Author Topic: Blue Planet "Duke" 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 liters  (Read 16393 times)

Night Wing

  • Cortez Bank Status
  • *****
  • Posts: 2724
  • Piney Woods of Southeast Texas
    • View Profile
Blue Planet "Duke" 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 liters
« on: June 13, 2019, 04:49:47 AM »
I finally pulled the trigger on a Guest Board that not only my guests can use for flat water paddling and sup surfing, but I can use as well. I've done a lot of research. The Duke's specs are 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 liters with 5 fin (Futures) boxes.

For flat water paddling, my 170 pound friend (A) didn't have too much trouble, balance wise, flat water paddling my One World  11'1" x 30" x 4.5" @ 173 liters sup. However, my 190 pound friend (B) did have trouble, balance wise, on my One World. (A) said he could handle the 30" width, but he admitted my Hammer 8'11' x 31" x 4" @ 140 liters seemed to "feel" wider than 31". (B) also felt my Hammer's 31" width felt much wider than my One World's 30" width.

For sup surfing down on the upper Texas coast (the lower end of Galveston Island), both (A) and (B) had no trouble sup surfing my One World in 3.5" height waves. I will say, it took them both 30 minutes of time to get used to my One World since they weren't used to waves and they fell off the board more than they stayed on the board. But after the first 30 minutes, they were staying on the board and sup surfing.

Yesterday morning (Wednesday), we used a conference phone call so we could talk with one another. Both of my friends told me what they liked and did not like in a sup for flat water paddling and sup surfing. The flat water concerns were basically about the width of a board and both agreed they would prefer a 32" width.

For sup surfing the smallish waves on the upper Texas coast, which are wind driven waves since the bottom contour from the beach out to one half mile is flat like a dinner plate, a sup with at least 10' of lenght, 32" of width and lots of volume between 180-190 liters, would be perfect for them as well as me since I can adapt to 180-190 liters of volume.

I sent my friends some Blue Planet videos which are below so they could actually see and get some info on how Blue Planet's boards are shipped from their manufacturing facility to BP's Hawaii's shop in Honolulu, how BP gets their board ready for air shipment and the toughness and durability of BP's boards.

So we all came to a consensus the Duke, with it's 5 fin boxes could handle any type of waves we would encounter on the upper Texas coast. BTW, have I ever mentioned on this site I'm a big fan of 5 fin boxes?  ;) ;D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6qEzGnnJLE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAHDwj9pDAQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqcmKkXXZ-g

I'm a detailed oriented person, so if someone puts something on the internet that is hard to find and I find it, I will save it as a bookmark. With that said, in one of Blue Planet's videos, I found a link to Blue Planets "All Board Inventory" which let me see if the Duke was available in the Bamboo Epoxy build in the Blue color. The link to BP's inventory is below.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16mKsrbMifP3X4mIcInd4LK0knjG5QsS4IWbPZlnD2uU/edit#gid=515514258

There is a 5 hour time difference between Honolulu time and my time here in southeast Texas. Blue Planet's shop hours are 10 am-6 pm. So I had to wait till 3 pm my time to contact BP. I spoke with Robert for a very short time to ask him some specific questions which he answered. Then I was transferred over to Mike who answered some pointed questions in detail.

It just so happens Mike weighs between 145-50 pounds so that was perfect for me at my 146 pounds. I asked him if he had ever ridden the Duke and he said he had. After some discussion with the kind of waves we have on the upper Texas coast, I didn't go with the plastic fins that comes with the Duke. I went with a Gerry Lopez quad system which includes 5 fins.

The Gerry Lopez fins I went with were: 1 single 6" center fin; 2, 6" front fins and 2, 4.5" rear fins. This will allow me to use the single 6" center fin for flat water paddling. For sup surfing; a true thruster setup consisting of 2, 6" front fins with one (1) single 6" center fin and my favorite fin setup which is a quad 4 fin setup to generate speed; 2, 6" front fins with 2, 4.5" rear fins. This setup should be good for me and I hope for both of my friends as well when it comes to sup surfing. The jury will be out for them. I'm also having the dyneema strings attached to the two leash plugs as well as RailSaver Pro attached to both rails.

Air shipment will be Delta Cargo from Honolulu to Intercontinental Airport Houston.

https://www.deltacargo.com/Cargo/

The Duke will be shipped this upcoming Friday (June 14th) and I hope it arrives at the Delta Cargo air shipping terminal next Friday (June 21st). The one good thing about the DC shipping terminal, it is open 24 hours a day and (I think) 7 days a week.

