Documenting a transition: 12' Ron House to 10' Joe Blair

[Fish]

Hey folks. This weekend, I was fortunate enough to stumble across a lightly used Joe Blair 10' SUP on consignment at a local shop.  The woman who had it shaped for her rode it once (or so I'm told) and decided instead that she wanted a longer, floatier board for distance paddles.  Lucky me. 

For the past few months, I have been riding a 12' Ron House. The 12' was my first SUP.  It paddles great over distances, but is a bit of a boat in the surf. As I've been riding it for the past few months, I decided that I would really like a shorter board (or different shape) for better maneuverability in waves.  I even emailed several shapers recently to inquire about having a smaller board shaped. Having stumbled across the used 10' this weekend, I decided to buy it and give it a whirl.

Since I'll bet there are other people out there who are interested in making a similar transition from big board to shorter/higher performance one, I thought I would document my experience here...and answer questions anyone may have about it.

So to start here are some initial specs:

Me:  6'1, 180 lbs, 34 yrs old, surfing for 7 yrs, surfing/paddling stand-up for 3 months...

My first board, (for comparison's sake):  Ron House shaped, 12' long, 29" wide, not sure how thick. Big round nose, squash tail, single fin, very little nose and tail rocker.

The new board: Joe Blair shaped, 10' long, 28" wide, not sure how thick. Beak-nose, rounded-pin tail, tri-fin set-up with standard future fins.

Pictures:  Coming soon. Awaiting new digital camera.

--

I'll post more later today/tonight re: initial impressions of the new, shorter board as well as details from transition sessions 1 and 2 on the shorter board.

[StandUpPaddleSurf.net]

Can't wait to hear what you think about that Blair.  We shot a video w/ Joe and his stand up board in the Legoland parking lot and he's quite a character.  http://www.standuppaddlesurf.net/2007/10/13/chalk-talk-with-joe-blair-stand-up-paddle-surf-board-master-shaper-on-boards-for-big-boys-video/

[Fish]

How funny.  I didn't know it at the time, but I bought the very board that Joe shows-off in that video: http://www.standuppaddlesurf.net/2007/10/13/chalk-talk-with-joe-blair-stand-up-paddle-surf-board-master-shaper-on-boards-for-big-boys-video/

Nice interview, by the way.  Now I know nearly everything I wanted to know about my new used board!

Per the video, it's 9'9', 28" wide, and 4.5" thick.  Generally designed as a surfer for small to medium sized waves for someone 170/175lbs or lighter...and apparently this particular one was shaped for a 130 lb female.  Now it's mine.

Again, I am currently at ~180 lbs, so it will be interesting to see how I fare.  I've been out for 2 sessions on it so far, and to say that I immediately noticed the difference in volume would be an understatement.

More to come...

[Fish]

First 3 sessions (30 min, 60 min, 60 min, all between 11/3 and 11/6, Santa Monica Bay, Venice, light winds, surf 1-4'+, closed-out and crappy):

Initial impressions:

When I first took the Blair out, my biggest concern was: How well will it float me?  From my very first step on the board, I noticed that it didn't ride quite as high in the water as my Laird (my feet were getting way wetter).  I also found it was difficult to find the proper forward/back sweet spot. In addition, it was certainly "tippy" side-to-side, but I remember my first few days on the Laird felt like this, so I'm not too worried.  What I found most interesting so far with this board is that I can actually sink one of the rails with one leg while leaning to the other side and remaining standing on the board (almost tilting the board 45 degrees to the water's surface).  This, of course, was not intentional, but resulted from my effort to maintain side-to-side balance in very wobbly water (winds were light, but refraction in Venice has been powerful with the high tides).  Though I would sometimes end up "frozen" in this position for a few seconds while I tried to catch my balance, the board seems to recover well from this position and rights itself pretty freely.

