Messages

151

Gear Talk / Re: Buying a board without a demo—brave, stupid, normal, all of the above?

« on: April 30, 2013, 06:45:22 PM »

Stoneaxe is right that your personal specs as well as your planned usage will help you decide what type of board you want to get.  If you're not looking for a race-specific board (12'6") as Spookini notes and you want to an all-around board for general touring and some surf, a 10' to 11' board will likely fit the bill for someone just getting into the sport.  The only reason one would need a 12'+ all-around touring board is if you're over 250lbs and have some real balance issues.  The weight of the board can be an issue - even if you have a board schlepper, it can be difficult to get a heavier board up on a roof rack and carrying a heavy board even short distances in windy conditions can be difficult - my wife still asks me to be her sherpa from time to time...

My wife is 5'9" and 150lbs - she still enjoys touring with the JP 10'8" but wants to get both a race board and performance surf model rather than have a hybrid for both purposes which is why she's selling it.   

152

Gear Talk / Re: Buying a board without a demo—brave, stupid, normal, all of the above?

« on: April 30, 2013, 08:26:06 AM »

SeaMe,

I actually have a used board that might fit your purposes that I was just about to put on the market.  It's my wife's JP Australia 10'8" x 30" x 149 litres Allround board which works well both in flat water and Surf.  She bought it as a beginner back in the Summer of 2011 as it's both light board she could carry (18lbs) that suited her purposes for flat water cruising and getting into mellow surf.  

It's got some cosmetic paint scratches on the sides that I'm touching up this week but otherwise it's in great shape.  My wife is planning to upgrade to more of a performance surf model (probably a Fanatic Allwave or Prowave).

It looks like a slightly newer model was sold last summer on the zone.
http://www.standupzone.com/forum/index.php?topic=17045.0

Planning to put it up in the classifieds later this week for $750 after I take some pics but would be happy to let you demo it.  I'm in Northern NJ and out in Southampton over the weekends in the summer.  We'll probably be heading down towards Long branch on the shore to surf this weekend if conditions are good.  Send me a PM if interested.

-Dale

153

SUP General / Re: Blood ang gutz... Bring out the wounded

« on: January 04, 2013, 12:39:47 PM »

Just returned from a post-Christmas trip to Mexico.  I was surfing a great left point break an hour and a half north or Puerto Vallarta near my cousin's beach house.   It's pretty much only accessible by boat (or a 25min paddle from his house).  The only issue is that it gets pretty shallow and there are tons of sea urchins around, so I brought a pair of Body Glove 3T booties with me (found thanks to the zone).  Of course I left them behind on one of the sessions and didn't pull out cleanly on a section and landed on a couple and have been digging about 30 spines out of both feet and my hand over the last couple days.  My hand also took a whack on a rock but seems to be healing ok.  I definitely won't be forgetting those booties again...   

Btw - if anyone is heading down the the Puerto Vallarta area, Pacific Paddle in Bucerias had some nice new Starboard boards for rent.  I rented a brand new 9"0' Converse from them for the week that I really enjoyed.   

154

Travel, Trips, Destinations / Re: nosara cr insight?

« on: November 28, 2012, 10:30:13 AM »

You might want to look into heading down to the Mal Pais area towards the end of the Nicoya Penninsula.   My wife and I just got back from a trip there (plan to post a report as soon as I have some free time) and there are a whole range of options in terms of places to stay on or near the beach.  Through another post in the zone on SUP camps I was able to find Andy Seidensticker of the Freedom Riders surf shop who set us up with rentals for several days ($35/day - might be able to negotiate a better weekly rate) and gave my wife a couple lessons and got her into her first waves. There are several good beach and point breaks down there with minimal crowds (I usually had a peak to myself at Playa Carmen in front of our hotel) and there's pretty much always some kind of a swell that hits the area.  We got lucky with two solid swells that hit during our stay which meant we had overhead surf for most of the week.  There's also a good uncrowded left point break towards the end of the road in Mal Pais (Sunset Reef) that is one of the best spots in CR when it gets really big - it's known as the Costa Rican Teahupoo - though we surfed it from shoulder to overhead and had a lot of fun.  However, it's not really walkable from the main beaches in Santa Teresa where most of the hotels are, though it's just down the road from Andy's shop.   The one downside of the area is that there wasn't much to explore from a flatwater perspective which my wife was hoping for. 

-Dale

155

SUP General / Re: Pipeline Firing

« on: November 08, 2012, 01:25:49 PM »

Here you go - didn't realize this but interestingly this is produced by freedom riding which I gather is as surfshop and shaper outfit on the north shore.  I'm actually headed down to Costa Rica next week and will be renting boards and going on some guided SUS sessions with their offshoot in Mal Pais.
 

