare say that anyone that has it will do the same from time to time. The Fins are hard flexible plastic and they have some 'slight' scuffing on the edges. They can also take a 'set' after being rolled up however with warm water / warm air temps they always return to straight.

The 10'r was much more of a surf board than my original 11'r however as my pics show it is still more of a cruiser than a short board. You have to turn it from the tail but it nose rides really well. My Gerry Lopez 9'11 is much more 'slashy' and way more tippy.

My only relationship with ULI is as a very satisfied customer and they used some of the words from my blog on their website. The guys at ULI are totally genuine and care about their product. I had the pleasure to meet with Jim Weir this year in Costa Rica and share a few waves with the guys - never stopped laughing.

Total respect for Team ULI - they have totally transformed my trips away.

The Board rolls up and is then held with a strap before it is packed away in a bag. It comes with a high pressure pump and guage (only pump to 15psi).

Be sorry to see it go but I have the ULI Lopez and that's all I have to say about that!!

Quick Movember update - we have currently raised £334 with the bulk of it still to come in. Currently sporting a Mexican Bandito sort of thing. Charmaine likes it!!

Quick Mana update - should be getting the new 9'er towards the end of the month - Come on!!


Totally busting to say more . . . but can't !!

Go Global for your Gland - Stand Up and Paddle your Prostate - Get stuck in and Feather up your face!

Yeh I know, sounds like the lyrics to a bad country and western song but you are going to have to read it all to get to the bottom of it!

Sunday went pretty much according to plan, the general forecast was a bit iffy, dubious surf - light to moderate winds, spring tides and two boards to play with.

Into Gwithian first thing for a quick surf in a smallish, clean but confused swell.

A few decent ones coming through but mainly short period stuff with lots of little double ups. Interestingly there was a guy out on little Nah Skwell 8'8". Looked like he was getting to grips with it as well. Top little board.


Back home for 11.00 and a quick check to make sure that I'm not needed for the day and with the green light on I was straight into the shed to knock up a fishing box for the board and sort out some kit. Basic plan was shoot down to Perranuthnoe - paddle upwind a bit, back across the bay and then back to load the box up and try a bit of fishing.

And that's pretty much what happened, South coast was flat with a small bump pushing through and again a couple of guys on stand up's making the most of the little swell. One of the boards might have been a white Mctavish. Amazing how many Sup's are beginning to show up now and the diversity of boards out there.

TOP PIECE OF KIT - £14.99 AVAILABLE HERE

Remembering to set and check the GPS app on the phone, and double checking that the Overboard waterproof Iphone bag was sealed, I pushed off the beach and headed South East across the bay. I was getting used to the board now and made fairly decent progress up to Cudden point without busting a gut. I was still knackered from the mornings surf. Plus I had only had 3 Weetabix all day!!

CUDDEN POINT

Turning back just before the point I had expected to have the benefit of the wind on my back but it was actually North Easterly cross off and I was pretty much able to maintain my albeit wobbly heading by paddling on my left side most of the way.

ST MICHAELS MOUNT

Catching a little bump into the beach I rememembered to step well back on the board and then jumped off in good time to avoid stuffing the fin on the beach. That was alright. I had just racked up my third ever session on a race board.

Off up to the car and out with the rods and box which was duly strapped to the board just behind me. I have no idea if the kit is better off in front or behind, answers on a postcard please. Fifty yards from the beach I stopped and popped out a Mackeral coloured Yozuri sinking plug and trailed it fruitlessly around the Western headland and into the little bay that I used to call 'Boat Cove'. Not a touch - never mind it was all good practice and part of the learning curve. The part that told me that fishing off a race board probably is not the ideal option. I'm guessing it's as easy as racing on a fishing board.

MAKE SHIFT FISHING BOX

By the time that I got back to the beach the tide had pushed up so far that there was no beach head left and I had to 'Gingerly' surf in and carry the entire assembly level up the steep shingle bank. Another lesson learned.

So heres the download of the trip using Everytrail.com which I pinched from a recommendation by Ponobill on the Standupzone.

Perranuthnoe sup paddle

The app is dead easy to use and once I had deleted the part of the trip that was recorded driving from Hayle to Helston actually made a bit of sense. Just hover over the panel and click on the little icons at the bottom right of the window to view the data in either graph or list format.
Little bursts at 5mph average of 2.5mph total trip of 4.1 miles. Easy.

Top stuff and just £1.79 from the app store.

The recording was all made possible by being able to pop the iphone into this little Gizmo

amazing bit of kit available here (blatant plug) http://triworld.co.uk/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=98 and I reckon at £14.99 it's a bargain. They do audio enabled pouches as well as waterproof ear phones, bum bags, ruc sacks and storage sacks. Great range of kit and decent prices.

