Messages

106

General Discussion / Re: Surf Rig - How do you hide your keys?

« on: May 05, 2021, 08:47:17 AM »

I put two of my keys (ignition, camper) in the magnetic key hider and attach it to the underside of my truck where it can't be seen even if you look up at the underside of my truck. Hasn't failed me yet and I've been doing it this way since 1994.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Nite-Ize-Black-Key-Hider/1000518889

107

Gear Talk / Re: Gearing up on fins

« on: April 04, 2021, 08:23:06 PM »

@ Luc Benac

Have you ever tried a Donald Takayama "Halo" fin. The Halo fin was originally designed for extremely long sups which were 13'-14' in length. A 10.5" single Halo fin might work well for a downwinder sup.

Take a look at the short video below.

108

SUP General / Re: Is there SUP Surf life after 70?

« on: March 19, 2021, 05:32:45 AM »

Back in February, I turned 71. As the water is heating up, so am I.    Like my late dad said to me; "Son; when you retire, remember one thing. If you rest, you rust". 

My brother and sister in law are planning a trip down to Port Aransas, Tx this coming April and I'm seriously thinking of tagging along. I want to surf (sup or prone) the waves at the Horace Caldwell Pier. It will just depend on the wave conditions. If the conditions are right, l-o-n-g rides are the norm.

BTW, check out some of the "old guys" surfing in this video taken from a drone. The old guys are easy to spot. And this video is best seen in 1080p HD in full screen mode.



And if the conditions are not right, I'll be stuck with the normal waves found at the webcam below.

https://hdontap.com/index.php/video/stream/texas-seagull-condos-live-beach-surf-cam

To paraphrase: "Stay limber my friends, stay limber". 

109

Sessions / Re: March Sandbar

« on: March 09, 2021, 10:46:05 AM »

Nice video.

BTW, which one of your sups were you using?

110

SUP General / Re: Southern Funk n' Flow 2.0

« on: March 06, 2021, 05:07:45 AM »

One thing about small funky waves like that. You won't see any prone surfers on their shortboards anywhere around so you'll have most of the waves all to yourself.

111

General Discussion / Re: Any thoughts on the Jimmy Lewis Mano 9'9"?

« on: February 24, 2021, 08:31:33 PM »

Guessing it was discontinued awhile ago?

The board is around 10 years old.

112

General Discussion / Re: Tanker surfing South Carolina

« on: February 22, 2021, 03:23:05 PM »

Chasing tankers is hard I hear.

Chasing tankers (or any ship) is hard. But instead of chasing a tanker (or any ship) to prone or sup surf a bow wave, the common sense approach is to let the tanker (or ship) "come to you".

In the video below, you will see a young man sup surfing a bow tanker wave at Port Aransas, Texas. He gets into the water at his launching point and paddles out to a spot where he stops and meets an incoming tanker (or any large ship for that matter) so he can sup surf the bow wave from the ship where the wave takes him back to his launching point. Watch the video in full screen.



I have done this and I'll explain how I do it.

If I plan on surfing a ship bow wave, I always take my laptop computer with me and make sure the battery is fully charged in it when I do so. I stop at the closest McDonalds and use their free wifi. While I'm at Mickey D's, I access the "Marine Traffic" site which shows me any incoming ship which will come through the Galveston Ship Channel and the channel lies between the South and North jetties.

The Marine Traffic site is easy to navigate.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/

Basically, I launch my sup board at 16th Street at Port Bolivar on the Bolivar Peninsula and paddle out to the Boat Cut paralleling the North Jetty. The North Jetty is at the end of 17th Street. The North Jetty is 6 miles long but I just paddle out to the Boat Cut and wait for the incoming ship.

Once I see one (or two) incoming ships traveling anywhere between 10-14 knots, I know the bow wave will be big to give me a very long ride which takes me back to my launching spot at 16th Street.

113

Sessions / Re: 50F Day W/Sunshine!

« on: February 18, 2021, 01:19:51 AM »

With waves like that, we call those type of waves "angry waves" down here in Texas.

Thanks for sharing this video.

114

Sessions / Re: Okinawa Remote Point Break

« on: February 07, 2021, 05:45:12 PM »

Nice video. Looks like you had a fun session. BTW, the color of the board looks real nice.

Thanks for sharing your video.

115

Sessions / Re: Orlena- CODE RED SWELL!

« on: February 03, 2021, 05:25:21 AM »

Cookie,

You're tough. After watching your video, I went to a site that monitors the water temperature at my favorite sup surfing spot, Surfside. The water temperature there was 59 degrees F which is still too cold for me since I don't wear a wetsuit.

As always, thanks for sharing your videos.

116

SUP General / Re: SUP surf session Flash Mobbed by Sharks

« on: January 29, 2021, 07:49:51 PM »

Just be glad they weren't unpredictable bull sharks.

