Messages

1

SUP General / Re: DOGS!

« on: July 09, 2015, 04:21:43 AM »

Gypsy's second time on a board and first time in the surf:

2

Gear Talk / Re: Ultimate Traction [ Video ]

« on: April 09, 2012, 04:20:45 AM »

Nice
How long did it actually take?

About two hours. 

3

Gear Talk / Re: Ultimate Traction [ Video ]

« on: March 28, 2012, 06:08:42 AM »

You do know you can get 1 piece pads that make it a lot faster?     

Get out! Big enough to cover a whole board? 

4

Gear Talk / Ultimate Traction [ Video ]

« on: March 25, 2012, 03:07:37 PM »

Here's a time lapse video of me gripping up my new DEEP 12'6":

5

SUP General / Re: Oz sup titles vid.

« on: August 30, 2011, 04:30:18 AM »

Here's another vid of the final...

6

SUP General / 2011 Australian Championships [video]

« on: August 30, 2011, 04:27:24 AM »

7

SUP General / Re: Ripping Up the Wall

« on: July 24, 2011, 06:12:30 PM »

Thanks for sharing.  Are they performing some R&D for the board?  Sorry if the video explains it, but the volume on my computer no longer works.

No specifically, but Dan is the shaper of these these boards, John is one of his team riders and Steve is just a happy customer.

8

SUP General / Ripping Up the Wall

« on: July 21, 2011, 04:39:05 PM »

There were three green DTMs, ripping up the wall!
And if one green DTM, should accidentally fall ...



Winter on Sydney's Northern Beaches.

9

Gear Talk / Re: LSD 8'10" // Review

« on: April 27, 2011, 03:32:06 AM »

Great review.  Are LSD's sold anywhere in the USA?  Preferably Southern California...

There are some over there but I'm not sure where exactly. If you ever see the Simon Anderson (Stand Sure) SUPs, you'll probably find the LSDs too - they come from the same distributor.

10

SUP General / Dry SUP

« on: April 25, 2011, 02:34:53 PM »

What do you do when you are stuck 400 kilometres from the nearest ocean and yearning the feeling of pulling into a powerful bottom turn while leaning on your paddle ... hit the tarmac on a street SUP, of course.

I was lucky enough to win a Kahuna Creations Street SUP skatey and accompanying Kahuna Bamboo Big Stick the other week in a raffle and thought it might come in handy on this trip to western NSW. I was right. After five days out of the briny, I was ready for a SUP fix, well and truly ready.

It is a good thing that street SUPing is quite a close cousin to real SUP surfing - bottom turns, cutbacks and even power slides can be performed while imagining you are on a wave. Even 'paddling' back up hill can be correlated to flatwater paddling (the stroke is slightly different but similar muscle groups are used).

The kids even got on board (pun intended) and excelled with little or no previous skateboarding experience. The Big Stick's extra balance point provided an enhanced level of confidence and a truck load of stoke.

Thanks Kahuna Street SUP - you saved the day!

















More articles here: www.australianpaddlesurfer.com.au

11

Gear Talk / LSD 8'10" // Review

« on: April 25, 2011, 02:23:48 PM »

Finally, a shaper has taken the leap and pushed out a low railed, high performance, production SUP. Unlike everything else I've seen in the production (non-custom) market, the new LSD 8'10" has been refined so much that the rail profile now resembles a thick shortboard. It has been a bit of a bug bear of mine for a while now, that all the so called performance SUPs still have big blocky rails which take a massive Hawaiian dude to bury when doing a cutback or bottom turn. Luke Short has brought his extensive shortboard shaping experience and applied it to a SUP. Nice work Luke. Clap, clap, clap.

One word: Surprise

The board is 8'10" x 29.3" x 4.5"



Brian from Walk On Water was returning my DEEP 12'6" from a demo day in the Snowy Mountains when he asked if he could leave me with an LSD 8'10" as well, as he was leaving for China the next day and didn't have anywhere to store it. I politely obliged, thinking I would just keep it in my garage for a couple of weeks until he returned. I actually pictured it being the LSD 8'8" and figured I wouldn't get around to riding it as I already knew how that board went. When I was taking it out of the car I was intrigued as to what fins he was running because I couldn't feel a rear fin. I opened up the back of the bag and was very surprised to find a swallow tail staring back at me ... and a set of quads. Now, the LSD 8'8" is a 2+1 square tail so I knew something was up. I looked at the dimensions and read that it was an 8'10" - ooooh, this must be something new. Luke doesn't have an 8'10" in his range. Maybe I will give it a test run during its stay with me.

The next day I took it down for the early before work. It was blowing a light off-shore and there were some nice, clean, chest high right handers into the channel in the corner. A perfect testing environment for a new board.

I slid the 8'10" out of the bag and immediately took notice of the low profile rails. "Wow, they're thin", I thought to myself. I was now very excited and couldn't wait to see how well it got onto a rail through a big turn. The other thing I noticed was how light it was. This is a production board but it's not much heavier than my custom. Those Chinese factories are obviously starting to get this type of production process wired.