OK - Movember - what's the score?

In the shop we have decided to get behind the Movember movement that raises money worldwide for prostate cancer charities. Everybody gets a bit 'charity battered' these days so what we thought we would do is fleece everyone for a £1, not set our sights too high, grow the facial hair, have a laugh and if nothing else stick two fingers up to prostate cancer!!!

And then I thought,

'Hang on - here I am bashing out this blog just for the love of it,

(and of course for the hundreds of free boards, paddles, wetsuits, leashes and cash that come pouring through my letter box on a daily basis)

all totally ad free, and maybe, just maybe some of the 1500 or so visits to the blog each month might like to chip in a $1 or a £1 and maybe even get inspired to get in touch with their own prostate, you know get to grips with the old fellow, check him out, say high. I'm guessing that most of you reading this have one and would probably appreciate keeping most of it intact.

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Anyway if you feel that you want to do something join our team here for a £, or a $ or just grow your own and raise a bit of awareness throughout Movember.

Mail me a pic and I'll post it on the blog - (faces not gooches).

Come on - Go Global for your Gland - Paddle your Prostate - Get stuck right in and Feather up your face.

Cycle Logic MOVEMBER team site here site here

Nah Skwell 12'6" Race - Seriously?

I have no idea what's going on here sometimes. There's me, in my comfy little cocoon, mooching about buying the odd one or two surf boards and pretending like I know exactly what I'm doing and that I have a grip on things when

B O O M

I end up driving up to Watergate bay to collect an ex-demo Nah Skwell 12'6 Race Board - I mean come on - me on a Flouro pink white and grey 6" thick leviathan of foam filled glass sporting a fin as big as a sail. To be honest it looked to me like something Pocahontas should be paddling down the Pamunkey River.

Actually it looked pretty cute, and after relieving Rich of his board and an amazingly light carbon Xpaddle I trogged back off to the car to load it on the roof. Thought that I was done with that sort of stuff.

John Hibbard busted me just as I got into the car park.

'It's not mine honest mister'

I lied - well actually it wasn't yet.

'I'm just looking after it for a friend'

'Why am I explaining myself to this man? He is a mine of information, just shut up and listen.'

We had a quick chat and conscious of the fact that Charmaine wanted to get something from her only day off as well we booted off.

Having done all the stuff that I should do I drove down to Carbis bay to beast the beast. Cos it was going to be easy right? Wrong!!




Something Rich had said that I dismissed out of hand at Watergate came drifting back into my consciousness as I wobbled, corrected, over corrected and teetered my way off the Beach. Something about being wobbly at first. Really!!!



The board tip's like it's going to roll totally but then gets to a point and tightens up, by which time I had already corrected my foot weighting, pitching me over to the other side. Ok,ok, relax and paddle and relax and paddle - there we go, phew that was a bit of a shock.

The bottom of the NS126R has a well defined keel that gets very prominent towards it's well defined prow (do surfboard's have prows? This one does). In fact everything about this board is well defined, not least the colour scheme, which I have to admit was beginning to grow on me.

Other than a 2 minute paddle on Steve Carter's Starboard Point a year or so ago I have never been on a race board so I did to it exactly what I thought a race board would need. I gave it beans. Rich had lent me a new carbon XPaddle and we were getting on just fine, I felt that even with the insanely high standing position afforded by the NS126r's deck the paddle was a tad too long but it was so light and easy to swing even with the bigger blade than my Nitro sports. The shaft was super skinny and round, which I like, and even allowing for the fact that there was no grip on the shaft I really dug the 'steely stiff' feel of paddle. Might have to fight me for that one Rich.

Once I got the roll - hold - roll thing under control we made steady progress out into St Ives Bay. I had my iphone running with a gps app but like a total twat with fat fingers I had failed to correctly press the 'GO' button at the start so that was a waste of time. I had wrapped the phone in yards of polythene bag and popped it into a water proof bum bag. Have to get that sorted.

Once I decided that I was going to blow my tits off if I kept up the stroke and weight that I started with I settled down and began to enjoy myself. I messed about with my cadence, I counted my strokes per side, I took some pictures and I began to wish that I had brought some fishing gear. This board's a blast. It's pretty much flat calm, dead loss for surf and here I was in the middle of St Ives bay feeling pretty much in control of things thinking

'This has got potential'.


Black Cliffs



Turning at the Channel Markers



Hayle River Mouth

I kept a heading for Godrevy across the bay and when I got level with Black Cliffs I turned for the Channel markers. Heading back the very light breeze was now on my shoulders and the board seemed to sing with the lightest of paddle strokes. I wish the gps had been working as the feeling of speed during this leg was significant.




