Strange Magic

[burchas]

Great conditions in Maui left me wanting more...

[PonoBill]

NICE!  I'm never there in summer, I hardly recognize the place without the north shore being lit up.

[covesurfer]

Cool vid!

We've had some good conditions this summer, pretty consistent.

Coming in at Kanaha with nothing but perfect windswell is unbelievably fun. Was this the run we did on Saturday? It looks like it was. Thanks for posting, looks like a great run!

[burchas]

Thx Bill. At some point I'll give the winter conditions a try. For now I think it's a little over
my pay grade.

Thx Cove. You're right, that was the Saturday run. Super fun run. I managed to land in the
right spot just next to the canoe club there.

[Off-Shore]

Nice to see this Burchas. Some great glides! So did you prefer the F16 over the Bullet 17-4?

[Night Wing]

Excellent video. Should give me nice dreams for tonight's sleep.

Thanks for sharing the video.

[nalu-sup]

Hi Burchas. I know that you tested a number of different SIC boards while you were on Maui, and I noticed that you were on the F16 in this video. It would be great to hear your reviews of the different boards that you tried.

[dk78]

Nice glides!

[DavidJohn]

Nice..F16 mmmmmmm..

[burchas]

Thx guys!

Hi Burchas. I know that you tested a number of different SIC boards while you were on Maui, and I noticed that you were on the F16 in this video. It would be great to hear your reviews of the different boards that you tried.

Nice to see this Burchas. Some great glides! So did you prefer the F16 over the Bullet 17-4?

I think the SIC F16 is the board to go with if you're someone like me where there is still
a lot of progress to be made or if speed is not your main priority.

It's easier to handle than the 17+ boards, surfs better, handles crossed-up swell with ease
due to lower volume and nose rocker and doesn't require the extensive footwork the lower
rocker boards require. IMO it has the best fun factor.

That said, the Bullets are faster boards and easier to get into bumps on slow days.
I think that for my next Maui excursion I'll try to get my hands on the Hollow molded
F16V3. It looks like it would be the best of both worlds:

At 26" wide/26LBS/300L  it's still a stable platform but more nimble and faster due to
width and weight cut, so it should surf even better and be easier to get into bumps
due to the weight and width so fun factor might be even higher than the production F16.
Not to mention loading on and off the car.

[PonoBill]

I think it's safe to say the F16 is a more forgiving board, but I don't think they are necessarily easier. I think you can take an F16 to a point where it performs extremely well. Gregg Leion (Covesurfer) was remarkable on his F16, in many ways better on it than he is on his Bullet. He did a linked up double turn, deeply banked in front of me once that made my jaw drop. I can still picture it. Never saw him do anything that good on his Bullet, though he's a lot faster.

The Bullet 17 V1 has a little tail roll and shake thing that it semi-randomly does that tosses the rider off feet first. Very irritating. But once you've lived with the board long enough to react to it, it no longer ditches you every time--maybe every other time.

[covesurfer]

I remember that day, it was on the Kihei side, so it was likely perfect fatties and dumb luck that allowed pushing the surfing envelope going downwind.

My observations about the Bullet vs the F16 continue to evolve as I get more time on my hollow Bullet 17-4. First, Pono warned me about big unlimiteds being challenging for smaller paddlers like me. I'm fat this year but I'm still barely pushing 160 lbs.  I reflexively dismissed what PB was telling me about the bigger board as I was pretty sure he didn't want me to get on a board that was even faster than the F16. He is a good liar too. But, what he told me has turned out to be true.

In lighter conditions when I actually have to paddle the 17-4 hard in order to catch bumps or just move it along, it can really be exhausting. It's a lot of board for someone my size to have to move through the water. I think it's one of the reasons I choose to paddle my OC1 so much. I dread getting caught by marginal conditions on the Bullet.

But, if the bumps are catchable, because the current is not running counter and/or there's enough wind, the Bullet is faster than the 16 and I can get more bumps.  Once it gets going fast, it's like riding on a freight train but it's also controllable and steers/surfs pretty well from far back. As others have said, there is a lot of walking and moving required to maintain the long waterline's trim. That can be fatiguing. I do better on my Bullet if I cross train on my bike. Leg strength/endurance is your friend on that board. There is no question that the Bullet is a lot more board to handle than the F16. Going downwind in good conditions, the F16 feels like a big surfboard. That's what the F16 really thrives in and it doesn't have that 'passenger on a freight train' feeling of the Bullet.

The other thing about the Bullet 17-4 is that under certain conditions, like going cross/downwind, like on the first part of the M2M, the Bullet is very predictable and stable. More so than the F16. On one crossing on my F16, I must have fallen 20 times on that first 8 miles or so, when the wind and waves were hitting me from the right hand side. When I've done that crossing on the Bullet, it was much more predictable, stable and confidence inspiring.

Horses for courses. I wish I could have a quiver but if I'm just going to have a single unlimited, I'll take the Bullet 17-4. I have to admit that I've been looking at all the shapes and sizes that are starting to appear on downwinders here lately and wondering though. I'll have to keep wondering as there's no bank for more boards right now.

[PonoBill]

People interpret the Froude number incorrectly and automatically assume that longer is faster. In pure flatwater, we are concerned with form drag, meaning skin friction and anything sticking out in the water, like a fin; and wave drag, which is resistance caused by trying to climb over the bow wave. If you look at a graph of the two, the skin drag is somewhat linear, while wave drag is more exponential.

A graph of both drag sources shows form drag (friction) starting stronger than wave drag but at some point the wave drag crosses the friction line. For all speeds below that crossover point, a shorter board that trims properly will be easier to paddle fast. If you don't have the horsepower to reach that point then a longer board does you no good--except in a swell, where the available horsepower goes from 250watts  to 2500 watts.

In a moderate swell, not quite planing, the Bullet 17.4 with its length and low rocker (true waterline of 17') will accelerate to a speed about one mph higher than the F16 with a real waterline length of about 14'. Most of downwinding is sub-planing, so the Bullet is about 1mph faster over perhaps 80 percent of a DW course with similar paddlers. That's a lot.

Now take most of the wind away and a Bullet becomes 17.4 feet of misery, with a hull designed to lift the board onto a plane when the swell is big enough, and that stays planted while sub-planing. There just isn't anything there that makes it easy to haul in windless conditions.

So yeah, Gregg blew it when he got rid of that F16, except when it really honks and he flies. But even then he isn't doing those awesome banked turns. He should have listened to me.

[burchas]

Thanks guys. I couldn't explained it better but that's is mostly what I was thinking
though I did have easier time on the Bullet on the days without strong wind even though
more skin friction and weight.

I wish you had any first hand experience with the F16V3, especially you Gregg as you are
more my size. And saying you're fat is a real stretch, you're like 20LBS lighter than me and
I doubt any one will call me fat either.

[nalu-sup]

Does anyone have experience to share comparing: the production F16 v2, a custom ultralight F16 v2, and a custom ultralight F16 v3 (narrower).