Considering a new board even though its probably a bad idea

[mrbig]

SMIK also has UK distribution. They make some very stable longboards.

I also own a New Deal 9'6" x 31" and it is not the most stable platform. The stepped elliptical tail makes for great carving, but is not as stable as
my 9'2" SMIK Hipster MiniMal which is also narrower at 30.5".

Bottom contours, planshape, many factors go into stability.

Supboarder the mag has a great discussion on stability. Well worth checking out IMO.

[Dusk Patrol]

I also own a New Deal 9'6" x 31" and it is not the most stable platform. [...]  not as stable as
my 9'2" SMIK Hipster MiniMal which is also narrower at 30.5".

Mr. B, so relieved it’s not just me 

Mr. NN  - The Fusion is a great board.  (I rented one for a few days.)  And one that you will probably want to keep in your quiver as you suggest.  In your search, consider a mistake (misstep?) I have made -  getting a new board not materially different from an existing quiver board.  It just complicates things : )

[mrbig]

Noo Noo, I just went to the beginning of this thread.

Supboarder the Mag had a great review of the board in English waters.

Your comment on difficulty catching waves sounds like it COULD be a technique issue.

As a kiter it sounds like balance is not an issue.

A lot of the boards being discussed, including two I mentioned, are not different enough than the 9'8" JP.

As a guy who spent BILLIONS on boards I wish someone had suggested to ride my 9'8" Hobie and learn how to catch waves.

SuptheMag has a lot of vids on technique that are useful. Are you taking off straight? Angled?
Pressing on the nose to get in? Paddling hard?
High or low cadence? Et cetera et cetera!

Another board similar to the JP would make no difference.

A much longer board could help, but if the art of paddling to catch waves hasn't been attended to you might be dissatisfied..

[Noo Noo]

Hi Noo Noo,

If you want to PM me with a detailed account of where you are in the journey, I'd be happy to deep dive with you and see if we can't come up with a good direction for you.... regardless of brand or model considerations. Finding a solid base to begin make this experience so much more fun.

many thanks again Sup, many good and very valid points. I'll drop you a PM

SMIK also has UK distribution. They make some very stable longboards.

I also own a New Deal 9'6" x 31" and it is not the most stable platform. The stepped elliptical tail makes for great carving, but is not as stable as
my 9'2" SMIK Hipster MiniMal which is also narrower at 30.5".

Bottom contours, planshape, many factors go into stability.

Supboarder the mag has a great discussion on stability. Well worth checking out IMO.

Yes and thanks. I'll look SMIK up.

Agreed on Supboarder. Outside of real world discussions, to me Supboarder is the best source of information out there. Only issue I have is, that they have access to fantastic beaches and surf. I don't so much which is a huge part of my difficulties I guess. I'm trying to learn in probably the worst possible conditions to try that. They range from nothing through to mess. Good stuff is by luck more than judgement right now. I have work to thank for that.

Noo Noo, I just went to the beginning of this thread.

Supboarder the Mag had a great review of the board in English waters.

Your comment on difficulty catching waves sounds like it COULD be a technique issue.

As a kiter it sounds like balance is not an issue.

A lot of the boards being discussed, including two I mentioned, are not different enough than the 9'8" JP.

As a guy who spent BILLIONS on boards I wish someone had suggested to ride my 9'8" Hobie and learn how to catch waves.

SuptheMag has a lot of vids on technique that are useful. Are you taking off straight? Angled?
Pressing on the nose to get in? Paddling hard?
High or low cadence? Et cetera et cetera!

Another board similar to the JP would make no difference.

A much longer board could help, but if the art of paddling to catch waves hasn't been attended to you might be dissatisfied..

You make very valid points and I've watched all the vids, several times and still refer back to them. The Fusion was bought primarily off their review combined with a load of researching etc. There is part of me that says I need to knuckle down and simply get out more which is where the title of this thread comes from really. I know full well that the organic matter trying to stand on the lump of foam and glass fibre is the weak point in my set up. But my conditions are not good. I've had great times flat water paddling with seas that are like glass but when the surf lifts a little conditions quickly become unfavourable. I cannot remember a single day that I could turn round and say that it was a good learning day. I certainly do need to get out more, a lot more and that is a lifestyle issue that I really need to address but I also want to explore all my options to maximise my chances. Even if it means taking a little step backwards, before coming forward again.

[Area 10]

Look, I SUP the kind of crap conditions (actually, probably even more crap) all the time - maybe 4 times a week on average. And I can tell you this:

1. Your JP board is actually pretty good. But it’s probably not optimal for where you are at the moment and those conditions.