Skirting the beach back past Hawke's Point, I started to dig deeper and faster on the home stretch. I was really enjoying this. Beaching the board I thought that I would drop off the phone and then just ass about and test the tilt factor, plus I was so hot I needed to get in the water as up till now my hair was still dry and I was poaching in my summer suit.

The second loop took me off the beach and out of the bay past Sunny Corner towards St Ives. I stepped back on the board as far as I dared and paddled a couple of left and right 360' turns. Again the board would lean, tighten up and correct. My hair stayed dry.

I have to admit I have no idea what to look for in a board like this. I have no benchmark and no comprehension of what is good bad or indifferent, but I know that I enjoyed it and in the short time, 80 minutes or so that I was on it I knew that I was going to be blanking a lot less this winter, and that has to be a good thing.

Walking back up the beach to the car I thought 'The handles in the right place', how good is that? If a company can get it right on a board over 12 long even factoring in a fin and leash . . . .

Ok I have not been over the board with a fine tooth comb but there are some really nice touch's dotted about. For instance - the detailing on the deck. There were two pairs of fittings up front for I believe additional handles which I'm already planning to use as hold downs for a fishing box. There is a vent screw and an additional leash plug part way up the deck, one more and I will be able to use straps to carry the board.

JP If you read this can I fit an additional leash plug in the deck forward of the handle recess? If so How??



So there we are - From a lame sort of Google Earth reckoning that first trip was a tad under five miles and loads more to come from this baby I think. I'm already loving it and thinking about waterproof iphone packs, tackle box attachments etc etc etc . . just wish I knew what the hell I was talking about.

If Chuck Norris had a surfboard .. ..

Here's something that you don't see everyday, two genuine, first generation ULI inflatable surfboards. A 6' x 24" twin fin fish waxed and used and a 7'6"x26" twin fin minimal unwaxed and never used. Both 5" thick. I'm the wrong side of 14stone and have ridden the little one, not a pretty sight but it does the job when you need to scatch that itch.

These boards inflate in seconds (well under two minutes) and pack up so small that you can easily smuggle them into the holiday luggage, only to miraculously produce them at an opportune moment instantly making you the hero of those all too frequent

'Whoops, I've lost /broken / had stolen / forgotten, my surfboard!' moments. Priceless.

Tougher than Chuck Norris, . . .

Chuck Norris doesn’t believe in Germany.

If you want a list of Chuck Norris’ enemies, just check the extinct species list.

Chuck Norris has never blinked in his entire life. Never.

Chuck Norris doesn’t need to swallow when eating food.

Chuck Norris is so awesome he gave himself a vasectomy, before he fathered his kids



. . . yet still kind and sensitive to the skin like a ball pool full of Abyssinian Guinea pigs soaked in Pro Generis Oil of Olay, making them perfect to teach the little un's all about surfing before sending them out into the world of VW T5 ownership. OOoh I hope that does not come across as being a tad cynically stereotypical?

Great fun boards my preference would be to sell them both for £325 with one pump but would seperate at £150 for the 6'er and £200 for the minimal both with pumps. Postage easily arranged at £15 (UK Mainland) tops as they would pretty much fit in a padded envelope.

I could possibly be tempted with a swap / px cash either way for something interesting - tempt me. Or at least pass on some more Chuckies!!

Happy reflective SUP Birthday to me.

I just got back from an early Sunday morning 'nothing to shout about' session and re-read my first ever post on this blog http://csx355.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html and realised that it was pretty much three years ago to the day that I bought my first Stand Up board a Jimmy Lewis 11'from Tim at the Longboard house, and started down this road. Seems longer somehow.

I cant quite recall the exact web info that made me decide to buy one but I do seem to remember an article about Olaus Mcleod

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cornwall/content/articles/2007/03/26/scillies_sennen_feature.shtml

and his original SUBCULTURE website that was pretty inspirational.

The first post on the blog was on the 28th of January following a holiday in Mauritius where I got to know an ULI 11' travel board prompting me to start writing the blog in the first place. Clinton Yap a.k.a. 'Steamroller' was the initiation of that with his amazing video clips surfing 'Ovah Rocks' on his ULI. Other videos followed like driving over the boards with his 4x4 and generally having a ball and not taking anything too seriously. Fantastic stuff. Still keep in touch with Clinton, Chris and Jim at ULI - great guys all of them, genuine and helpful.

The first person to comment on the blog was 'Stoneaxe' from the Standupzone, it's always been the comments that have made the blog worth writing sort of still comes as a surprise that anyone actually reads this.

Hooked up in the real world with Gavin another Jimmy Lewis user in December 2007 and we surfed every available Sunday through the winter and into Spring 2008 before both realising that we needed more from our boards. So by March we had both bit the bullet and had bought Starboard Extremist's, me a 9'8" and Gav a 9'0. Again as I write this it does not seem that long ago but the board choice available at the time in the UK was probably fractionally less than the number of Catholic priest's that didn't have multiple facebook accounts.

