Imagine Eco 8'6" board report (first impressions)

[corran]

Hey

No that was a 2009 board Jean Philippe has and was a good board. It is the 2009 Enigma as designed.

The thing is to be careful not to confuse the secondary stability issue with what its not. lets rewind... The enigma is inherently unstable for two reasons. It has highly rockered ends and it has narrow ends.

Stability comes from the engagement of volume into the water.  It takes 8lbs to push 1 gallon of air into the water. The further you move that 8 gallons from under you, the more pressure it takes to sink it (moment arm). The more pure volume you have, the more it takes to sink it. So for example,  a 160lbs surfer needs 20 gallons to float him. That's just float... Stability comes from sinking one rail, and it pushing back against you. The wider the board, the lower the rocker of the board, and the wider the board is towards the ends, so the more volume of air is engaged as early as possible as you lean it over. This makes it stable (primary stability). As you ad rocker, so you remove volume from touching the waters surface. As you narrow the ends, so you reduce the ability of volume in the ends to engage as the board is leaned over.

The result of a longboard style SUP is that its very stable. But, it doesn't perform (in the shortboard sense of the word).  The result of the shortboard stlye SUP is it has no stability.

What we have managed to do with the volume displaceemnt of the Enigma (and other boards we make) is recover as much of that missing secondary stability as possible GIVEN how rockered and pulled in the ends are. I've gotten onto other boards of similar rocker and pulled in ends, without my center volume, and I could barely stay on it. The Enigma felt like I could dance the tango on it compared to similar shapes. So, GIVEN how performing it is, its very stable and forgiving. But it is NOT a stable and forgiving board. It's a performance board. You ride it and drive it like you would a 6' thruster.

What we learned was the effects of this volume distribution and how it can be applied to all shapes - we apply it even to boards that have low rocker and wide ends, so we gain even MORE stability than we would with traditional SUP volume distribution. Take an impossibly unstable board and make it manageable... and take easy stable boards, and make them even more so. Win win.

Here is a comparrison: The 2009 8'5" Cutback was 4 3/4" thick, 29 1/2" wide. The 2009 Enigma was 8'6" x 28 1/2" x 4 3/4".  The cutback had about 3" less nose rocker and 1" less tail rocker, and the nose 12" back on both ends is more then 2" wider. Basically, with similar volume distributions, the Cutback would be 2x more stable than the Enigma and easier to paddle. In fact, its half as stable and forgiving as the Enigma, because of the volume distribution. Pretty neat hummm...

So, you need to remember when getting onto boards like the Cutback and the Enigma... they are not easy boards. They are easy given how performing they are ;-). You want an easy board, check out the Wave Rocket and the Chopper.

Corran

[Strand Leper]

But on a wide nosed, low rocker board like the Chopper and Wave Rocket, any fool can stand on them and look at hot chicks while surfing right out the gate. Its just the Enigma and Cutback are highly rockered so they surf like shortboards.

But can any fool eat pie, juggle, doe aerobics and look at hot chicks?

To clarify, I have two Cutbacks, a narrow and thinner one with a wing, and a slightly wider and thicker one... I have not posted a review of the wider and thicker one... all of my comparisons are to the narrower and thinner one.  I just got the narrower one back from the board surgeon and I will post pictures of all three.

Tim

[colas]

So, you need to remember when getting onto boards like the Cutback and the Enigma... they are not easy boards.

Thanks a lot Corran for your explanations. I can see now why I was mistaken in my judgement:

• I was told it was a "9+ enigma", and I remembered from your site it was 170l so I was expecting more stability (I never tried a bigger board than 150l). I would have approached a pointed-ends, rockered 28" wide board with more caution. I though it was a 2010 because Jean-Philippe came with the 2010 PSHs also
• The day was totally glassy. I think now it would have been better to actually try this board in chop, where I understand its handling would have been on par or better than traditional boards, which are very stable on glassy conditions
• I am used to traditional shapes where - for low volume boards - I keep the board moving underwater and "surf" the board to keep my balance. I should have been warned in advance that this board required a different technique and I needed more test time to adjust. Having my feet dry on it I expected more stability. Also I realise that the small boards I tried were all more fish-like and thus had stability through wide nose and tails, and lower rocker

I will update my posts on the french forum to redirect to your explanations here. I wanted to edit my initial post here, but I do not seem able to edit old posts.

[corran]

Jean Philippe has the 2009 Enigma. He received right at the end of the year but it is a 2009.

Corran