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Sessions / Zoners and Pros Surfing and Foiling in NYC
« on: September 18, 2017, 08:53:21 PM »
Really stoked after a great event over the weekend in the Rockaways in New York where my wife and I enjoyed a full day of SUP surfing and foiling. My wife found out about the clinic at the last minute late last week and signed up for a SUP surfing clinic with James Casey, one of the top pros both in surfing and racing.
The event was sponsored and hosted by A-Team Paddleboards in the Rockaways and Jeff from Premier Paddlesports who we found out was Sunova's new North American distributor. It also included a free foiling session with Alex Aguera from GoFoil! Found out that Rick (SupTheCreek) was going to be out for the weekend and would be setting up a Sunova Demo. We're both Sunova fans so I was thrilled to come out and try out a few new boards.
With the Jose swell starting to fill in and favorable winds in the am, we were frothing when we got to 101st and saw the swells lining up on the horizon. We had passed our home break at Gilgo on the drive earlier in the am and I was happy to see that the waves were a little cleaner closer to the city, even if the water probably wasn't!
We got to the demo tent and though we had brought our own boards I immediately took out an 8'5" Speeed to see how it compared to my 8'10". I was amazed how stable it was compared to my 8'4" Flow and how it paddled easily into waves (I had always wondered if I had gone too big). Note that I'm 6'3" - 200lbs. The Speeed has always worked great for me in backside lefts so it was fun to be able to throw it around in a smaller size. My wife paddled out with James for her private clinic and I swapped out the Speed for a 9'1 Acid. Definitely a little too much board for me but really enjoyed how it surfed frontside - great cutbacks and had a lot of speed though not as nimble as my smaller Flow, though I've only had it out in pumping, clean surf - I doubt I could handle the smaller board with any kind of chop...
James Casey was fantastic - he gave my wife a ton of great tips that manifested themselves during their session. He's a really nice, humble guy who's stoked to travel, surf and meet new people. He was paddling Rick's model, the Creek, during the clinic and gave one of his own, throwing cutbacks and slashes and some amazing skills paddling through whitewater. While waiting for a set I asked him about the Creek compared to his own model (The Flash) which he said was a mix between the Acid and Flow. He said he loved the board and was going to get one more his size (Rick's was a little too much volume for his tastes...). I was hoping to try it out myself but it will have to wait for another time - with that kind of endorsement I'm tempted to pull the trigger on an 8'7" at about 117Lts might be a great board for my wife and I to share... Though I'll likely need to sell one of our Speed's first.
We wrapped up the SUP Surf clinic and then went to meet Alex Aguera from GoFoil in Maui who took us for a 90min Free! foil session behind a boat. It's a LOT harder than it looks. I actually never got fully up and smoothly foiling - I think I was trying to hard to surf vs. pushing down on the board to get the foil balanced. Every time I lifted out of the water I tended to wipe out though my wife got up after about 10min. She was super stoked - I was a little humbled...
After the foil clinic we headed back to the beach and hung out with Rick and Kai Bartlett (another Maui waterman who's a champion Outrigger paddler) and got a few more waves before James and the crew packed up to go foil at one of the nearby inlets. We wrapped up the day at Rockaway Surf Club for fish tacos and beers. An amazing day and great event - huge props and thanks to everyone involved! Now we I have to start reading the foil threads... I've posted a few photos below. I think Rick took some video so I'm stoked to see how they turned out!
The event was sponsored and hosted by A-Team Paddleboards in the Rockaways and Jeff from Premier Paddlesports who we found out was Sunova's new North American distributor. It also included a free foiling session with Alex Aguera from GoFoil! Found out that Rick (SupTheCreek) was going to be out for the weekend and would be setting up a Sunova Demo. We're both Sunova fans so I was thrilled to come out and try out a few new boards.
With the Jose swell starting to fill in and favorable winds in the am, we were frothing when we got to 101st and saw the swells lining up on the horizon. We had passed our home break at Gilgo on the drive earlier in the am and I was happy to see that the waves were a little cleaner closer to the city, even if the water probably wasn't!
We got to the demo tent and though we had brought our own boards I immediately took out an 8'5" Speeed to see how it compared to my 8'10". I was amazed how stable it was compared to my 8'4" Flow and how it paddled easily into waves (I had always wondered if I had gone too big). Note that I'm 6'3" - 200lbs. The Speeed has always worked great for me in backside lefts so it was fun to be able to throw it around in a smaller size. My wife paddled out with James for her private clinic and I swapped out the Speed for a 9'1 Acid. Definitely a little too much board for me but really enjoyed how it surfed frontside - great cutbacks and had a lot of speed though not as nimble as my smaller Flow, though I've only had it out in pumping, clean surf - I doubt I could handle the smaller board with any kind of chop...
James Casey was fantastic - he gave my wife a ton of great tips that manifested themselves during their session. He's a really nice, humble guy who's stoked to travel, surf and meet new people. He was paddling Rick's model, the Creek, during the clinic and gave one of his own, throwing cutbacks and slashes and some amazing skills paddling through whitewater. While waiting for a set I asked him about the Creek compared to his own model (The Flash) which he said was a mix between the Acid and Flow. He said he loved the board and was going to get one more his size (Rick's was a little too much volume for his tastes...). I was hoping to try it out myself but it will have to wait for another time - with that kind of endorsement I'm tempted to pull the trigger on an 8'7" at about 117Lts might be a great board for my wife and I to share... Though I'll likely need to sell one of our Speed's first.
We wrapped up the SUP Surf clinic and then went to meet Alex Aguera from GoFoil in Maui who took us for a 90min Free! foil session behind a boat. It's a LOT harder than it looks. I actually never got fully up and smoothly foiling - I think I was trying to hard to surf vs. pushing down on the board to get the foil balanced. Every time I lifted out of the water I tended to wipe out though my wife got up after about 10min. She was super stoked - I was a little humbled...
After the foil clinic we headed back to the beach and hung out with Rick and Kai Bartlett (another Maui waterman who's a champion Outrigger paddler) and got a few more waves before James and the crew packed up to go foil at one of the nearby inlets. We wrapped up the day at Rockaway Surf Club for fish tacos and beers. An amazing day and great event - huge props and thanks to everyone involved! Now we I have to start reading the foil threads... I've posted a few photos below. I think Rick took some video so I'm stoked to see how they turned out!