There were a few C4's and 3 or 4 Starboards, the Jimmy Lewis' some windsurfy crossovers but that was pretty much it. We tried the 10'6 C4 but that felt a little beyond us at the time and so the flat rockered call of the 30" wide Starboard's were the way that we went. The whole appeal of 'shorter than 10' was a big draw and thanks to the amazing stability of the boards and John Hibbard's willingness to let us demo them, we were of and paddling.

Re-reading the old post's the change from the Jimmy to the Starboard was not an easy transition and took a bit of acclimatisation. I would love to go back now and have a go on one of those boards just to see what they are like with the passage of time.

I can see a Starboard joining the family again soon - just not sure which one.

So we surfed our tit's off on the little red and white SB's and began to hanker for 'something' I'm not quite sure that at the time either of us new what that was, it was as if the Starboards had opened a door for us but were just that bit too wide to let us through. That's actually a pretty good metaphor for what was happening although strictly speaking it was not simply the width of the boards it was more a combination of our low skills level, coupled with the wide, flat, stable boards and a moderate increase in our ability to push harder each session on open beach breaks that started us looking for that extra 'something'.

The Starboard encouraged me to start to think about what and how the actual shape of the boards affected their overall performance, not just surf performance but paddle, static and wave entry sort of stuff. Deep ehh? But it was an eye opener and educational.

If the Starboards opened the door, the purchase of a 2nd hand 10' C4 BK pro showed me how to go through it, at warp factor five. This board was such a handful at 27" wide it scared the shit out of me every time I took it out, but what a surf board. Totally uncompromising, totally focused and the first time that I thought 'This sport has no limits'.

Time spent on the BK was well spent BUT there was no resting, no stopping and plenty of flailing and falling. It had to have decent pucnhy conditions to get going but I liked it.

What next? Easy, the C4 classic 10' slightly less aggressive and a little more stable but still very surfable with the bonus feature of being able to stop and look around. Glide was good too allowing early wave catching BUT it was still 10' long and the Starboards had shown us the promised land of 9' something.

I had been following a blog online http://ncpaddlesurfer.blogspot.com/ written by and starring Dwight and Jackie Fisher, I had left a few comments on his blog as he had on mine, there was a little network of surfer's following the same path. Eric Linter's 'How to' collective site amongst many others.

DW's blog was always much more visual and Dwights technical expertise and board manufacturing experience offered great insight as volumes and rockers were compared when new boards finally surfaced in real life.

Gav then bought a 10'6 Naish (he still had his 9'0 Extremist). The Naish was an amazing fully rockered board which surfed so well, problem was it was a foot too long to be really practical, on the strength of this however I ordered a 9'6 Naish Hokua only to have a rush of blood at the last minute and swap it out for the 9'3". That was 18months ago and although I spent 3 or 4 weeks thinking that I had made a mistake it would take something truly special to prise it out of my dying hands now.

It was about this time that C4 had launched the Sub Vector and DW was extolling it's virtues as a one board quiver option. I have yet to ride an SV but Dwight has since picked up the Naish baton and not only run with it but cleared the stadium.

Since having the 9'3 Hokua I have bought an ULI Lopez inflatable such a good board, similar shape to my Naish very surfy, super light and loads of fun. A 7'8" Nah Skwell fish founf it's way into my boadroom that proved beyond doubt that smaller SUP's can be easy, stable and fun. The convenience of living with a sub 8' board is a revelation and the ego boost is stellar, however for me the board was a 'one peak' product. My Naish has little glide but I can paddle it a mile or two up and down the beach while I patrol the break. This is something that you give up a little of with the Nah Skell, and I would venture with other boards that are as short, not a problem, but not for me at the moment. I also had a Bonga Perkins 9'6", Very pretty, very surfy and were it not for the Naish very keepable but no point in having both. Bloody good value though.

So, to what was meant to be my wish list board, the Mctavish 9'0. What a total disappointment. I ordered it early, it turned up late and totally out of balance on the handle - call me a ponce but it really matters, and it was heavy, at least I thought so. Construction looked ok but come on ok for a board costing well over a grand - nah!! Fortunately the guys at TIKI were good as gold and did not hold me to it, they sold it on very quickly. I notice that it has sold on again twice since. MMnn.

So my Naish - it's the longest that I have kept a board and is now my only board other than my ULI's. It always delivers and realistically I should just order another but there is a 9'er somewhere out there with my name on it. The Naish Mana with a slightly wider nose might just open some more doors to me. I have plans, who knows . . . been fun this.