Most surfable downwind board?

[Badger]

If you wanted a board that is very much a big surfboard then I guess you’d look at the 14ft Sunova Search. I was offered one at a very good price a while ago and I kick myself for not buying it, despite the stoopid handle and the hard-to-fix bamboo finish. But I think that would be for an ocean paddler who was going to use it for occasional small surf as well, not for someone downwinding on inland waters.

I had the Search 14' for a week and tried it in all kinds of conditions. I wouldn't consider it an ocean board or a downwind board at all. Going against any kind of chop will slow it down to a crawl and even stop it in its tracks. Downwind, it doesn't have the glide necessary to catch bumps. At 30 inches wide, it's massively big and slow.

Surfing is probably its best attribute. In the right conditions it can be a lot of fun, although it doesn't have the kind of glide one might expect from a 14'er. 

I like the idea behind the design. It just needs a few tweaks to improve its performance. With a sleeker outline and hard rails, it could actually be a decent downwind/ocean board and still perform really well in surf. As it is, it's basically a calmwater board that will surf waves pretty well given the right conditions.

[Ripple]

.. I currently use a 2018 14x28 Allstar and despite being able to catch many bumps with it, I feel that the AS does not surf well and the only way of steering it is by using the "reverse steering" all the time which is not much fun. I normally downwind in small-ish bay chop with rather short wave length, where the nose of the board is most of the time just pearling on the crest of the bump in front if the board is square to the bumps ...

Here is a guy on a DW run using the AS28.  Is your experience like this or something else?

Edit:  I have paddled the 28 for a short demo upwind then back.  It seemed more designed for DW vs AW.  It really liked getting pushed from behind.  Plus used the 24.5 on a DW run.  That board jumped on a plane fast.  Was very slippery.  I have the 23 and it is a must to get back far enough to keep the proper trim.  But cutting across waves DW is not its forte with its slipping cutting boof. 

Seems pretty much the same, as you can see the nose is constantly getting in and out of the water and the board just goes straight. It is fast but not as much fun as I would like it to be.

Would a dedicated DW board with more nose rocker stop the nose from diving all the time like that?

[Badger]

Seems pretty much the same, as you can see the nose is constantly getting in and out of the water and the board just goes straight. It is fast but not as much fun as I would like it to be.

Would a dedicated DW board with more nose rocker stop the nose from diving all the time like that?

I doubt it would stop the nose from diving but it might help the board turn quicker to avoid running into the wave ahead.

I downwind on an inland bay only four miles across but it generates some decent conditions. The waves can get over two feet and are maybe fifteen to twenty feet apart. You need to be quick to turn the board or you will likely bury the nose and lose the glide. Each downwind board nose shape is a different tactic for dealing with the wave ahead. The All Star is designed to go up and over the wave ahead and keep on going straight and fast. The M-14 and others have full length rocker for maneuverability allowing you to surf and play around on the wave.

Adding rocker slows the board down but helps the board to turn. The flat rockered All Star will likely win the race but the full rockered M-14 will surf the waves better which equates to more fun IMO.

The outline curve of the board is also important to turning. The M-14 outline has a continuous curve. The outline curve and rocker work together to help a board turn.

The All Stars outline is straighter. That and a wide squared off tail help it to track straight. Flatter rocker and straighter outline help it go fast.

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[Off-Shore]

Of the boards I regularly downwind, the SICMaui F16v3, SIC Bullet 14v1 TWC, 2017 SB Ace 14' x 27", and the 2017 Blue Planet Bump Rider, the Bump Rider is the most surfy IMO, and the most fun..



The Ace is the least surfable..... at least with my skills...

[Area 10]

Off-Shore, presumably the Bump Rider has the thinnest rails and the Ace has the widest ones? That would explain a lot. Low volume, thin-tailed gun-shaped boards are the surfiest. Not that surprising, really. My 16ft x 26” custom is only about 237L or something, and has rails under 5” thick. Extremely “surfy” indeed: more surfy than any production 14 I’ve ever tried, especially since it has a 2+1 fin setup.

