Topics

61

Gear Talk / Tropic Blends Sup "Kane" 10'6"x30"x4.25" @ 155 Liters

« on: January 15, 2017, 12:24:22 PM »

Since I sold my Hobie ATR-2 model 12'2"x32"x4.85" @ 238.5 liters  sup, I now have room in my garage for another sup to compliment my custom all carbon Hammer 8'11"x31"x4" @ 140 liters. My Hammer is designed for sup surfing, but I also use it for flat water paddling since I live 90 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. But I do more flat water paddling with my Hammer since I have two public lakes within 30 minutes drive time for me and my very small private subdivision lake where I live. Even though my Hammer is designed for sup surfing, with regards to flat water paddling, in order to travel in a straight line with my Hammer, I can paddle 6 strokes on one side and then I have to switch over to the other side for 6 paddle strokes and repeat.

My Hobie, for me, was unstable with me on it without any camping/fishing gear on it. Too much volume for me combined either boxy rails which made it feel "corky". My Hammer even though shorter in length, 1" narrower and much less volume feels very stable for me. I attribute this to less volume and thinned out rails.

I'm been thinking which means nothing is carved in granite even though I've got "that itch", of another sup in a 10'3"-10'6" length in a 30" width. I've got four problems. The first problem is I've never been on a 30" wide sup. The second problem is, I seem to like boards with thinned out rails and around 4.0"-4.2" in the thickest part of the sup. The third problem is, based on my Hammer, I like boards without large volumes of liters. I know the longer the length of a sup, the more volume in liters. The wider the sup, it's going to have more volume of liters. Since I'm 150 pounds at the moment (and 5'8" tall), I would like to have a board between 155-165 liters of volume. My fourth problem is, I like a quad +1 fin setup (5 fins in layman's terms). So I'm looking for a compromise between a production made sup and a custom made sup. In a 10' length I've always like the OLD Starboard Drive which was 10'5"x30"x4.1" @ 156 liters. The only drawback, it only came with a Thruster 2 +1 fin setup. Now the NEW 2017 Drive is 10'5"x31"x4.3" @ 173 liters with the same Thruster 2 +1 fin setup, but Starboard has lowered the rocker in the nose so it is geared toward sup surfing.

Based on the parameters I've set, it is hard to find a production made board for me. I know I can get Warren (WarDog) of SUP Sports to make a custom board (within reason) based on my parameters. So one of my choices is his production made Mahalo Shaka which is 10'x30"x4.4" @ 160 liters. Now comes the "within reason" part. I've been thinking of a custom built Mahalo Shaka with the specs of 10'6"x30"x4" but I don't know the liters of volume. I'm guessing adding 6" in length of the production made Shaka, that should add at least 6 more liters of volume so the custom Maholo Shaka I'm thinking on would be around 166 liters. By dropping the thickness from 4.4" to 4", that should drop the volume by 8 liters (guessing again). So 166 volumes of liters minus 8 volumes of liters gives me a "ball park" figure of 158  liters for a custom built Mahalo Shaka 10'6"x30"x4" with a quad + 1 fin setup.

Now, searching around on the internet for anything sup board related, I ran across a video with Katie Clack in it and this woman seems to be short in height and I'm guessing somewhere between 5'3"-5'5". In the demo she was using a Tropical Blends sup which was 10'4" in length. Why the width wasn't mentioned or the thickness wasn't mentioned or the liters of volume wasn't mentioned for this sup just escapes me. A person like me "needs details". Giving the length without all the other "important specs" is like giving me one piece of the puzzle when I need all the pieces to the puzzle.

So I found the Tropical Blends site and looked for a 10" model and I found the "Kane" model whose specs are 10'6"x30"x4.25" @ 155 liters which, in my opinion, perfect for me for a production made board and as a bonus, it comes standard with a quad +1 fin setup . And they also list a carbon built Kane as well. This company has been in business for the last 36 years from what I can gather. The link to the Kane model is below. Any comments, both pro and con on anything, not just the Kane model, are welcomed.

http://www.tropicalblendsurf.com/product/?id=237




 

62

Random / Nice Garage Sale Desktop Computer Find

« on: January 13, 2017, 07:26:24 AM »

I'm a computer hobbyist. I own 4 computers (2 desktops, 2 laptops). One of our neighbor's husband died of cancer and his widow was selling his stuff at a garage sale. I went down to the garage sale and picked up a nice saltwater fly fishing reel which was in excellent physical condition.