156

SUP General / Pipeline Firing

« on: November 08, 2012, 09:01:12 AM »

Noticed this video today of Pipeline.  Checkout the Standup Surfer at 2:55.  Wonder if the edit here was done to imply that he lost his board in the closeout...

Pipeline Firing: October 27th, 2012

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZTnfpcMiuww" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

157

SUP General / Re: Frankenstorm, aka Sandy

« on: November 07, 2012, 07:15:11 PM »

Thanks Reid,  Good to hear that you're ok.  Thanks for the info on NYSEA - just sent them a donation.  Hope LB doesn't get hit too hard with this Nor'easter - we already have 3 inches on the ground in northern NJ and just waiting for the power to go out again...

-Dale

158

Travel, Trips, Destinations / Re: Experience Nosara Costa Rica adds Coreban boards

« on: November 05, 2012, 08:53:15 AM »

My wife and I are heading down to Mal Pais over thanksgiving.  We got in touch with Andy Seidensticker of the Freedom Riding surf shop who shapes his own custom surf and SUP boards (there was another post on CR Surf Camps in the SUP travel section).  We're going to be renting a couple boards from him and he's going to give my wife some SUS lessons (she's mostly done flat-water touring and some racing) and I'm going to do a couple guided surf outings with him to some of the more remote breaks if they're really pumping; he's also going to take us on some flat-water tours of some of the nature preserves there.  He told me he's starting an Standup Surf camp in January, though I'm not sure I would spend that much for a camp experience.    

One thing he mentioned to me was that differentiates the south end of the Nicoya Peninsula from further north is that if it's onshore winds on one side, you can take a 30min drive to the other side and have great conditions.  You can find a whole range of places to stay down there to fit your budget.  We're going to stay in a hotel on a hill called Casa Marbella which looks like it has a pretty nice setup and won't break the bank.  

I'll be posting a trip report and some pics on my return.

-Dale

159

Gear Talk / Re: Surf Goggles

« on: October 25, 2012, 03:36:24 PM »

In moderate surf I use $10 Icon wayfarer sunglasses I bought from nordstom.com with croakies.  That way I don't really care if I lose them.  In large surf forget it...

160

NorthEast / Re: oh no! Here comes Sandy!

« on: October 24, 2012, 02:23:28 PM »

Looks like a large swell hitting LI on Saturday evening going into Sunday, but the winds look pretty heavy even if they're somewhat offshore.   Monday might be nice though...

161

SUP General / SUP video posted on Swellinfo forums

« on: October 23, 2012, 09:46:56 AM »

Interesting post on Swellinfo - someone posted a video of Adriano Lima killing it on a shortboard SUP which has gotten some pretty positive reactions so far from prone crowd...
http://www.swellinfo.com/forum/showthread.php?16780-New-Sup-Clip

162

NorthEast / Re: NorthEasters--- Who are you? Where are you from?

« on: October 22, 2012, 06:52:17 PM »

Dale from Northern NJ and Water Mill, NY.  If there are waves you'll find me in the surf but i also enjoy flat water and downwind runs with my wife on Long Island. 

163

Flatwater and Touring / Re: Fall Touring Gear For The Northeast

« on: October 15, 2012, 12:29:46 PM »

I've been wearing a set of Under Armour coldgear leggings and compression top (my usual skiing base layer) along with a fleece (which was tied around my waist most of the time) when I went on a couple flat water runs last weekend in the Finger Lakes in upstate new york (morning temperatures were in the 40's).   Good call on those Scuba Pro 5mm booties - my wife has a pair and they are a lot easier to step out of compared to my split toe 2mm surf version.  Will probably try to pick up a pair of paddling pants as the temperatures continue to drop though I'll be transitioning over to ski season come December. 

164

Travel, Trips, Destinations / Re: SUP Camps?

« on: October 11, 2012, 09:46:46 AM »

Thanks Shawn! 
I'm starting to wonder if we should just skip Jaco and base most of our week down in the Uvita area as a base.  I saw on your site (http://www.crsurfandkite.com) that you do rentals, lessons and tours.  I'll PM you for more info. 

I haven't read too many great things about the Jaco area and my wife is worried that she'd have a little too much downtime in the beginner/intermediate group at Vista Guapa since it only involves one session a day while I would be out for two sessions of guided surf each day.   

165

SUP General / Re: SUPs and rear cargo hatch issues

« on: October 10, 2012, 07:36:46 PM »

I have a 2010 4Runner.  One of the selling points was that it was and still is the only current SUV on the market that has a rear window that rolls down (rather than flips up) so that we can leave our boards on top and still access everything inside.