Blue Planet Duke: 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 Liters (2 Dukes)
Sup Sports Hammer: 8'11" x 31" x 4" @ 140 Liters
SUP Sports One World: 11'1" x 30" x 4.5" @ 173 Liters
CJ Nelson Parallax: 9'3" x 23 1/2" x 3 3/16" @ 78.8 Liters (prone surfing longboard; Thunderbolt Technologies build in Red construction)

NorthJerzSurfer

  • Peahi Status
  • *****
  • Posts: 714
    • View Profile
    • Email
Re: Blue Planet "Duke" 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 liters
« Reply #1 on: June 13, 2019, 05:25:06 AM »
congrats Wing!   Looking forward to what I know will be a very helpful and detailed ride report!

Night Wing

  • Cortez Bank Status
  • *****
  • Posts: 2724
  • Piney Woods of Southeast Texas
    • View Profile
Re: Blue Planet "Duke" 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 liters
« Reply #2 on: June 13, 2019, 01:36:06 PM »
The link below might be helpful for a lurker since the page has a ton of good information on it.

https://www.blueplanetsurf.com/105-x-32-duke-2019.html
Blue Planet Duke: 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 Liters (2 Dukes)
Sup Sports Hammer: 8'11" x 31" x 4" @ 140 Liters
SUP Sports One World: 11'1" x 30" x 4.5" @ 173 Liters
CJ Nelson Parallax: 9'3" x 23 1/2" x 3 3/16" @ 78.8 Liters (prone surfing longboard; Thunderbolt Technologies build in Red construction)

supthecreek

  • Guest
Re: Blue Planet "Duke" 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 liters
« Reply #3 on: June 13, 2019, 02:37:22 PM »
awesome Wingman!

Robert, I loved the "Board Destroyers" video.... good stuff!

Night Wing

  • Cortez Bank Status
  • *****
  • Posts: 2724
  • Piney Woods of Southeast Texas
    • View Profile
Re: Blue Planet "Duke" 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 liters
« Reply #4 on: June 15, 2019, 05:47:42 AM »
Thought I would give a little update.

Tony, at Blue Planet, called me yesterday afternoon (Friday) and asked me a few questions about shipping time and getting my Duke a little earlier than next Friday (June 21st). After a short discussion my sup will leave Honolulu airport (HNL) on June 18th (Tuesday) on a Delta cargo plane which departs at 8:45 PM that evening.

The cargo plane will fly to Salt Lake City (SLC) where it will arrive on June 19th (Wednesday) at 6:49 AM in the morning. There will be a 7 hours, 21 minutes layover at Salt Lake City.

Another Delta cargo plane will leave Salt Lake City on June 19th (Wednesday) at 2:10 PM heading for Intercontinental Airport Houston (IAH) which is the closest big airport to my home. The plane will arrive at Houston on June 19th (Wednesday) at 6:15 PM. The sup will be then offloaded from the plane and sent by truck to the Delta Cargo shipping facility by 6:45 PM.

The earliest I can pickup my sup at Delta Cargo will be June 19th (Wednesday) at 8:15 PM. Since it will be the dark of night by that time, I will call the Delta Cargo shipping facility and inform them I will pick up my sup on June 20th (Thursday) around 10:00 AM due to all the heavy vehicular traffic I'm going to encounter on I-45 (Interstate 45 south bound) since (I think) Houston is the fourth largest city in the United States.

From my home to the Delta Cargo air shipping terminal should take me about one hour drive time taking into account all the heavy vehicular traffic on I-45 south bound at that time of the morning.
Blue Planet Duke: 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 Liters (2 Dukes)
Sup Sports Hammer: 8'11" x 31" x 4" @ 140 Liters
SUP Sports One World: 11'1" x 30" x 4.5" @ 173 Liters
CJ Nelson Parallax: 9'3" x 23 1/2" x 3 3/16" @ 78.8 Liters (prone surfing longboard; Thunderbolt Technologies build in Red construction)

Night Wing

  • Cortez Bank Status
  • *****
  • Posts: 2724
  • Piney Woods of Southeast Texas
    • View Profile
Re: Blue Planet "Duke" 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 liters
« Reply #5 on: June 19, 2019, 04:39:02 PM »
Tonight (Wednesday, 6/19/19) my board was to arrive by Delta Cargo air cargo at 6:15 pm at the big airport in Houston, Texas (IAH). But alas, it looks like Delta Cargo unexpectedly ran into "Murphy's Law" and things went awry for both Delta passengers and cargo. So my board is stuck in Salt Lake City, Utah until it leaves on Friday afternoon (6/21/19).

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-delta-air-tech/delta-air-facing-technical-issue-with-flight-bookings-check-ins-idUSKCN1TK36C?il=0

Reminds me of an old adaption of a saying which is below:

Quote
The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. No matter how carefully a project is planned, something may still go wrong with it. The saying is adapted from a line in “To a Mouse,” by Robert Burns: “The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft a-gley.”