2. There’s no point getting a similar board.

3. There is a point in getting one that will make life easier for you, and paddling more fun.

4. I have a big 11ft 6” x 31” JP Longboard that I loan to friends, and sometimes use myself just for fun in crap, small conditions. It’s heavy, but it is super stable, can catch anything, and you could have a picnic on it. I can also use it when I act as a pilot for a local open water swimming team, and can fish off it too. It is cheap, durable, stable and fun. Every SUPer should have some kind of big barge like this in their quiver. They are a lot of fun. Once waves get to head high the sheer volume gets intimidating, but for small mushy crap it makes thing FUN.

5. There are lots of boards like that. Pretty much all brands have one. I saw a picture on FB yesterday of the Hypr Nalu Hawaii UK distributor heading out to surf at Staunton in 1-2ft onshore dribble. What was he using? A great big 11ft x 32” 5” thick “barge” as his friend called it. So, this guy SUPs for a living and has a whole range of boards he could have used. What did he take? A nice big stable *long* board that will catch anything and make life easy.

6. I have already described the characteristics of the board that will give you more fun, and will help you progress. Most of all, get something LONGER. Longer boards catch waves easier, all other things being equal. They are also more stable for their width - although width principally determines stability, length does too.

7. If you can find a used bigger board for sale, then try that. It could be a good investment. People tend to hold onto these kinds of big all-round boards because they are so useful. But they do come up quite regularly on the UK used SUP Facebook pages. You can usually find something in the 400-700 GBP range.

8. I, like so many people, owned a 11ft Jimmy Lewis Cruise Control early in my SUP journey. It was a bit of a lump to surf tbh (the tail is a bit wide) but it was great for all-round paddling fun. Be wary of people recommending boards that are too small: they are the ones you see who look good walking in the beach with their board, but in crappy conditions are just standing or sitting there in the water catching NOTHING and looking miserable. Learn from their mistakes: they have let their ego  and lack of realism run away with them. Truly awful paddling conditions need particular boards, just as double-overhead clean pipeline does. (But not the same boards!).

9. Most people from overseas will probably never have tried to surf conditions as crappy as you. I got sent a video by the owner of a brand recently where he described the surf conditions (in Hawaii) as choppy and messy. It would literally have been the best day of the year if we had conditions like that where I SUP!

Hope this helps. Hold onto that JP if you can. It’s probably just not the right board for you right now. And start looking for something longer, and preferably secondhand. Then if conditions are going to be clean and a decent size then take the JP. If they are going to be total onshore messy small crap, take your “shitty conditions board”. That is exactly what the more experienced of us do. The key thing is to get out there and have fun.

Hope this helps!

[supthecreek]

Area 10

I yield
Yours is certainly the only advice to follow on this forum.

[Noo Noo]

Look, I SUP the kind of crap conditions (actually, probably even more crap) all the time - maybe 4 times a week on average. And I can tell you this:

1. Your JP board is actually pretty good. But it’s probably not optimal for where you are at the moment and those conditions.

2. There’s no point getting a similar board.

3. There is a point in getting one that will make life easier for you, and paddling more fun.

4. I have a big 11ft 6” x 31” JP Longboard that I loan to friends, and sometimes use myself just for fun in crap, small conditions. It’s heavy, but it is super stable, can catch anything, and you could have a picnic on it. I can also use it when I act as a pilot for a local open water swimming team, and can fish off it too. It is cheap, durable, stable and fun. Every SUPer should have some kind of big barge like this in their quiver. They are a lot of fun. Once waves get to head high the sheer volume gets intimidating, but for small mushy crap it makes thing FUN.

5. There are lots of boards like that. Pretty much all brands have one. I saw a picture on FB yesterday of the Hypr Nalu Hawaii UK distributor heading out to surf at Staunton in 1-2ft onshore dribble. What was he using? A great big 11ft x 32” 5” thick “barge” as his friend called it. So, this guy SUPs for a living and has a whole range of boards he could have used. What did he take? A nice big stable *long* board that will catch anything and make life easy.

6. I have already described the characteristics of the board that will give you more fun, and will help you progress. Most of all, get something LONGER. Longer boards catch waves easier, all other things being equal. They are also more stable for their width - although width principally determines stability, length does too.

7. If you can find a used bigger board for sale, then try that. It could be a good investment. People tend to hold onto these kinds of big all-round boards because they are so useful. But they do come up quite regularly on the UK used SUP Facebook pages. You can usually find something in the 400-700 GBP range.

