Messages

31

Sessions / Re: Some room to play

« on: June 28, 2022, 05:14:47 PM »

@ surfinJ

Real nice video. I really enjoyed viewing it.

If you don't mind me asking, what is the make and model of the fin (since the look of it reminds me of a hatchet fin)?

32

SUP General / Re: Got some nice waves last week!

« on: June 27, 2022, 08:03:11 PM »

74 and and so thankful for every day, every wave!

I'm with you on that. At 72, I get the same feeling. Gotta love it!

33

SUP General / Re: Surfboards (Longboards)

« on: June 19, 2022, 06:24:07 AM »

The DT Halo center fin was originally designed to make sups turn easier because back in DT's day, sups were pretty long length wise. DT modified the Halo fin for surfboards.

A Halo center fin makes a single fin surfboard, in my case a longboard, turn easier and it generates drive/speed for slow small waves. The kind of waves I normally encounter at Surfside and Quintana beaches. And you trim the board from the center of the board. The YouTube video below gives more detailed info.



Moving on.

Before I bought my single fin Parallax, there were plenty of good reviews for the Parallax, but the there were "no" videos of it where someone was actually riding it when surfing waves.

So I looked and looked. And eventually I did find a very short video of a person riding a Parallax. The rider was CJ Nelson himself. The Parallax he is riding in this video is a 9'3" Parallax, the same length as mine, at a surf/wave ranch.

The only thing not given was the model of the fin used and it's length. But CJ does have a Parallax in his stable that he rides and he prefers a 9'6" Parallax with a Flying Diamonds 10.5 Parallax fin.

 In all of the longboards CJ has, he places the fin right at the front of the long fin box since he likes a looser and lively feel for his longboards. Basically, he over fins his boards since he is a powerful surfer. In my view, CJ does not surf a wave. He attacks a wave.

The fin I use the most in my Parallax is a Flying Diamonds 9.5 Involvement fin. The reason I use an Involvement fin instead of a Parallax fin is because the waves at SanO where CJ surfs at in California are different than the waves I normally encounter at Surfside and Quintana on the upper Texas coast.

Now comes the sticky part. The video below is an Instagram video. And to see the video, one (supposedly) has to have an Instagram account and be logged into Instagram. I don't have an Instagram account.

But I have a Jamboards account and as long as I am logged into Jamboards, even though I don't have an Instagram account which means I am not logged into Instagram, I can view the Instagram video which is embedded in a Jamboards topic thread in the sub forum, Longboards.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B33lRRbCFk8/

34

Sessions / Re: Adios Spring 2022

« on: June 18, 2022, 02:29:57 AM »

Looks like the last days of May were good to you. I always like seeing your videos.

Just checked our water temperature for Surfside and Quintana beaches on the upper Texas coast where I surf and the water temperature is between 83-85 degrees F. depending on day or night readings. No need for wetsuits.

https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=fpst2

35

SUP General / Re: Surfboards (Longboards)

« on: June 16, 2022, 04:28:29 AM »

Hand foiled fins, by the boards shaper for the specific board. Don't second guess the shaper on this one. His fins are beautiful.

But that is the problem with me. I like to experiment. I don't take anything as "gospel". If a shaper says these are the fins that work best. Fine. But I will still experiment just to see for myself if there are other fins which can do the same as I want. Sometimes it works for me, sometimes it does not work for me.

As an example. My Parallax is great for surfing small waves with a Flying Diamond 9.0 Involvement fin. And this is what was recommended when I bought the fin for my 9'3" Parallax. The consensus opinion was a 9.5 Involvement fin would not be able to handle small waves which are knee high since it is designed to work in bigger waves.

But I decided to buy the 9.5 Involvement fin too. If I place the 9.5 fin about 3" back from the front of the center fin box when surfing knee high waves, their opinion was correct. The Parallax did not work well in knee high waves. But when I placed the 9.5 Involvement fin 2 3/16" back from the front of the center fin box, the Parallax could easily handle and perform very well in knee high waves.

Like I said above. I don't take anything as "gospel" since I like to experiment.

Right now I want to purchase a Donald Takayama 10.0 Halo center fin for my 9.3" Parallax. But I can't find one to order. And Hawaiian South Shore has told me they have them on order, but they have not come in and these Halo fins have been on order since January of 2022.

The link below will show you what a Halo center fin looks like. But since HSS does not have one, I have to go to a different site to show you what a Halo center fin looks like.

https://noahkaoi.com/collections/fins/products/takayama-halo-fin

I check HSS's website "everyday" because I know when they come in, they are going to go "right out the door as fast as when they came in".

I do have an alternative fin which is a Hatchet fin from HSS. And their Hatchet fin is shown in the link below.

https://www.hawaiiansouthshore.com/collections/longboard-fins-1/products/hawaiian-south-shore-hatchet-longboard-single-fin

But right now, I'm holding out for the DT Halo fin. If I was logical; since I can't get the Halo fin, I should buy HSS's Hatchet fin and the longer I wait for the Halo fin, I will probably pull the trigger and buy HSS's Hatchet fin.