The widow knows I also like computers and most of my knowledge knowledge is self taught by experimenting with different operating systems. Since the widow has an iPhone and an iPad, she said she didn't need her late husband's desktop tower computer. She asked me if I wanted her late husband's desktop. I told her I would have to look at it. I found it was an HP Envy desktop computer which originally came with Windows 8 since it still had the Windows 8 sticker on it so I knew it was a 2012 model.

It was running the Windows 10 Enterprise operating system. After looking at System in the Control Panel, the info given was 64 bit Windows Enterprise with 24 GB of ram memory. The speed of the i7 processor was 3.40 Mbps. I asked the widow if I could look inside the computer case. She said, "sure", since by this time she knew I was highly interested in it.

Once inside the case, I found an 800 watt power supply. There was a 3 hard drive bay too. But the icing on the cake for me, there were 4 memory slots. In the memory slots were two, 8 GB sticks and two, 4 GB sticks to total 24 GB of memory. Since there are no 6 GB sticks made, I immediately knew this computer memory wise could be maxed out at 32 GB. There was also an AMD graphics card. BTW, the inside of the case was almost dust free. I asked the widow how much did she want for it. She told me $150 cash. I told her the memory alone was worth $150. She said she just wanted to get rid of it because she would never use the desktop tower since she liked her iPhone and iPad.

I told her I would buy it, but I had to go to the bank first since I didn't have $150 in cash on me. After returning from the bank, I put $300 cash in her hand. She smiled and said to me, "Enjoy your new toy". I replied back with a big grin, "I certainly will".

Since I have 3, 7200 rpm hard drives laying in my drawer (two, 2 TB and one, 1 GB); I loaded all three hard drives in the bay and each hard drive has a different distro of linux on it. The first hard drive was loaded 64 bit linux Mint 18 Cinnamon, the second hard drive was loaded with 64 bit linux Mint 18 Mate and third hard drive was loaded with 64 bit linux Mint 18 Xfce. I guess by now you've figured out linux Mint is my favorite linux distro.

Now I had 5 computers. I don't need 5 computers so I called up one of our area churches and asked them if I could donate one of my older desktop tower computers. The woman on the line said, "Describe it." I told her it was a 2010 HPE desktop tower which originally came with 64 bit Windows 7 Ultimate operating system and I had recently re-installed Windows 7 Ultimate from one of my DVD disks. There was a 3 hard drive bay in it along with 24 GB of memory. The processor speed on this almost 7 year old computer was 2.93 Mbps so it still has plenty of "get up and go". The power supply was 450 watts too. They church said their desktop computer was very old and it was running 32 bit Windows XP. They said they would love having it. I told them I would reformat the hard drive, but a fresh copy of Ultimate on it, make sure all the drivers were up to day and then do the Windows Security updates for them. And I did so all parties concerned are now happy.



 

63

SUP General / Sup Fin Setups for Surfing Video

« on: November 01, 2016, 07:37:29 AM »

This topic is basically for newcomers to the sport of sup surfing so you "pros" on here with many years of sup surfing under your belt might be a littler bored with this topic. I thought this topic would be good for those newbies considering the world of sup surfing and newly registered as members on the Zone and also for those "lurkers" on the Zone site who are not registered but highly motivated to get into sup surfing and needing information regarding fin configuration and setups.

After I got my first all around sup (Hobie ATR-2 model in a 12'2" length) I wanted to get a second sup, but I wanted it to be a shorter sup that could do both flat water and surfing. I figured since I can multi-task, I wanted my second sup to mult-task too.  I seriously started thinking about a second sup for both flat water and surfing this past January of 2016.

Since I knew surfing sups (usually 10' and under) have 3 fin (Thruster) and 5 fin (Quad + 1) configurations, I wanted to learn more about these different fin configurations in conjunction with the many different designs of surfing sups with regards to both nose (pointed, rounded, etc) and tail designs (pin, chisel, etc) and everything else in between, but I wanted to start with the different fin configurations. BTW, I ordered my second sup (I believe) on May 2.

Blue Planet made, in my opinion, an excellent YouTube video which I could understand in layman's terms. Robert (Stehlik) did a great job on this video. Below is the video.