[Eagle]

Seems pretty much the same, as you can see the nose is constantly getting in and out of the water and the board just goes straight. It is fast but not as much fun as I would like it to be.

Would a dedicated DW board with more nose rocker stop the nose from diving all the time like that?

If the rider timed and paddled less the nose would not go in and out of the water so much.  His approach was to stay pretty stationary in his surf stance and plow thru.  He could have turned more but it would require more finesse weighting an edge.  A small maneuverable fin does help with that.  Overall it looks like he had good fun and was going pretty fast.

Since the AS has a rounded cutting boof it cannot cut into the wave trough compared to a M14 or Bullet V2.  That gives it much more tendency to straighten out all the time.  But looking at the footage again it seemed the nose was not diving that much.  He was just accelerating and staying stationary instead of stepping back a bit more.

When on my AS23 am always cutting down and across the trough looking not to go straight into the bump face ahead.  The 24.5 however handles bumps much better as the added volume allows that board to skip over waves and plane really fast.  But as bumps get bigger and steeper more and more rocker etc does def help.  So just depends.  Mostly the skill of the rider dictates how often the nose plows into the wave ahead -> but board selection is a big part of that as well.  In the pic below notice how round the AS is vs my other DW boards. 

[Area 10]

Would a dedicated DW board with more nose rocker stop the nose from diving all the time like that?

The answer is “yes”.

That’s one of the reasons why dedicated DW board’s are generally more fun to use once wind gets above 20 knots.

[blueplanetsurf]

More rocker is better for sure.
The Bump Rider models are great in the surf, you will find some videos here:
https://blueplanetsurf.com/news/sup-surfing-on-downwind-race-boards-is-fun/

[mrbig]

Goin' to a Go-Go. My 14' 404 is awesome in down breezers and surfs really well. Nose rocker - check, tail rocker - check, single concave the whole length of the board - check.

It was designed as a technical BOP board. Paddle out through shorebreak, turn, and surf any waves that present themselves.

I am going to see I if I can get a much more skilled racer pilot to take it for a spin.

Guess who it might be and win a prize!

[Ripple]

The name Bumps Rider keeps popping up, I might look into one of these.

Would the Bumps Rider feel considerably different from my 2015 14x29 Naish Glide when dowwinding other than being surfier? In which way?

[Ripple]

If the rider timed and paddled less the nose would not go in and out of the water so much.  His approach was to stay pretty stationary in his surf stance and plow thru.  He could have turned more but it would require more finesse weighting an edge.  A small maneuverable fin does help with that.  Overall it looks like he had good fun and was going pretty fast.

I did try stepping back but even a few inches aft would stall the board and the bump was gone. It had to be kept trimmed with the nose in the bump in front, with great water spray scenic effects, so all I could do was to go straight. The only way to keep the nose out of the water was to ride at an angle, but then the board had a tendency to do unwanted "bottom turns". Hence my search for a surfy board.......

[Ripple]

By the way, how about 17' boards? Would unlimiteds work on short period sub 25 knots swells?

[stoneaxe]

It's funny how personal this all gets...its one of the reasons I always tell people to take what I say with a grain of salt...pepper...maybe some tabasco....  

I think you're too small for the search Badger. That board requires a Clydesdale I guess. I've had it catching ripples. I do agree with you that it's a bit of a pig upwind.

[Ripple]

OK, so today I've gone and bought a Bump Rider 27' on sale locally....... Thanks everyone for the advice.

The board came with no fin; any recommendations on a good downwind tool-less fin?

[Area 10]

OK, so today I've gone and bought a Bump Rider 27' on sale locally....... Thanks everyone for the advice.

The board came with no fin; any recommendations on a good downwind tool-less fin?

In big conditions I use a FCS II 10” Fat Boy. In small conditions I use the FCS II Kalama 9.5”.