Anyone try the Imagine Enigma and Cutback

[makaiolani]

HI guys,

Have you tried Corran's boards the Cutback and the Enigma?  I need some reviews or responses.  I'm trying to decide on the Naish 9' 3" which I really like or the 8'6" Enigma or Cutback.  If you've tried all three even better!

I'm 155 5'7" tall and I currently ride Joe Blair's 8'11" which I'll keep for choppy days.

Thanks

[corran]

Hi

I can;t compare it to Joe Blaires board since I havn;t ridden it, but I can give you a synopsis of the two boards you asked about.

The Cutback, as the web site says, is a performance machine. it i NOT easy to paddle! But on the wave its a machine. A combination of the radically pulled in ends (less width in the ends = less stability) and S rails means that both rails are under the water when standing still. This makes it graby and edgy. As soon as you're paddling, it comes up and gets more stable. But its still not an easy board by any stretch of the imagination.

On the wave however its a machine! Absolutely mind blowing. It handles like a 6' shortboard on steroids. You have to paddle in like a shortboard - be in the peak and take the drop. Its a SUP designed for people who can really surf. Honestly, I can throw this around so well that I almost never shortboard anymore...

The Enigma is a step back from this. It's performance is actually very close to the cutback - its just slightly more bouncy on the rails at high speed on steep fast waves because the rail is thicker as you approach the deck.

On the flip side, compared to te Cutback the enigma is easy to paddle. Its initial stability is not really any higher, but it has amazing secondary stability. You can have it tilted over 60 degrees and recover and bring it back.

On the wave, other than really steep fast waves, its performance is every bit as good as the Cutback, but admittedly when it gets steep and fast, the cutback is better due to the thinner rail. How often do you surf in those conditions is the question you have to ask yourself.

BOTH boards have to be surfed like a shortboard, not a longboard. Standing too far forward makes them slow because it lifts the tail out of the water more creating too much rocker. Its supposed to be surfed on the back like a shortboard.

I hope this helps a little.

Corran

[makaiolani]

Thanks Corran,

I know you're a little biased, but have you ridden the 9'3" Naish?  I like the feel of this board despite the small sweet spot and low stability.  I don't fall off in the line up so I should be able to handle your boards.  I started of as a body boarder then went right into Stand Up Surfing and I've been going out about 5 days a week.  I like the short board feel and the later take offs.  (Less paddling more rush)  I've been riding mostly shoulder to slightly over head waves some steep and some mushy.

Thanks

[Mattdog]

HI Corran,
 

Could you please post some surfing videos of the enigma?  It doesnt include the quad fin option like the chopper?

Who would you recommend the chopper to over the enigma - the chopper has more boxy rails and is wider - I guess it is more stable but less radical for turning.

Cheers

[Deb]

Hi Corran - Any dealers in Hawaii?
Deb

[kwhilden]

Could you please post some surfing videos of the enigma?  It doesn't include the quad fin option like the chopper?

Who would you recommend the chopper to over the enigma - the chopper has more boxy rails and is wider - I guess it is more stable but less radical for turning.

Hey good news for me... I'm now the NorCal rep for Imagine. I've had too much fun with Imagine boards (surf and SUP) that I decided to get more involved.

So as far as answering your questions, I'll take a crack since I know Corran is very busy rotomolding SUPs at the moment. I haven't paddled either baords, but I have talked to Corran about them, and I have a large Enigma on order.

The Chopper is a shortboard designed for beginning surfers and for choppy and windy conditions. It only turns from the tail, and cannot turn like a longboard. However it is as stable as a longboard or larger SUP.

The Enigma significantly improves the stability of a high-performance  shortboard SUP. but is in essence still a board that requires a fair bit of skill  and experience to paddle. I think it's the ideal board for intermediates who want to get into shortboarding, yet still have some forgiveness.

[corran]

Hi all...

Kevin kinda hit it on the nail there.

The Chopper's goal was to bring the ease and forgiveness of a 11' or larger SUP to a 9' SUP. To do this we applied a lot of "kayak science" to the rails and volume... not just width but also volume at the width.

It takes 8lbs to sing 1 gallon of air directly under hand - add a moment arm to this gallon of air by moving it away from the centerline of the board, and the amount of pressure needed to sink it increases. Loosing balance is essentially your ability to apply enough pressure to sink the volume of air in the rails beyond the tipping point of the boards mass (tild a cube over until it can fall on its own). The more volume and the further away this is from you - so not only width, but the distance over which that width is carried.

So if you're not going to get that volume of air by making the board wide AND wide over a long distance, then you need another way (more volume packed into that width over a short distance). But if you do this the board can't turn - or at least it turns and carves like a whitewater kayak (bleurk). So the secret to the Choppers success is how we went from this mass of volume (and the shape too) in the nose and center, to a sharp, performance rail in the tail so it can turn and carve.

The result is that for someone specifically looking to go to a shorter board than say a 11' or 12' SUP (for whatever reason - storage, transport, or simple desire to ahve less swing weight and a more curved template that is offered by a shorter board) the Chopper offers that same ability to paddle out and on as a longer board, without being long. But the trade off is once you're on the wave you HAVE to move to the back of the board and turn it on the tail... riding it like a chopper or it turns like a slug. On the tail, it whips around and carves with the best performance boards. So its a great stepping stone to shortboarding SUP if you're still not that good of a paddler.

The Enigma applied some of the same concepts but in a far less radical way. The Cutback is a machine, but as Dan Gagere said, you have to be a Ninja Monkey to stand on it. My 8'6" so so tippy... just remaining on it in dead calm water is a challenge. So the enigma transfers more volume "close" to the rails in the center and through the nose, but in such a way as to not actually mess with the tucked shortboard rail when on the wave. We kept the radically inward swept template in the ends (so the physics of carying width towards the ends increasing stability plays here - there is none) so to combat the instability of the chopper, we really played with some volume distribution of the deck and that volumes relationship with the rails.

The Enigma is NOT an easy board, but it is a whole lot easier than the Cutback. Both are really aggressive high performance shortboards.

Dealers in Hawaii. Frank from Lightening Bolt was thinking about it but is still on the fence. Give him a call and see if he would be interested in bringing in some for you guys.

Corran

[corran]

Thanks Corran,

I know you're a little biased, but have you ridden the 9'3" Naish?  I like the feel of this board despite the small sweet spot and low stability.  I don't fall off in the line up so I should be able to handle your boards.  I started of as a body boarder then went right into Stand Up Surfing and I've been going out about 5 days a week.  I like the short board feel and the later take offs.  (Less paddling more rush)  I've been riding mostly shoulder to slightly over head waves some steep and some mushy.

Thanks

Which 9'3" by Naish (doe does he have only one?) I rode one that was about this size but I don't know if its the same one. The one I rode was about the same stability as the Wave Rocket 9'. The wave rocket was more responsive on the wave, but perhaps slightly slower paddling on. Hard to tell... it was close.  The Wave Rocket was definitely looser. The 9' Enigma is much less stable than the Naish, but also far far more responsive and sensitive on the wave... it really feels like a shortboard. But it was less stable than the Naish I tried. That's the trade off ;-)

Corran

[corran]

Here are some pictures of the 1st production Enigma.

http://2imagine.net/blogger2009/enigma.html

Corran