Running down the beach, trying to be the first out there, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the handle was in the right spot and the board was perfectly balanced with the grip, fins and a legrope on - another first for a production board!

I was a little worried that those thin rails would make the board too tippy when paddling but when I jumped on and paddled through the shorey, I needn't have been concerned, it was quite stable. In fact I didn't fall off while standing out the back once ... the whole surf. That's something I've haven't done for a very long time, even in nice clean conditions like that. I guessed it had to do with the extra width. Now the test would be to see if that extra width would hinder the performance in any way.

My first real punch through a wave went really well. Again with the surprises. I thought the slightly fuller nose would struggle with a clean piercing but, on the contrary, I got through a couple of mid-sized waves with ease.

A few little rights to get a feel for the slightly bigger board. It felt good. Lots of flow, good speed and it was very easy to turn. It felt light and agile under foot. I think the lightness of the board makes it more responsive. Maybe that was just in my head and it was more about the design of the board than the weight. Maybe it was both.

I finally got one of the sets. A really nice one. A perfect chest high wall running down the bank at the perfect speed, super clean and no crowd in the way (pretty rare in Sydney except for very early in the morning). A blank canvas. I faded a bit and gouged out a big forehand bottom turn, leaning over onto the paddle as far as I could. Those thin rails bit in, the quads held nicely and I pulled the 8'10" around to start heading up the face at an angle not far off 90 degrees. My first real turn on the LSD was next. A whack off the top. I hit the crumbling lip hard which pushed me around a bit and allowed me to transition my weight onto my heels then I took over and carved the board round the rest of the way so we were now heading down the face again with a fair amount of spray heading skywards. That was a big turn for an 8'10", on only a smallish wave. I was impressed with the lack of lost speed and retention of drive as I moved into another bottom turn. Almost a carbon copy of the first one but this time the ensuing top turn was more drawn out, away from the lip, with more rotation and maybe more spray. A shorter bottom turn followed which set me up for a few speed pumps. The agility of the board was very evident here with the quick series of rail transitions occurring with minimal effort. The LSD was hammering down the line - it proved it's got speed when you step on the gas. Now for the classic test, a round-house cutback around the paddle. Swap hands with the paddle, shuffle my feet over onto the heal side rail, dig the paddle in, get down low and drive with my thighs. The rail buried and carved the board around the clean face. I stayed frozen in that squat position until I could see the foam ball dead ahead. Then it was time to extend, put pressure on my back foot, shuffle my front foot to the toe side rail and swap hands with my paddle just as I rebounded off the foam. The board spun around quickly and I was back on my way, down the line again. A nice little floater on a close out shorey finished off an awesome ride. I was very impressed with the performance of this production SUP.

Lots more waves were had that morning, a few small ones which the board took on quite well and a couple more of those bigger ones which the board absolutely excelled in. Big bottom turns and those drawn out carves are this board's specialties. The 8'10" length was found to be a bit of a hindrance with the more snappy turns, close to the pocket, and had me coming unstuck with the occasional nose dive or front rail catch when coming out of the lip on the smaller waves. I am used to riding an 8'2" and an 8'5" though so maybe somebody coming down to this length instead of up won't have this issue.

Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised with this board. It is a real eye opener and might (hopefully) be the start of a new era of the production SUP that resembles its traditionally higher performing custom made cousin.

Highs:
- Gets on a rail easily.
- Carves beautifully.
- Nice and fast.
- Easy to throw around.
- Pretty light for a production board.
- Quite stable.
- Paddles well.
- Carry handle is in the right spot.

Lows:
- A little shorter would make it even more high performance.

More reviews here: www.australianpaddlesurfer.com.au

12

Downwind and Racing / Re: River Race - Sydney [Video]

« on: April 10, 2011, 05:29:13 PM »

Very nice video. I was wondering why the leash was required?

Good question. It was a race regulation from the organizers but really wasn't necessary. It did make for some interesting starts and transitions though.

13

SUP General / SUP Racing from a Kid's Perspective

« on: April 06, 2011, 06:56:51 PM »

Here is a story my 13 year old daughter wrote about her experience in a recent race...

http://www.australianpaddlesurfer.com.au/article.php?id=86

14

Downwind and Racing / River Race - Sydney [Video]

« on: April 06, 2011, 06:45:10 PM »

Sunday 3rd April 2011 saw the dawn of a beautiful day on the Woronora River in Southern Sydney. The mist was burning off, the sun was beginning to peek over the surrounding mountains and excitement was in the air in anticipation for the first annual Coreban River Race. With some hot talent making the trek from up and down the coast, the action would be guaranteed to have the spectators on the edge of their seats. Here's a little bit of that action...

15

Sessions / Fun ones in Sydney [Photos]

« on: January 05, 2011, 07:59:22 PM »

Here's a few shots of the Sydney boys from the other day: