Messages

2536

SUP General / Re: Weight Loss

« on: August 01, 2016, 08:36:18 PM »

At some point I think you will find the 8'11 to be very slow. It also will not track very straight compared to a longer board.

Flatwater boards are supposed to be high volume so that the board sits on top of the water. This helps the board glide and reach higher speeds. 12 to 14 feet is the most common length for flatwater although you can get by with 10 or 11 feet as long as the board has enough volume. In general, the shorter the board, the slower it will be to paddle.

Usually we use the word corkyness when referring to surf SUPs. I've never heard anyone complain of a flatwater board being too corky.

Speed is not a factor for my situation with regards to flat water paddling. I'm not racing and I'm never in any hurry to get anywhere when I'm paddling on the flat water on a lake. As for the glide, my Hobie does glide very well because of it's length, better than my Hammer. But the Hobie becomes a barge if I have to turn quickly. The Hobie is not designed to change directions quickly. The Hammer can change directions quickly and I say this because in my three sessions with her on my subdivisions lake; I've tried one session using a large single fin placed at the back of the fin box. The second session was with a 3 fin setup and the last session was with a 5 fin setup. I was surprised to find the 5 fin setup can paddle in a straight line, but it can also change directions quite quickly. I guess my 12 years as a sit on top kayaker honed my paddling skills since I learned how to turn my 14'9" long, 26" wide Scupper Pro TW kayak, 180 degrees in only 3 paddle strokes. Which means, I've never been one to follow conventional thinking. I like to experiment to see if something can work when it shouldn't work. This is more akin to, "thinking outside of the box".

Although you've never heard of the term "corkyness" (tippiness) with flatwater paddling, you're hearing it "now" from me probably because I only weigh 145 pounds and my shorter length Hammer feels more stable to me than my longer length Hobie since I'm closer to the water's surface when I'm standing on my Hammer than when I'm standing on my Hobie (with no gear attached to my Hobie for added weight).

2537

SUP General / Re: Weight Loss

« on: August 01, 2016, 02:59:51 PM »

Wait a minute. It says at the bottom of your post that you also have a 12' Hobie ATR-II.

Why on earth would you want to flatwater paddle a tiny 8'11 surf SUP when you have a nice 12 footer that is designed for that purpose?

I use my 12'2" Hobie for "paddling to a camping site for an over night stay on the lake fishing" since the Hobie has 14 tie downs on it. My Hobie is 238.5 liters, but on my overnight camping trips on one of our area lakes (whose surface area is 21,000 acres); it has to transport me, a tent, sleeping bag, sleeping bag underneath cushion, camp stove, cooking utensils, fishing rods, tackle box, etc.

If I paddle my Hobie without any gear on it, at 238.5 liters it is unstable for me since it is designed for a much heavier paddler which I would guess is 200 pounds and above. In other words, it's way too buoyant for me since it gives me a very corky feeling. The Hobie makes me stand up higher from the water line than my 8'11" sup because the Hobie is thicker than my Hammer. With my 8'11" Hammer, I'm closer to the water line and I don't get that corky feeling (stability wise) even though my Hobie is 32" wide, but my Hammer is 31" wide.

I chose the 8'11" Hammer length because I thought it could do double duty for both flat water paddling (in a straight line) as well as surfing because of it's length, it's chisel tail and the 5 fin configuration (quad + 1). I thought the Hammer 8'5" would be just too short length wise for long distance flat water paddling (to paddle in a straight line), but I liked the 140 liter volume of the 8'5" Hammer standard production sup. This is why had my custom built Hammer 8'11" volume lowered from it's standard production volume of 148 liters to 140 liters.

Like you, I have tried to have "one sup which can do it all" for flat water paddling and surfing and I think my 8'11" Hammer at 140 liters is the one that can do it all. I just need to have my spider bite wound heal so I can get back on my subdivision's lake and then take my Hammer down to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico to surf some waves for confirmation.

I won't go into details; but I did a lot of research online on different sups from many manufacturers, lurking on forums and watching YouTube videos before I settled on the Hammer 8'11".

2538

SUP General / Re: Weight Loss

« on: August 01, 2016, 07:04:24 AM »

140 liters is way too much volume for you at your weight. 100 liters would give you plenty of float and you could go even lower.

But 75%-80% of my sup paddling is done on flat water. At 100 liters, this will work well for me in the surf, but on flat water, I might have the "deck awash" syndrome.

I've seen some big guys who easily weigh over 200 pounds sup surfing on the upper Texas coast on some of those low volume short boards at 100-110 liters. They do fine surfing the waves, but without waves, their deck looks like what I call "decks awash" while they're standing on their sup waiting for a wave to ride. The person who I talked with told me he uses a simple rule of thumb (forumla) which is "the persons weight (in pounds) plus the weight of the board (in pounds) plus the weight of the paddle (in pounds) without wearing a wet suit". Convert the total number of pounds to kilograms and then times that number by 1.7 and it will give me a minumum weight in liters to float me.

So for me; I weigh 145 pounds plus my sup weighs 17 pounds and I rounded my paddle weight up to 2 pounds. The combined weight is 164 pounds. Converting 164 pounds to kilograms comes to a little over 74 kilograms. Then multiplying this number by 1.7 and it comes out to 125 liters for a minimum liter weight standing on a paddle board on a lake without any wind so not to experience "deck awash".

Since I will be paddling on lakes, the beach is 90 miles from my home, flat water paddling usually is done with a long lengthed sup in order to paddle in a straight line without the nose wagging from side to side which shorter boards are prone to. Since my sup is 8'11" (and I've only had three sessions with her), with 3 different fin combinations I can paddle in a straight line where I don't have to switch sides paddling to keep it tracking straight. With one of my fin configurations I used, I can track a straight line while paddling on my left side for almost 60 yards (without any wind) before I have to switch over and paddle on my right side. Since the production liters is 148 for this model length of sup, this is why I had the sup custom built for 140 liters mainly because of most of my sup paddling will be flat water. Talking to the developer of this model is what he recommended also. So far, but with only 3 flat water sessions, it has worked out well for me.

Sorry for the "long" manuscript reply, but my situation is different from yours so I figured I had some explaining to do.

2539

SUP Safety / Re: Make sure you have a life jacket with you.

« on: August 01, 2016, 06:19:29 AM »

Besides not wearing life jackets, probably didn't have leashes attached to their legs either. At least with a leash, the woman (and man) once in the water could have swam to their boards which float. Unless of course, they couldn't swim or panic set in and panic overrides everything (judgement).

Where I live in Texas, a sup is considered a "vessel" by both the US Coast Guard and our own Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) so there are rules. If one is on a sup paddling on a private lake and/or pond, a life jacket (PFD) is NOT required to be onboard or worn. But on any body of public water, a life jacket has to be on board or worn by the paddler.

A sup surfer (in Texas) is NOT required to have a life jacket on board or worn by the sup surfer as long as the sup surfer "is in the surf zone". But paddling out beyond the surf zone, then a life jacket is required to be onboard or worn. The sticky part of the rules is not thought out well since there is no mention what constitutes where the surf zone begins and ends. I've always gone by the surf zone is where the water begins to make a building wave coming towards the shore (beach).

2540

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

« on: July 31, 2016, 08:20:40 PM »

wow- thats a rough first ride...

Actually, it was my "third" ride. First ride was very early Saturday morning (thirty minutes before sunrise). Second ride was early Saturday evening (about an hour before sunset) and Sunday morning close to 8:00am was when I got bit.

2541

SUP General / Re: Weight Loss

« on: July 31, 2016, 03:28:52 PM »

I'm curious.

You said you're down to 169 pounds, but you never mentioned what the volume of your board is in liters or it's length. What is the length of your board and how many liters (volume) is it? I'm only asking since I'm a lightweight at 145 pounds, but my custom sup is 8'11" at 140 liters. Your board seems shorter in length than mine is.

BTW, that is an excellent video. I enjoyed watching it.