64

SUP General / SUP Sports Hammer: 4 Fin Versus 5 Fin for Surfing

« on: October 31, 2016, 08:03:56 AM »

I went down to Galveston, Tx this past Saturday since the forecast for waves was very good for consistency since they were easily seen sets. Nice long horizontally waves with sets almost a duplicate behind the first set. The waves weren't large in height since they were about waist high, but they gave me a nice glide when riding them. Easy to turn back onto the wave like climbing a small step. The fin setup are in the following paragraphs below.

I wanted to compare again the 4 fin setup ( Two, 5", Two, 4") against a 5 fin setup (Two, 5" Two, 4" One, 2.25") against my previous two sessions with waves were were not very uniform. Surfing my custom all carbon built Hammer 8'11"x31"x4" @ 140 liters, my first two sessions favored the 4 fin setup. This time I surfed my Hammer using these two fin configurations for 1 1/2 hour sessions for each fin setup (a combined total of 3 hours surfing). Again I'm 5'8" tall weighing 145 pounds. My Hammer weighs (with pad) a little over 17 pounds and my Werner all carbon adjustable Trance 85 paddle weighs about 27 ounces. Keep in mind my Hammer has a chisel tail which is 8" long at the end of the tail measured in a straight line horizontally.

The time before I went to Galveston, I favored the 4 fin setup. However this time around, I favored the 5 fin setup. It seems in this session using both fin setups, I found the 5 fin setup seemed to give my Hammer more "drive" when turning back onto the wave so as to not lose speed which seemed to let me climb back onto wave near it's apex height. It seems the 4 fin setup felt a little "skatey" on the turn like it wanted to slip out. I also must say my rails are thinned out from the production made Hammers which are 4.4" thick. Maybe my technique is getting better and this is why I favored the 5 fin setup or maybe the better wave consistency has something to do with it or a combination of both. I really don't know and don't care since I had a lot of fun with this experimentation. Experimentation just lets me keep on learning.

On a side note. Since the 5 fin setup is my favorite for surfing (as of now), as an added bonus, the 5 fin setup is also my favorite fin configuration for my flat water sup paddling as well.

65

Gear Talk / Review: SUP Sports Custom Hammer 8'11"x31"x4"@140 Liters, Surf

« on: October 17, 2016, 09:47:46 AM »

My stats. I'm (now) 66 years old, 5'8" tall and a lightweight at 145 pounds. My SUP Sports Hammer is a custom built Hammer, all carbon with thinned out rails. With the pad attached to the deck, it weighs a little over 17 pounds. I use a Werner all carbon Trance 85 performance two piece adjustable (74"-81.5") paddle.

A production made Hammer is 8'11"x31"x4.4" @ 148 liters. Since I didn't want a "corky" feeling, I talked with WarDog (Warren) and he suggested thinning out my rails on my custom Hammer to accommodate 4" rails. With 4" rails, the volume for my Hammer is 140 liters. As a bonus, just standing still on my sup on flat water, it is very stable. Remember, I'm still a newbie at sup so my skill and technique would be considered "rough" for the want of a better term.

I finally made it down to Galveston, Tx to surf some choppy waves near the 43rd Street jetty on two separate trips so the I've actually surfed my Hammer for 6 hours total. The waves on both of my trips were the same choppy waves. The waves were just waist high so keep in mind I'm 5'8" tall. I came armed with three fin configurations. A 3 fin setup (2, 5" sidebiter fins and 1 long 8.75" fin), a 4 fin setup (2, 5" & 2, 4" sidebiter fins) and finally a 5 fin setup (2, 5" sidebiters, 2, 4" sidebiters and short 2.25" stubby fin).

I rode my Hammer for 3 hours on each trip at Galveston. I allotted 1 hour for each fin configuration setup. In short choppy waves, with the 3 fin setup, I noticed the my Hammer didn't quite turn fast enough and it seemed not go fast enough. I found the 4 fin configuration setup to be a better match up since my Hammer turned quicker and it seemed faster than the 3 fin configuration setup. Now, the 5 fin setup threw me a few curves. I was expecting the 5 fin configuration to be the worst of the fin configurations. Sometimes, the 5 fin worked very well and at other times, it didn't. I think it has to do with my newbieness and my technique. I need to go back down to Galveston and see if I can dial in the 5 fin configuration to surf as well as my 4 fin configuration and the 4 fin configuration is my favorite fin configuration for surfing waves (at this time). That might change if I go to Surfside, Tx since the waves are bigger in height there, chest high and if the wind speed is up, head high. If my technique improves (and I know it will), I might have to re-evaluate these fin configurations, but for now, this will have to do.