8. I, like so many people, owned a 11ft Jimmy Lewis Cruise Control early in my SUP journey. It was a bit of a lump to surf tbh (the tail is a bit wide) but it was great for all-round paddling fun. Be wary of people recommending boards that are too small: they are the ones you see who look good walking in the beach with their board, but in crappy conditions are just standing or sitting there in the water catching NOTHING and looking miserable. Learn from their mistakes: they have let their ego  and lack of realism run away with them. Truly awful paddling conditions need particular boards, just as double-overhead clean pipeline does. (But not the same boards!).

9. Most people from overseas will probably never have tried to surf conditions as crappy as you. I got sent a video by the owner of a brand recently where he described the surf conditions (in Hawaii) as choppy and messy. It would literally have been the best day of the year if we had conditions like that where I SUP!

Hope this helps. Hold onto that JP if you can. It’s probably just not the right board for you right now. And start looking for something longer, and preferably secondhand. Then if conditions are going to be clean and a decent size then take the JP. If they are going to be total onshore messy small crap, take your “shitty conditions board”. That is exactly what the more experienced of us do. The key thing is to get out there and have fun.

Hope this helps!

A huge amount because I think you're probably bang on. The Fusion is fine but

a) I'm not getting out enough
b) Conditions are garbage
c) For UK stuff, away from access to the best surf beaches you should have a barge to cover every other set of conditions.

Very true on the video's. They always show conditions which would be heaven. There's only one I've seen showing what I see is this one below, and they are still better than normal

[Night Wing]

@ Noo Noo

Those wave conditions in the video are a lot better than the one's I usually encounter on Galveston Island. At the time of this posting, take a look at our wave conditions today down on the island.

The webcam is for the 43rd Street Webcam. It is a camera which you can control. The camera control is on the bottom right of the window. The different camera positions are in the upper right hand corner of the window. Take a look at the different positions. My favorite is the 43rd Street Jetty. You can control the camera for one minute of time if no one else is controlling it first.

And this webcam does not require Flash. Just HTML5.

https://www.galveston.com/surfvideocam/

[Noo Noo]

@ Noo Noo

Those wave conditions in the video are a lot better than the one's I usually encounter on Galveston Island. At the time of this posting, take a look at our wave conditions today down on the island.

The webcam is for the 43rd Street Webcam. It is a camera which you can control. The camera control is on the bottom right of the window. The different camera positions are in the upper right hand corner of the window. Take a look at the different positions. My favorite is the 43rd Street Jetty. You can control the camera for one minute of time if no one else is controlling it first.

And this webcam does not require Flash. Just HTML5.


Hi Galviston. The sea state looked pretty familiar to be honest, except the weather looked far brighter. Pretty messed up, lots of chop and no real shape to it. Even worse when the wind picks up I guess

Worth noting that no one really surfs these local beaches of mine either. Perhaps one but I've never seen anyone. One is very popular with the kite surfers though as its a cracking beach for that.

[Subber]

@ Noo Noo

Those wave conditions in the video are a lot better than the one's I usually encounter on Galveston Island. At the time of this posting, take a look at our wave conditions today down on the island.

The webcam is for the 43rd Street Webcam. It is a camera which you can control. The camera control is on the bottom right of the window. The different camera positions are in the upper right hand corner of the window. Take a look at the different positions. My favorite is the 43rd Street Jetty. You can control the camera for one minute of time if no one else is controlling it first.

And this webcam does not require Flash. Just HTML5.


Hi Galviston. The sea state looked pretty familiar to be honest, except the weather looked far brighter. Pretty messed up, lots of chop and no real shape to it. Even worse when the wind picks up I guess

Worth noting that no one really surfs these local beaches of mine either. Perhaps one but I've never seen anyone. One is very popular with the kite surfers though as its a cracking beach for that.

I Note Night Wing got a long board (but not too wide) pretty big volume for those conditions:
SUP Sports One World: 11'1" x 30" x 4.5" @ 173 Liters

[Noo Noo]

Looks like a nice board but sadly not available in the UK

[Dusk Patrol]

Blue Planet Surf lists a European distributor:

https://www.blueplanetsup.eu/
 
main website:

https://www.blueplanetsurf.com/

[Noo Noo]

Um only appears to be Blue Planet stuff unless I've missed something

[Dusk Patrol]

No - that's it. Just Blue Planet. Just another option.  Separately, another tack you can take is to get a board that may be stuck in your head (like the Black & Blue Machine?) with the understanding going in that you can always sell it.  Join Mr. Big's billion dollar board club.
 

[Noo Noo]

Got you

Cheers