A "Guest" Sup: 3 Main Choices

[Night Wing]

Lol, I understand that part. It's the phrase he uses that has always made me wonder. "Physical weight" as opposed to what?   

Two months ago my next door neighbor asked me how much I weigh. I told him 144 lbs in the winter time and 146 lbs in the summer time. So I asked him how much he weighs. He told me 168 lbs. I looked at him and told him, "I seriously doubt that".

He then asked me how much I thought he weighed. I told him, "You told me you weighed 168 lbs, but I think your physical weight is 180 lbs....or more. I then asked him if he had a digital weight scale at his home. He told me he did.

I then asked him when was the last time he weighed himself? There was a very long pause from him. He looked at me and said, "Lets go to my home and I'll get on the scale".

So we did and he did. The "tale of the scale" said he weighed 183 lbs. I then told him, "Looks like you're going to be doing a sweaty 20 minutes every night on your Stairmaster".   

He told me; "No, 15 sweaty minutes nightly on the Stairmaster and I'll quit drinking 3 beers every night as well".

My neighbor is now down to 170 lbs.

Hence, my propensity for the term "physical weight". 

[burchas]

2) And this topic thread isn't about me. It's about a guest board for some of my friends where some of them are "balanced challenged" so trying to choose a board they "all" can ride and enjoy is the first priority.

Winger, your assumption that you'll be able choose the right balanced board for your guests based on your own habits and taste, especially being a very particular person with a certain physic, might be misguided.
your guests being at physical weight range of 175-190 and at different experience level make this even more of a crapshoot, especially when you designate this board to be both flat and surf.

From what I've read it looks like your heavily relying on your own experience. You'd probably have more luck taking the manufacturer description of board target audience, they are better at aiming for a wide range
target audience, otherwise, you'll end up with another board that you really like but your guest not so much. Just don't be surprised if they would not come and surf with you.

and while at it I'll throw the Jimmy Lewis Cruise Control into the mix. Great price great construction and great shape. Don't get hung-up on fins, specifically, YOUR choice of fins. With such a casual big board you'll
cover a lot with solid single fin.

http://jimmylewis.com/shop/cruise-control/

Our longest running, best selling Cruise Control SUP is the original "All Around" board. Many have copied the basic dimensions, but you have to try one to realize what a tremendous difference there is. This is the best board for the paddler who wants to do a little bit of everything. Full nose, squash tail and parallel outline gives this board maximum stability and tracking (paddling straight) performance . Perfect rocker for maximum glide.

[spirit4earth]

2) And this topic thread isn't about me. It's about a guest board for some of my friends where some of them are "balanced challenged" so trying to choose a board they "all" can ride and enjoy is the first priority.

Winger, your assumption that you'll be able choose the right balanced board for your guests based on your own habits and taste, especially being a very particular person with a certain physic, might be misguided.
your guests being at physical weight range of 175-190 and at different experience level make this even more of a crapshoot, especially when you designate this board to be both flat and surf.

From what I've read it looks like your heavily relying on your own experience. You'd probably have more luck taking the manufacturer description of board target audience, they are better at aiming for a wide range
target audience, otherwise, you'll end up with another board that you really like but your guest not so much. Just don't be surprised if they would not come and surf with you.

and while at it I'll throw the Jimmy Lewis Cruise Control into the mix. Great price great construction and great shape. Don't get hung-up on fins, specifically, YOUR choice of fins. With such a casual big board you'll
cover a lot with solid single fin.

http://jimmylewis.com/shop/cruise-control/

Our longest running, best selling Cruise Control SUP is the original "All Around" board. Many have copied the basic dimensions, but you have to try one to realize what a tremendous difference there is. This is the best board for the paddler who wants to do a little bit of everything. Full nose, squash tail and parallel outline gives this board maximum stability and tracking (paddling straight) performance . Perfect rocker for maximum glide.

The Cruise Control is a great choice, but the inventory on the website isn't accurate.  I'm still trying to get one from Jimmy, and he's having to go through a shop for me to see if they'll honor the sale price.  I imagine more will be coming in from Vietnam, but I don't have the scoop on that yet.