2542

Whitewater and River SUP / Re: Board fin setup for rivers?

« on: July 31, 2016, 03:18:48 PM »

For river supping with some current and some moderate depth, I've seen some people use 2 sidebiter fins and 1 large thruster fin (2 + 1 setup), but the number of fins is based on their board length (10' and under).

On some longer sup boards, (11' and over), I've seen a few people use 1 large fin. As for the length of the fins on the two fin setup,, I don't have any info on that.

The above is just to give you some food for thought.

2543

Sessions / Re: Cold Winters Day in Victoria Australia SUP Surfing Video

« on: July 31, 2016, 03:06:16 PM »

@JackR

To list all of your board's under your posts:

Click on "Profile" in the Menu Bar (Home, Forum, Help, Shopfinder, Manufacturers, Advertise, Recent, Search, Profile, My Messages, Contact, Members, Logout), hover your mouse on "Modify Profile" and then when a window opens up, click on "Forum Profile". Then scroll on down to "Signature" and start listing your boards in the empty window to the right. When finished, then scroll on down to the bottom of the page and click on "Change Profile".

2544

Random / Re: Look Ma, no board

« on: July 31, 2016, 02:53:59 PM »

Special effects. 

2545

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

« on: July 31, 2016, 07:26:13 AM »

@Billekrub

Well, I'm not privy to the shipping policies of FedEx. For a more detailed explanation, I guess you'd have to ask SUP Sports how they deal with FedEx with regards to shipping restrictions.

As for the cost, I paid $160 for the shipping from Santa Barbara, California to the FedEx terminal in northwest Houston where I picked my Hammer up at. I don't know if $160 would be considered "an arm and a leg" cost wise. But in my way of thinking, to get my Hammer shipped to me in the way I wanted it packaged to reduce the likely hood of damage, once the cost of my Hammer went over $2000, what's another $160? To me, that $160 is just the "cost of doing business".

As the old saying goes; "If you want to play, you're going to pay".

BTW, if anyone is wondering why I haven't made any "first impressions" yet on my new Hammer, on my last trip to my subdivision's freshwater lake a week ago today to experiment with a number of different fin configurations (5 fin, 4 fin, 3 fin, single large fin) for flat water paddling in a straight line, there was "pond scum" on top of the water and a brown spider sitting on the water (which I didn't see in time) bit the top of my left hand close to the webbing between my thumb and index finger. The spider's venom caused a necrosis wound which is flesh eating. My soft tissue surgeon will not allow me to go sup paddling, in either fresh or salt water, until my wound is 100% healed. The wound is now healing, but it's healing slowly.

2546

Sessions / Re: Cold Winters Day in Victoria Australia SUP Surfing Video

« on: July 30, 2016, 04:21:40 PM »

Looks like you almost had the entire place to yourself. One thing about 45 degree F air temperature, you don't have to fight with other sup riders to catch a wave. 

Thanks for sharing your video.

2547

Sessions / Re: Maui Sessions - Video

« on: July 30, 2016, 08:12:13 AM »

@burchas,

That's a nice photo you posted. I liked it so much, I decided to copy and save it and it is my new Desktop photo.

Thanks for sharing it.

2548

Sessions / Re: Maui Sessions - Video

« on: July 29, 2016, 08:48:32 PM »

I enjoyed watching your video. It was nice to hear your narrative as you surfed your waves. I paid close attention to your foot work. BTW, you did a real nice job with only two side biters when you lost your center fin. I hope you make more narrative videos.

Thanks for sharing this video.

2549

Sessions / Re: The Space Coast is Firing

« on: July 29, 2016, 08:36:03 PM »

Nice video. Waves looked great for you.

Thanks for taking the time to piece together your one minute video and sharing it.

2550

Downwind and Racing / Re: 360 Viento

« on: July 28, 2016, 06:26:18 AM »

Looks like a very nice place to DW. I don't have waves like that near to the shore on the upper Texas coast in the Gulf of Mexico.

Thanks for sharing the video.