trimming on a hybrid race/dw board

[breakbad]

I think I finally figured out how to trim my 14x27 Riviera RP. Previous sessions I've tried stepping up a foot, back a foot, a tad here, a tad there. Never really felt a difference. It felt a little better stepping forward. Today doing some sprints/interval training I decided to exaggerate and stepped all they way forward to the front of the pad where the incline to the more bulbous nose is. The displacement part of the nose was half in / half out of the water, the board loosened up, felt lighter, rolled easier, tracked slightly worse, but was fast.


I'm thinking the board (@ 292L) may be too big for me at 185lbs since I have to step so far forward, or is this normal? Perhaps I need a more vertical fin as well instead of the Ninja.


Thoughts?

[Chilly]

The nose should just barely be touching the water on a regular RP. That far forward will make it unstable and slow it down if there is any chop. It may have felt faster and looser because you’re standing over the rounded part of the rails, but you probably weren’t going faster. This is all based on what I know about the regular RP. It could be that this hybrid has too much rocker and is not met for flat water.

[breakbad]

The nose should just barely be touching the water on a regular RP. That far forward will make it unstable and slow it down if there is any chop. It may have felt faster and looser because you’re standing over the rounded part of the rails, but you probably weren’t going faster. This is all based on what I know about the regular RP. It could be that this hybrid has too much rocker and is not met for flat water.

I only called it a hybrid because I thought RP's weren't built for purely flat water. Poor choice of word. This particular 14X27 RP is 292 L because it has a fatter/wider tail. But I think you are right, I was up on the rounded part of the rails and engaging the nose too much. Thanks for the reply. Maybe I can get some video from the side, so I can see how far up the tail is.