[Night Wing]

@ burchas

We're having some windy weather here this week. Today the wind was blowing a steady 24 mph with the gusts around 30 mph. More heavy wind for Wednesday. For the rest of the week, there is a percentage of rain forecasted everyday including next Tuesday.

If there is a break in the weather for this upcoming Sunday, I'm going to put my 170 lb neighbor on my 11'1" board and see how he handles it's 30" width, along with it's 173 liters of volume, on the lake I paddle in our subdivision.

[JimK]

We're having some windy weather here this week. Today the wind was blowing a steady 24 mph

With that kind of wind you should take up Windsurfing or at least WINGsurfing

Just a thought

JimK
Extreme Windsurfing

[Night Wing]

We're having some windy weather here this week. Today the wind was blowing a steady 24 mph

With that kind of wind you should take up Windsurfing or at least WINGsurfing

At my age of 69 and with a cranky lower back, I'm afraid if I attempted windsuring, I'd get hurt.

In my WebCam favorites folder, I have the streaming webcam for Surfside which is my favorite place to sup surf on the upper Texas coast. But, the webcam requires Flash. Many people don't like Flash, but I'm not one of them. I've got Flash installed in all of my linux and windows browsers and it's setting is "Ask to Activate".

If you've got Flash installed, then go to the link below. Once on the page, you'll have to activate Flash to see the streaming webcam. You can control the web camera too. Before the webcam is seen, you'll have to listen to the "short advertisement" for Galveston College. This ad helps to defray the cost of the camera.

At the bottom right of the window, click on the camera button and it should say "wait" or "1 ahead" if someone else has control of the camera. The camera can only being controlled for one minute of time.

If you have control of the camera, look at the upper right of the window and you'll see "Position". Click on that and there will be a drop down menu which appears with various position choices. My favorite is the "Jetty Base Zoom" and you'll see the waves in conjunction with the wind speed.

Play around with the different camera positions if you like.

https://saltwater-recon.com/surfside-cam/

[burchas]

...I'm going to put my 170 lb neighbor on my 11'1" board and see how he handles it's 30" width, along with it's 173 liters of volume...

I suspect that if your neighbor does well on your one world, he would do even better on the Cruise Control based on the difference in the outline of the two in terms of stability.
That should give you better chances for a surfing companion

[Area 10]

...I'm going to put my 170 lb neighbor on my 11'1" board and see how he handles it's 30" width, along with it's 173 liters of volume...

I suspect that if your neighbor does well on your one world, he would do even better on the Cruise Control based on the difference in the outline of the two in terms of stability.
That should give you better chances for a surfing companion

Well, I'm soon going to look at a 12-6 x 30" 170L gun. But it is a thing of great beauty so you wouldn't lend it to some ham-fisted newbie

But I'm not telling you any more details until I've actually seen it in the flesh... then I'll post some pics.

Mmm... 12-6x30 170L Gun. Tell me you don't want one

[Badger]

The 11' Cruise Control is only $924.

http://jimmylewis.com/shop/cruise-control/

[Night Wing]

Well, I'm soon going to look at a 12-6 x 30" 170L gun. But it is a thing of great beauty so you wouldn't lend it to some ham-fisted newbie

But I'm not telling you any more details until I've actually seen it in the flesh... then I'll post some pics.

Mmm... 12-6x30 170L Gun. Tell me you don't want one

I do not mind letting my neighbor try out my 11'1" x 30" x 4.5" @ 173 liters board. He has to learn some way and this way he can learn without having to purchase a board. It will be a good learning experience for him. I'll just tell him if he is going to fall, fall away from the board and make sure the paddle falls with him. I'll make sure the lake water he'll be testing my board out will be around 4' in depth. I'll give a "review" on here after the event. Either in this topic thread or I'll start a new one. Right now, my thinking is to keep it in this topic thread.

My first sup was a Hobie ATR-2 model with a single fin. It specs were" 12'2" x 32" x 4 5/8" @ 238 liters. It was a great sup for "hauling" lots of gear and I took it overnight camping on Lake Conroe. Transporting a folding tent, sleeping bag, a pad under the bag to keep my shoulders from hurting, a few pots, utensils, etc and with me on the board with all of the gear, the ATR was quite stable.