It was easy for me to catch the choppy waves and I attribute that to the 8'11' length of my Hammer and it's relatively light 17 pound physical weight along with my light 145 pound physical weight. I'm right handed and I found out I like to place my left foot towards the nose end of my Hammer and my back right foot towards the tail end in a sideways standing position. I could easily change directions (turn) my Hammer standing further back near the tail which is as it should be. But I noticed I could change directions (turn) my Hammer by standing in the middle of the board and shifting my weight and changing my body stance depending on what the wave was doing and how I compensated to what the wave was doing which really surprised me. And changing directions (turning) from the middle of the sup was easy and quick. Everything just seemed to come easy for me even though it has been 51 years since I last surfed a wave on a surfboard.

I know some of you would like a more detailed review, but I'm a newbie at sup so I have lots to learn and that comes with time, patience and practice.

66

Gear Talk / Review: SUP Sports Custom Hammer 8'11"x31"x4"@140 Liters on Flat Water

« on: September 28, 2016, 03:11:44 PM »

The review below is long overdue. With my bad spider bite and ragweed problems I've had this Summer, I've only been able to spend about 3 weeks riding my custom Hammer on flat water since I received my Hammer on July 22nd. The review below is a combination of quite a few paddling sessions over a "combined" 3 week period.

My custom quad + 1 Hammer came with 6 fins (2, 5") (2, 4") (1, 2.25") (1, 8.25"). My Hammer weighs with pad, a little over 17 pounds. The prevailing wind direction where I live is from the south/southeast. Most of my paddling sessions were early in the morning about 30 minutes before sunrise when the wind was dead calm. I'm also a lightweight at 145 pounds and I'm 5'8" in height. The paddle I use is an all carbon adjustable (74"-81.5") Werner Trance 85.

I wanted to see if I could paddle in a straight line from one side without switching over to the other side to compensate from drifting off my straight line. I found I could paddle a straight line quite easily, by paddling on one side for about 50 yards using a 1 fin, 3 fin and 5 fin setup. The 1 fin setup was with the 8.25" fin placed at the back end of the 10" fin box towards the tail. The 3 fin setup was with the 2, 5" fins and the 1, 8.25" fin and again the 8.25" fin was placed at the back of the 10" fin box towards the tail. The 5 fin setup was with the 2, 5" fins, 2, 4" fins and the 2.25" fin which was place in the back of the 10" fin box towards the tail. Incidentally, my favorite setup for flat water paddling is the 5 fin setup.

As for the glide, the 8'11" Hammer glides quite far for what is considered to be a short sup for flat water cruising. Keep in mind this is on flat water in calm wind conditions. She doesn't glide as well as my Hobie 12'2" because the Hobie has a much longer water line length. Distance wise, the glide is about 85% of my Hobie. I think the weight of the Hammer at 17 pounds has something to do with also since my Hobie weighs 29 pounds so I'm thinking inertia comes into the equation too.

As for turning, I'm not one of the those who do racing type turns where you step near the tail of the sup with one foot thereby raising the nose of the sup way out of the water for a tight turn (as in rounding a buoy). If I want to make a 180 degree turn from a dead stop, I put my paddle far back of me on one side, push forward and the Hammer will start to turn pretty quickly because she is much shorter than my Hobie. I usually need 3 paddle strokes to turn 180 degrees. (This is modification of a paddle technique I learned when I had my 14'9" SPTW kayak although that was 2 strokes on one side and 1 stroke on the opposite side). I can do the same thing if I want to make a 90 degree turn, but with much less effort and usually only 1 paddle stroke.

With a wind speed of about 12 miles per hour, paddling with the wind is no problem. But it takes a little more effort going into the wind since the curve of the Hammer's nose is curved upwards and it catches some wind, but it is not too bad. It is much better going into the wind than my longer Hobie because the nose of my Hobie is curved upwards much more than my Hammer.

With a crosswind of about 12 miles per hour, it is much easier to paddle my Hammer than it is to paddle my Hobie because I can control where I want to go with my Hammer in spite of the wind. With the Hobie, since the Hobie is 238.5 liters with 4 5/8" thickness, the wind steers the Hobie where it wants to go because of the thickness, the nose of the Hobie is curved more upwards than the nose of my Hammer and my Hobie weighs 29 pounds. The Hammer is much less affected because the nose of the Hammer isn't curved as much upwards as my Hobie is and I think the 17 pounds with 4" thickness plays a part too. The Hammer's rails are also lower than my Hobie's rails, again because of thickness even though both my Hammer and Hobie have curved rails.