The new plans are, the board "should" arrive at 6:15 pm on Friday, 6/21/19 at IAH airport. If Murphy's Law doesn't interfere again, I plan to pick up my board from Delta Cargo on Saturday morning, 6/22/19 between the hours of 8:00 am-9:30 am.



Blue Planet Duke: 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 Liters (2 Dukes)
Sup Sports Hammer: 8'11" x 31" x 4" @ 140 Liters
SUP Sports One World: 11'1" x 30" x 4.5" @ 173 Liters
CJ Nelson Parallax: 9'3" x 23 1/2" x 3 3/16" @ 78.8 Liters (prone surfing longboard; Thunderbolt Technologies build in Red construction)

Night Wing

  • Cortez Bank Status
  • *****
  • Posts: 2724
  • Piney Woods of Southeast Texas
    • View Profile
Re: Blue Planet "Duke" 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 liters
« Reply #6 on: June 22, 2019, 12:49:16 PM »
Well, I had typed a long reply and tried to post my pictures but I got some error prompt about "too large for this system" software. Suffice to say, when I first saw my package board, it looked like an angry beaver had gnawed all over it.

Me and my neighbor, who drove with me, got down to Delta Cargo at 8:00 am and we were gone by 8:40 am. With the temperature, humidity and dew point, the heat index at 8:40 am was already at  99 degrees F.

The shipping clerk was not too happy when she saw my signature and what I had written below my signature which was:

POSSIBLE CONCEALED DAMAGE PENDING FULL INSPECTION

But I have to give credit where credit is due. The people at Blue Planet really know how to package a board since mine board was not damaged, but that is hard to believe when you see the pictures. I'll have to post these pictures in a few posts.

Blue Planet Duke: 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 Liters (2 Dukes)
Sup Sports Hammer: 8'11" x 31" x 4" @ 140 Liters
SUP Sports One World: 11'1" x 30" x 4.5" @ 173 Liters
CJ Nelson Parallax: 9'3" x 23 1/2" x 3 3/16" @ 78.8 Liters (prone surfing longboard; Thunderbolt Technologies build in Red construction)

Night Wing

  • Cortez Bank Status
  • *****
  • Posts: 2724
  • Piney Woods of Southeast Texas
    • View Profile
Re: Blue Planet "Duke" 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 liters
« Reply #7 on: June 22, 2019, 12:52:58 PM »
More pictures.

Blue Planet Duke: 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 Liters (2 Dukes)
Sup Sports Hammer: 8'11" x 31" x 4" @ 140 Liters
SUP Sports One World: 11'1" x 30" x 4.5" @ 173 Liters
CJ Nelson Parallax: 9'3" x 23 1/2" x 3 3/16" @ 78.8 Liters (prone surfing longboard; Thunderbolt Technologies build in Red construction)

Night Wing

  • Cortez Bank Status
  • *****
  • Posts: 2724
  • Piney Woods of Southeast Texas
    • View Profile
Re: Blue Planet "Duke" 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 liters
« Reply #8 on: June 22, 2019, 12:53:58 PM »
And more pictures.
Blue Planet Duke: 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 Liters (2 Dukes)
Sup Sports Hammer: 8'11" x 31" x 4" @ 140 Liters
SUP Sports One World: 11'1" x 30" x 4.5" @ 173 Liters
CJ Nelson Parallax: 9'3" x 23 1/2" x 3 3/16" @ 78.8 Liters (prone surfing longboard; Thunderbolt Technologies build in Red construction)

TallDude

  • Cortez Bank Status
  • *****
  • Posts: 5714
  • Capistrano Beach
    • View Profile
    • Email
Re: Blue Planet "Duke" 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 liters
« Reply #9 on: June 22, 2019, 02:22:49 PM »
Like an onion. Lots of layers ;D  Glad it made it through. I could imagine that thing got tossed, shoved, a wedged along the way. They gave it just enough armor to survive the shipping gantlet.. 
It's not overhead to me!
8'8" L-41 ST and a whole pile of boards I rarely use.

Night Wing

  • Cortez Bank Status
  • *****
  • Posts: 2724
  • Piney Woods of Southeast Texas
    • View Profile
Re: Blue Planet "Duke" 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 liters
« Reply #10 on: June 22, 2019, 03:07:53 PM »
In the last picture above, under all that bubble wrap was a blue colored board bag. Inside the board bag was my board and other accessories and they were all wrapped in lots of layers of bubble wrap.

If the ancient Egyptians could have seen how my board was wrapped and "mummified" in bubble wrap, I think they would have been pleased too for the nice handy work the people at Blue Planet did when they prepared my board for air shipping  ;)

I would say it took us a good 10 minutes to finally get to the board. The pavement was really hot too. Even though it was only 8:40 am, the heat index was already at feel like heat index of 99 degrees F and if we had had a thermometer with us and laid it on the pavement, I think the temperature of the pavement was near 108 degrees.