But, if it was just me on the board, it was tippy as all get out and I attribute that to the 238 liters of volume and my light 144-146 lbs. I never liked it's big boxy type of rails either. Hard to turn turn on flat water. Never liked the way it surfed either. The 12'2" length of it bothered me too. Just too long for my tastes. After one year of owning it and taking it out many times, I sold it So this board was my "first hand learning experience".

With your 12'6" x 30" @ 170 liters gun to look at; speaking just for myself, I like the 30" width. I like the 170 liters of volume as well, but the 12'6" length of it, that is what I'm having reservations about it.

When you take a look at it, take some pictures. Since I'm a detail oriented person, take "lots" of pictures.    And if you purchase this gun, just test it out on flat water and surfing it and then make a review of it.

[Wetstuff]

Winger...   I have had one of those boxy cruisers - a Tahoe comes to mind.  'Probably great for tour/camping but it got slapped around in the very short duration chop we get behind the barrier island.  The nose kept getting kicked sideways in a quartering wave. 

I would not be concerned with the length too much (except cartopping in a breeze)  Most surf shape boards have nose kick so the effective waterline is less and they handle chop better in my mind.

The answer to 10 is: YA!   I am crying that I had not waited (..didn't know to wait) for the Sunova Pt. Break.  I could surely use the extra 2" of width over my Venom.

Jim

[Night Wing]

I just got off the phone from after talking with one of the NSP reps. And after talking with him, I got good new and bad news.

The Good News:

The 10'11" CocoFlax model does come with 5 fin boxes.   

The Bad News:

There is no vent plug.     

The rep told me it would be a good idea to put this board in a board bag, not zipped all the way, in the extremely hot Texas months of July and August for transport. I told him that was all well and good, but even that idea has a drawback.

The drawback is; if one comes out of the water after the last ride, our Texas coastal water has a lot of suspended sand in it. That means putting a not yet dry board, with lots of sand clinging to the diamond deckpad, straight into the board bag. The inside of the board bag is going to like a mess when I get it home.

The rep told me he doesn't know why there is no vent plug, but he told me he would pass along the question to the "powers that be" who make these calls whether to add a vent plug or not.

[spirit4earth]

My 11' Cruise Control should be flying in here next weekend, so I'll be able to give a report on that board in a couple weeks.  It's flying from Maui to Charlotte----hopefully with better luck than the ground journey from Cali to NC!

[Night Wing]

I'm still not a fan of single fin sup boards which the Cruise Control is. One single fin is fine and dandy for flat water paddling, but I have to keep in mind the board will have to be able to surf our "not large waves" which is prevalent on the upper Texas coast. I've found a 4 fin quad setup or a 2 + 1 fin setup is better suited to our upper Texas waves whether I'm using my 8'11" Hammer or my 11'1" One World and both boards specifications are in my signature.

I've sup surfed my big 11'1" board with a 1 single 9" fin, a 4 fin quad setup (2, 5") (2, 4") and as a 2 + 1 fin setup (2, 5") (1, 9"). The 4 fin quad setup has no problems with tiny, small or medium sized waves. I've never surfed it in large waves 7' and over (yet). The 4 fin quad makes both of my  boards (11'1" & 8'11") go faster and is my overall choice for fin setups for the waves I generally run into.

I'm looking forward to this upcoming Sunday afternoon. My 170 lb neighbor and my 190 lb friend are both going to demo my 11'1" board in the largest private lake in our subdivision. But, I'm going to throw them a curve ball as well. They don't know it, but I'm also going to have them demo my 8'11" Hammer as well.

We should be on the lake for 4 hours. This will give me some valuable feedback from them for "their" preferences for: length, width, thickness, volumes of liters and different fin setups for flat water paddling.

[burchas]

I'm still not a fan of single fin sup boards which the Cruise Control is.

I thought it's about your guests, not about you If you really care about your guests you should look into
the best all-around shape rather than what is the best surf shape, since you were not sure they'll even
want to join you.

But if you secretly want a third board and the only way you can get it by the Mrs. is if you claim it a
"Guest" Board then we should be privy to the fact