36

SUP General / Re: Surfboards (Longboards)

« on: June 15, 2022, 09:00:29 PM »

@ dietlin

That board with it's square tail looks like it would be a good nose rider. But with 5 fin boxes, it has the feel of a high performance longboard.

Since the board is 9' in length; depending on one's weight, since I'm 143 pounds and I don't nose ride, but if I would, I'd try to nose ride it with a one single fin in the center fin box and that fin would be with a 9.0 or a 9.5 length pivot fin. Placement of the 9.0 or 9.5 fin in the center fin box would be very important. The longest length pivot fin I would use would be a 10.0 fin.

There are many possibilities for fins since the board has 5 fin boxes. Try a 4 quad fin setup by taking out the middle fin in the center fin box and "give it a test drive".

37

SUP General / Re: Surfboards (Longboards)

« on: June 15, 2022, 08:40:37 PM »

@ surfcowboy

I've been "modifying" my pop-up for a prone surfboard into a "push-up". I'll explain below.

There are lots of YouTube videos for pop-ups, but most of them, the men use way too much energy for us "older" guys like me. I figured there has to be a better way do to a pop-up which didn't feel like "work".

With that said, I figured women surfers might have a better way of doing a pop-up and I was correct. One woman surfer was Haley Otto.

Her pop-up is more like a "push-up" in my way of thinking. And her pop-up, it seems to me she uses less effort with the least amount of energy which gives the best result. Perfect for an old guy like me.

And her pop-up does not look like "work" if you get my drift for older people who just aren't as limber like we were when we were much younger.

Since she is a goofy footer (right foot forward), I just copied and reversed her moves doing her pop-up since I am a regular footer (left foot forward).

The YouTube video below, filmed by a drone, is how she does her pop-up and how I do it also. Her first pop-up starts around the 29 second time mark of the video. You might have start and stop the video a few times to really see all the detail in doing her pop-up. This is how I learned and copied her pop-up.

BTW, the video is best seen in full screen mode and the highest high definition setting your computer can render without buffering.



 

38

Classifieds / Re: 10'6 Naish Nalu GS

« on: June 14, 2022, 10:11:32 AM »

@ dietlin

I see you fixed your link since all three of my browsers (Firefox, Waterfox, Pale Moon) now renders the page properly and shows your board for sale and all the details of it.

BTW, very nice looking board and it's a "steal" for some lucky person. Hope you have a quick sale.

BTW, your 10'6" Naish Nalu is very similar to my two Blue Planet Duke sups which have similar specs since my Duke's are 10'5" x 32" x 4 1/2" @ 190 liters. I like my two Duke sups very much and so does my eldest niece so whoever buys your Nalu is in for a nice treat.

The only major difference is your Nalu has 3 fin boxes whereas my two Dukes, they both have 5 fin boxes.

39

Classifieds / Re: 10'6 Naish Nalu GS

« on: June 14, 2022, 05:28:22 AM »

@ dietlin

I don't whether this is an error on your part because the link is incorrect or whether the maintainers of the Craigslist site in Boston have made an error by only checking their own site using the Microsoft Edge browser or the Google Chrome browser and other browsers which mimic Chrome's engine such as Vivaldi, Brave, etc. I'll explain below.

I use a 64 bit linux distribution for my operating system which is Linux Mint 20.3 (Una) in the Xfce desktop environment. I use three, 64 bit browsers in Mint which are Firefox, Waterfox and Pale Moon.

After clicking on your lick with all three of my browsers, all of them render me a "solid white blank page". Since you're trying to sell your Nalu; you might want to check into this since Firefox. which is a mainstream browser, should render this page properly.

40

Gear Talk / Re: Hankering back to my old Laird Pearson Arrow- what's the modern equivalent ?

« on: June 12, 2022, 08:48:38 PM »

I'm now 72 years old. I still do prone surfing and I love it since I started surfing when I was 15 years old. I've got a pinched nerve in my lower right side of my back right above the right pelvis bone.

I've also got a partial tear of the meniscus in my left knee. And a partial tear of the meniscus is not the same thing as a torn meniscus because of where the partial tear is in the meniscus. The partial tear does not cause me any pain at all.

Anyhow, doing a pop-up at my older age, the pinched nerve let me know sometimes it didn't like me doing a pop-up. And when it let me know it, it was a rude awakening because it made me yelp. I had to change the way I did my pop-up.

Which means I had to modify the pop-up. I started looking at every surfing video of men I could find on YouTube to see if could modify the pop-up. My biggest mistake was watching men doing their pop-ups and I finally realized none of the men were old like me. And the men's pop-up looked more like "hard work". So I figured there had to be a better way.

So I had to switch gears so to speak and started watching women prone surfers doing their pop-ups on their longboards and quite a few women, speaking just for myself, "had the better way" because some women modified their pop-ups into what I call a "push-up".