Last but not least. The pad of my Hammer looks to be 3mm in thickness and it is so comfortable. I never get sore feet even though I've been paddling for a 2 hour session. The pad on my Hobie is much thicker and one would think it will be just as soft or softer on my feet. Wrong! The pad on my Hobie hurts my feet after about 30 minutes on the water. Come next Spring, I'm seriously thinking of selling my Hobie. And I've got evil thoughts about a 9'x30"x4.1"@142 liter quad + 1 sup if I do sell my Hobie.

Oh, almost forgot, when needing to carry my sups, the Hammer is a dream to carry if the distance to the water is 75 yards or more. Love the 17 pound weight of my Hammer. My Hobie, if I have to carry her 75 yards or more to the water, that 29 pound Hobie weight feels like 45 pounds by the time I get to the water.

Hopefully, this will help a lurking newbie on the Zone site or change a few minds when it comes to flat water paddling with what is basically a short surf sup. Like I've mentioned before on this site. I'm not one that follows conventional wisdom.......or runs with the pack. 

67

Random / Spider Bites

« on: September 26, 2016, 11:48:29 AM »

I received my new Hammer sup on June 22. I had only ridden it on my subdivision's private lake three times before I got bit by a brown house spider on June 30. In just a three hours, a pin prick bite turned into a flesh eating wound the size of a large green pea. I called my soft tissue surgeon since we're good friends and he has operated on me on three different occasions. He told me to go to my local hospital's emergency room but do not check myself in. My surgeon was operating that day on a few patients and in between patients, he saw me in the emergency room.

He told me I caught the bite wound early and he could take care of it. I thought my small flesh eating bite wound would heal (with antibiotics) in two weeks time, three weeks at the most. In reality, this bite wound took a full 8 weeks to heal. I was finally cleared to get back on the water on August 30. My surgeon told me I was lucky. He told me he had one patient who got bit by a brown recluse spider and that patient didn't seek help until 24 hours went by and by that time, the patient was in serious trouble with a flesh eating bite wound. My surgeon had to perform two operations on him (skin grafts) and it took a full "12 months" for his bite wound to heal. If you ever get bit by a spider, don't take a spider bite lightly because it can cost you in the long run and in some cases, amputation and also loss of a life.

So I have been on the water riding my Hammer sup starting on Sept 1. But on Sept 9, I came down with my usual September ragweed allergy and I have been coughing, sneezing my fool head off since that time which has kept me off the water since Sept 9. This is the worst summer I have ever had. I will try and make a report on my Hammer for flat water padding soon.

68

Random / My Linx Mint 18 (Sarah) w/Xfce Desktop Environment and Linux Pale Moon Browser

« on: September 26, 2016, 03:51:36 AM »

Thought I would start a new topic since I use linux and I don't think any users on the Zone use linux.

Since I didn't like the direction Microsoft was taking Windows starting with Windows 8, I began looking into other computer operating systems. I looked at Apple's OS X and it was okay, but Apple hardware is expensive. For the price of one Apple computer, I could get two Windows computers. Then I found out about linux. But linux comes in many different distributions (distros). Some linux distros were for geeky power users and I was a newbie at linux. I wanted a linux distro which used a graphical installer instead of the command line terminal and was similar to the look, feel and acted like Windows 7. After doing research and looking at YouTube videos, I settled on linux Mint and I started with linux Mint 14 in the Xfce desktop environment. I chose Xfce since my two desktop tower computers were built in 2010. They're old but have lots of horsepower.

One is an i7 @ 2.80 processor speed, 16 GB of ram memory with a Nvidia GT 220 graphics card. The other tower computer is an i7 @ 2.93 processor speed, 24 GB of ram memory with a Nvidia GT 440 graphics card.

Below is a screenshot of linux Mint 18 in the Xfce desktop environment which you can see on my panel taskbar at the bottom of my screenshot and linux Mint 18 is supported until April of the year 2021. At the top of my screenshot is my linux Pale Moon browser. I've modified it "without using the linux terminal". Pale Moon is customizable within the browser and Pale Moon is a true fork of the Firefox browser. The Pale Moon browser should be self explanatory. The bottom pane of my Mint 18 Xfce is different than Windows or OS X.