117

SUP General / Re: Surfboards (Longboards)

« on: December 12, 2020, 09:02:55 AM »

Hi Night Wing, It appears Realwatersports has the boards you want in stock.

https://www.realwatersports.com/collections/harley-ingleby-hi4/products/harley-ingleby-hi4-thunderbolt-black-95

"Close, but no cigar". The "devil" is "always in the small details which get overlooked".

Real Watersports has the Harley Ingleby HI4 model in Black Thunderbolt, but this model of construction has less flex more suited to bigger waves along with bigger people weight wise than me.

At my weight with the tiny to small waves which are typically found on the upper Texas, the Thunderboalt Red with its more flex than the Thunderbolt Black, is best suited for me. And REAL Watersports only has the HI4 in "Black", but I need/want the "Red" no matter if I went with the HI4 or the Parallax.

This is explained in the video below.



REAL Watersports does have the Parallax in Thunderbolt Red, but they only have it in the 9'6" model, no 9'3" model. At the link below, you'll have to scroll on down to the bottom of the page to see the three Parallaxs they have in stock at the time of this post.

https://www.realwatersports.com/collections/cj-nelson-parallax

I'm leaning towards the Parallax in the 9'3" length since the HI4 also comes in a 9'3" length.

118

SUP General / Re: Surfboards (Longboards)

« on: December 12, 2020, 06:04:24 AM »

This message is going to have three videos in it.

The first video is with CJ Nelson on why he designed the Parallax for "enjoyment".



The second video is a person who has a CJ Nelson "Classic" and the Parallax feels totally different. The Parallax is a fast longboard that can be turned mid board. This would be perfect for the tiny to small waves I usually encounter.

The Parallax in this video is 9'6" in length, but the guy doing the recording says it is a 9'5" length. At the end of the video, the specs are shown and I stopped the video and looking at the specs, it is a 9'6" length.



The last video is a review of the Parallax 9'6" by REAL Watersports. In this video, the board was fitted with a 9.0" fin and they didn't like it. The board was then fitted with a 8.5" fin and both guys liked this fin for the wave conditions they found for the day of this review.



For me at my weight and with our wind driven waves on the upper Texas coast, the fast single fin longboard would be a good in the same vein as the Harley Ingleby HI4 with 5 fin boxes.

119

SUP General / Re: Surfboards (Longboards)

« on: December 12, 2020, 05:35:29 AM »

I enjoy surfing a single fin on a cruiser longboard, it is all about trim and glide. Turning a wide single fin is pivot turning which is actually a little harder than standing over a tri fin or quad set and leaning. I should not say you can't turn a single fin from the back 1/2 of the board it is just more of a swoop, than any sort of quick turn (unless its a pivot turn).

Like you, I also like long cruiser type of boards whether they be prone or sup boards. When I was a teenager (15 years old, circa 1965), my first prone surfboard was a 9' in length with one single fin. Since there were no fin boxes back then, the single fin was "glassed in" so one couldn't move the fin back or forward.

On this style of board, my type of surfing would be considered "boring" because I just like to cruise (trim and glide). But with the advent of fin boxes and different types of materials for boards and how they are built, they are endless possibilities on how to make a very fast mid length or fast longboard with one single fin.

As an example. CJ Nelson is a power surfer even though he is not that big weight wise. His fastest mid length board is a model named the "Outlier". This board is very fast with the right type of waves. He normally rides it in a 7'6" length, but he has a video of him surfing his 8'0" model (8'0" x 22 1/2" x 3 1/8" @ 59.7 liters) at the Surf Ranch in California which I'm going to show in the video below.

He is turning the board at the middle of the board when he is just gliding down the wave. This is how I turned my old prone surfboard when I was a teenager and how I turn my two 10'5" Dukes and my 11'1" One World sups.

The fin that he is using on this Outlier 8' board is a 9.5" Flying Diamonds "Involvement" fin in G-10 material and I will list in a second video where explains why he uses this fin on this board. But the Outlier can be finicky to tune fin wise depending on various factors. I also show a third video on how this board can be finicky.

The first video is below and he can really surf his 8' board with his 9.5" fin.



The second video has a lot of "specific details" in it and details are right up my alley if you get my drift.



The last video is where the "average surfer" found it a little difficult to find the right fin for his 7'6" Outlier and he finally found, with his style and the type of waves he usually surfs, a 9.0" fin works best for him. The guy behind the camera has a 8.0" Outlier and he surfs it with a 8.5" fin.



Since this message is getting long, I'm going to make another message and show casing the CJ Nelso "Parallax".

120

Sunova SUP / Re: Review of Sean Poynters competition groveler SP25

« on: December 11, 2020, 07:53:04 AM »

Nice video!

You don't see too many video with people surfing gutless little waves. I enjoyed watching you surfing them in your new board since I have many days on the upper Texas coast with waves like that.

Your new board handles these types of waves very well with your personal stats.

Thanks for sharing this video and all the videos you share.