I could feel how hot the concrete pavement heat was through my tennis shoes. The reason we didn't take any more pictures was; we just wanted to get my board on the soft roof rack pads, tie the board down, get back into my truck, turn the truck's air conditioning setting on to the maximum setting and "get the hell out of Dodge" as they say and head back to my home.

We got back to my home at 9:50 am.
Blue Planet Duke: 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 Liters (2 Dukes)
Sup Sports Hammer: 8'11" x 31" x 4" @ 140 Liters
SUP Sports One World: 11'1" x 30" x 4.5" @ 173 Liters
CJ Nelson Parallax: 9'3" x 23 1/2" x 3 3/16" @ 78.8 Liters (prone surfing longboard; Thunderbolt Technologies build in Red construction)

Badger

  • Cortez Bank Status
  • *****
  • Posts: 2662
  • Seacoast NH
    • View Profile
Re: Blue Planet "Duke" 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 liters
« Reply #11 on: June 22, 2019, 03:22:00 PM »
Okay, now you've got it home, let's see the board.   8)

« Last Edit: June 22, 2019, 03:29:10 PM by Badger »
Kalama E3 6'1 x 23" 105L
Axis HPS 980 / PNG 1300
Sunova Flow  8'10 X 31"  119L
Me - 6'0" - 165lbs - 66yo

Night Wing

  • Cortez Bank Status
  • *****
  • Posts: 2724
  • Piney Woods of Southeast Texas
    • View Profile
Re: Blue Planet "Duke" 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 liters
« Reply #12 on: June 22, 2019, 05:08:07 PM »
Okay, now you've got it home, let's see the board.   8)

As Kwai Chang Caine's teacher, the blind Master Po from the long ago television series, Kung Fu, would have said to Caine............."Patience Grasshopper, Patience".  ;D  As the old saying goes, "Good things come to those who wait".

I do have a dilemma though. Today's feel like heat index temperature at my house reached 109 degrees F. After 9:00 am, one needs to be in the house to "survive" the heat.

In order to take pictures, the best times are early in the morning around 7:00 am and/or after 6:30 pm in the evening. But with a new board, those times are really good as well for a flat water paddling session in the largest private lake in our subdivision to try out my new board for tomorrow (Sunday).

With the above said, which choice do you think I will pick? And if you were in my position, what choice would you make?  ;)
Blue Planet Duke: 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 Liters (2 Dukes)
Sup Sports Hammer: 8'11" x 31" x 4" @ 140 Liters
SUP Sports One World: 11'1" x 30" x 4.5" @ 173 Liters
CJ Nelson Parallax: 9'3" x 23 1/2" x 3 3/16" @ 78.8 Liters (prone surfing longboard; Thunderbolt Technologies build in Red construction)

Night Wing

  • Cortez Bank Status
  • *****
  • Posts: 2724
  • Piney Woods of Southeast Texas
    • View Profile
Re: Blue Planet "Duke" 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 liters
« Reply #13 on: June 23, 2019, 11:43:33 AM »
Here are the pictures. But before the pictures, I also bought a set of performance fins from Blue Planet. The Gerry Lopez GL2 SUP 5 Fin Set.

https://westcoastpaddlesports.com/products/gerry-lopez-gl2-sup-5-fin-smoke-black

Now for the pictures. Might have to do this in two (or more) replies.
Blue Planet Duke: 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 Liters (2 Dukes)
Sup Sports Hammer: 8'11" x 31" x 4" @ 140 Liters
SUP Sports One World: 11'1" x 30" x 4.5" @ 173 Liters
CJ Nelson Parallax: 9'3" x 23 1/2" x 3 3/16" @ 78.8 Liters (prone surfing longboard; Thunderbolt Technologies build in Red construction)

Night Wing

  • Cortez Bank Status
  • *****
  • Posts: 2724
  • Piney Woods of Southeast Texas
    • View Profile
Re: Blue Planet "Duke" 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 liters
« Reply #14 on: June 23, 2019, 11:45:10 AM »
And more pictures. Hard to believe that my board was not damaged at all.
Blue Planet Duke: 10'5" x 32" x 4.5" @ 190 Liters (2 Dukes)
Sup Sports Hammer: 8'11" x 31" x 4" @ 140 Liters
SUP Sports One World: 11'1" x 30" x 4.5" @ 173 Liters
CJ Nelson Parallax: 9'3" x 23 1/2" x 3 3/16" @ 78.8 Liters (prone surfing longboard; Thunderbolt Technologies build in Red construction)

 


SimplePortal 2.3.7 © 2008-2024, SimplePortal