The panel, from left to right includes the Xfce "old" Applications Stacked Menu (mouse with underlying X) icon, my Desktop icon, my linux terminal icon (which I've only used twice in 4 years), my red colored Thunar File Manager, my brown colored Synaptic Package Manager (where I install and uninstall linux programs).

Over to the right side of the panel, you can see my two browser launcher icons for Pale Moon and SeaMonkey. Then my Teamviewer launcher icon so I can help my friends with their computers by taking control of them, my Taskmanager and my Whisker Menu (blue circle with white mouse face). The difference between the old Applications Menu and Whisker Menu, the Applications Menu just names a program, but the Whisker Menu names the program but also describes what the program does. As an example, Banshee is listed in the old Applications Menu and it is also listed in the Whisker Menu, but in the Whisker Menu, Banshee is described as a "play and organize your music collection".

If anyone has any questions, just ask. You have to click on the link to see my screenshot.

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc254/vkirov2950/Linux%20Mint%20SS%201366_zpsa0yptvfa.png

69

Technique / Travis Grant's New Paddling Stroke

« on: August 09, 2016, 05:47:47 AM »

Since I've basically been in drydock because of my left hand, I've been surfing YouTube watching others on how they do they paddling. Earlier this morning, I came across Travis Grant demonstrating a new paddle stroke he is using in conjunction with his old paddle stroke. There are subtle changes when comparing his two paddle strokes.

When I get my left hand healed and I'm allowed to get back on the water with my sup, I'm going to try his new stroke for my flat water cruising. The link to Travis' video where he talks about and demonstrates his new paddle stroke is below.

70

Gear Talk / SUP Sports "Hammer": 8'11"x31" or 9'5"x31"

« on: May 14, 2016, 04:50:31 AM »

I'm hoping SUP Sports (WarDog) will see this post and give me some needed advice. Any other person reading this post is welcome to give me their opinions also. I've made this a public post instead of a private message to WarDog because I lurked on this site since last November gleaning all the info I could until I decided to become a registered member during the last week of April. I figure someone else might be lurking also so these types of public posts will help them too if their weight is close to mine.

This past Tuesday I listed my sot (sit-on-top) Ocean Kayak "Scupper Pro TW" kayak for sale on my local area. I'm selling it to make room in my garage for a second SUP. This SUP will be used 75% of the time on lakes and ponds. The subdivision where I live has a 10 acre pond where kayaks, row boats and SUP's are allowed. This small pond is also 100 yards from my home. Just 25 miles from my home is a 20,000 acre lake.

The other 25% of the time I will be taking this SUP to the Gulf of Mexico which is 90 miles from my home. I'll will using this SUP for paddling around in the various bays and saltwater marshes down there. On the Gulf side of a peninsula, the Gulf of Mexico has small waves and I plan on using this SUP for playing around in the small waves (stomach to head high) on a good day. I'll also be paddling around in the saltwater marshes too.

Below is a link where there are webcams so you will be able to see the one bay, the Gulf side of the peninsula and in the distance from the fish cleaning table (at the marina), you can see the salt marshes. Once on the page, left click on the webcam thumbnails for a larger photo. The webcams refresh every 30 seconds.

http://www.cbwebcam.com/

On flat water (ponds, lakes. saltwater marshes), I'm thinking on a short board under 10' in length which can track straight if I want to take a 5 mile round trip paddling session. Also, the board must be able to handle our small waves on the beachfront.

I'm 66 years old, 5'8" tall and weigh 145 pounds. The SUP Sports "Hammer" series seems to be the best contender. The problem is, I'm not sure what length to choose from. I'm looking at the 8'11"x31" and also at the 9'5"x31". At my 145 pound weight, I don't want a SUP which will feel "corky" to me. In other words, the board's volume will be too much for me.

I've seen the Hammer 8'11" being paddled in small pond in the video link below.



The Hammer 8'11" is the one I'm leaning towards. Whatever Hammer I choose, construction material wise, I'm going for the production made SUper Lite Two Tone Carbon Fiber ($1799) since some of the places I want to use this SUP, it's going to be a 150 yard walk so all I'll be taking (beside life jacket and water) is a paddle and SUP.

I've also looked at the Hammer 7'11" and 8'5", but I'm leery of their shorter lengths for straight line tracking on flat water (ponds and lakes). As I've stated above, I'm hoping WarDog sees this posts and responds to it since he is the designer of the Hammer series. Anyone else is most welcome to give their opinions both pro and con.