I found one woman named Haley Otto on YouTube and I copied her pop-up (push-up for me). The only difference between her and me, besides age, she is a goofy footer whereas I am a regular footer. So I just reversed her moves since I'm a regular footer.

The two minute YouTube video below is a drone video of her surfing. Watch the very first pop-up, what I call the push-up, and you'll see how easy she does her pop-up.

Not much effort with the least amount of energy expended which gives the best result. The best view of the modified "push-up" starts around the 29 second mark of the video. You might have to start and stop the video, quite a few times, to really see how she does her pop-up.

So when you get to be my age and you have lots of miles on your body where you're not as limber as you were when you were younger, you learn to surf smarter. Not harder and when you surf smarter, your body will let you know it.

So when I prone surf my 9'3" Parallax single fin longboard, I don't have any pain in my lower back anymore from that pinched nerve when I do a "push-up".

BTW, the video is best viewed in high definition and in full screen mode. I've got good graphics cards in both of my desktop tower computers so I watch this video in 2160p60 (4K) high definition which looks real good on my 27" external monitor.

41

Random / Re: Cover songs.

« on: June 11, 2022, 08:26:11 PM »

Here is a Bob Dylan cover song. This was a live performance.

Best viewed in full screen mode and in 1080p60 HD.

The Fabulous Fleetwoods - "Everything Is Broken".

42

Sessions / Re: The Board Meeting

« on: June 03, 2022, 10:42:26 AM »

@ surfercook

I don't think the interest in sup surfing is waning. Take me for an example. I live 107 miles (one way) from Surfside and Quintana beaches on the upper Texas coast which are my favorite places to surf, both sup and prone.

At the price of gasoline right now (and keeps rising seemingly everyday), it does take a good bite out of my wallet since I have a 26 gallon fuel tank in my 2001 Silverado.

And as always, nice seeing you sup surfing and posting your videos here on the Zone. Your session looked real good from my point of view.

When I go surfing, whether sup or prone, for me it is all about having "fun".

43

Random / Re: Cover songs.

« on: May 26, 2022, 02:17:34 PM »

It has been quite a while since a cover song was posted so I thought another one is in order. Best viewed in the highest definition your graphics card (for a desktop tower) or your graphics chip (for a laptop) can handle in full screen mode.

Walk Off The Earth - "Dancing In The Dark" (Bruce Springsteen cover).

44

SUP General / Re: Kalama Ez2 vs E3 SUP

« on: April 30, 2022, 04:33:06 AM »

Get the board you want and not what was sent to you by mistake.

Since you purchased an E3 with your hard earned money and what was sent to you was an Ez2, then you need to get in touch with the company ASAP and tell them the board they sent you was a mistake on their end and also, send the company a picture of the Ez2  to point out their mistake on sending you the wrong board.

The company needs to send you what you purchased and if it was me, I would hold the company's feet to the fire. And if you paid for the E3 with a credit card, it is easy to hold the company's feet to the fire by notifying your credit card company of the mistake and let your credit card company deal with them.

In other words, your credit card company sent the the company money electronically to their account and if the company does not "Play Ball" on their error, your credit card company should be able to electronically take that money back out of the company's account and put it back into your credit card account.

45

Gear Talk / Re: New longboard in my future

« on: March 31, 2022, 07:10:35 AM »

@ Dusk Patrol

This is important because a hard longboard surfboard, not a soft top, are not cheap. I think I paid $1,195.00 for my 9'3" Parallax back in 2021. It's a "silk purse", but if I didn't do my homework and installed the incorrect shape of the fin and the wrong length of the fin on it, the board would perform like a "sow's ear".

So if this was a mathematical equation where the end result is 100%, the longboard is 50% and fin is 50%. Choose the right length of fin and the shape of the fin and you'll have a "dream" longboard which will give you tons of pure joy when you're surfing it. Do your homework when it comes to fin selection for your longboard.

Below is a video of CJ Nelson surfing one of his model surfboards. The model of the surfboard in this video is not listed and the fin is not listed either. But I picked this video because the waves in the video off of San O in California are very similar to the waves I find when the wind is up and I'm surfing at Surfside, Texas. And my 9'3" Parallax easily handles these waves with my Flying Diamonds 9.5" Involvement fin.

At the time and date of this video, even though the model of longboard and fin length and shape are not listed, I knew what model of longboard he is surfing because he is nose riding it. The Outlier and Parallax are not nose riders, but the Neo Classic is. And I "would bet the farm" he is surfing his old prototype 10' Neo Classic log with a 10.5" Flying Diamonds "Power Flex" fin.

When it comes to his favorite models of boards which he rides the most; CJ rides his 10' Neo Classic nose rider log with a Flying Diamonds 10.5" Power Flex fin, his 9'6" Parallax with a Flying Diamonds 10.5" Parallax fin and his 7'6" Outlier with a Flying Diamonds 9" or 9.5" Involvement fin.

Now for the video with the waves of San O which are almost the waves I find at Surfside, Texas when the wind is up from the south or southeast. No music in this video and watch it in full screen mode and 1080p60 HD.