Paddling:

When I first jumped on the board, I thought I was too far forward since the nose looked like it was pushing water with each paddle I took.  Stepped back just a little bit and realized I overcompensated...now the tail is sinking and the nose is doing a wheelie (This doesn't happen as much on the Laird because the Laird has a huge round nose and thick squash tail.) Though I still haven't locked in the front-to-back sweet spot, I've found it occasionally, and am certain that with more time, this will become natural. Still, it feels that there is a much smaller sweet spot on the Blair compared to the Laird and there is much greater margin-for-error on the Blair if you are standing in the wrong place.  Bottom line, the Laird is floatier and more forgiving of improper positioning.

Since the Blair is much lighter than the Laird, it seemed much easier to get moving from a dead stop.  A few quick paddles can get this thing moving where as I feel like the Laird requires fuller, deeper strokes to pick-up initial momentum. It was also way easier to "spin and go" on the Blair.  While the Laird felt like a boat to spin around and requires effort and concentration to turn sharply while just paddling, the Blair spins with ease.  Probably helps that the Blair tri-fin setup is positioned 5" further forward (read: towards the nose) than ordinarily would be and doesn't suffer from rudder resistance like the single-fin Laird.

Once it was going and I was paddling, the Blair glided OK, but certainly nowhere near as far or as fast as the Laird. When the wind picked up and there was even slight bump to the water, it felt like the Blair just didn't want to glide much at all.  Not sure if this was due to reduced weight, reduced volume, or both.

Further, not sure if this is board design or just user error, but I found the Blair does not track as straight as the Laird.  A few side strokes on the left and the Blair immediately starts pulling right.  A few strokes on the right and I'm veering back the other way.  I'm certain there are better paddling techniques for paddling straighter on the shorter board, but so far, stroke-for-stroke, the Laird paddles straighter (and, as such, more efficiently).  Regardless, given the glide and tracking I have experienced with the Blair, in heavier chop and bigger days this would be a much harder workout than the Laird just to paddle to the line-up...and I doubt I'd want to paddle more than a couple of miles on this if given a longer board as an alternative...

Still, despite all this talk of sweet spots, paddle-ease, and tracking, I plain tipped over and fell in the water a good half-dozen to a dozen times just paddling around over the three sessions. I'm to the point on my Laird where I don't fall off it while just straight paddling, so this was frustrating at times, but also a source of challenge/fun.   

Surfing:

Of course, this board was not designed for distance paddles.  It was designed to be surfed.  And that's why I got it.  So far, however, I've had nothing but closed-out Venice shorebreak. Probably took off on no more than 6-12 waves total over all three sessions and had only 1 with any open face.  Rather than report on surfing characteristics in these conditions, I'll wait till I get it into rideable waves.

Barring something strange, I'm taking her down to San'O on Wed morning for dawn patrol. Will report back once I've had some real waves on it.
 

[MichaelF]

Fish

I have made the transition from a laird to a Blair.   I am 260 and put the summer on both a Laird and a starboard 12'6.

I recently transitioned to a Blair 10'8 that is clearly thicker than the 10'1 model that you are on. 

You are right about paddling the board, they do not go as straight as the longer boards.  I dont think this is just a Blair thing it is the cost of getting shorter.  I have found that I am now able to paddle the Blair straighter by pushing my inside leg down and changing the paddle depth/ Exit angle.  There are several threads on StandupZONe about this and these have helped me.

Float is a really subjective thing.  there is a balance between riding an overly thick board - or a corker and a waterline board.  I personally like having the water right near the deck pad with some water slosh.  Sort of strange but after time and balance work, this gets pretty stable.  Both the Laird and Starboard were waterline for me also...

Maybe others can share on there experiences on going to a shorter board?  When we go shorter do we go for the board that feels right immediately or should we get something that we skill into.

On Sunday I went out on a friends 10'1 Blair that was a 4 1/2 thick / 30 wide and made for a 190-200 pounder.  I did it just to see if I could handle it.  At 260, the board was at my ankles but I was able to submarine it out and around the lineup.  I felt like a kook, I fell a few times and was exhausted in 30 minutes but it was a complete challenge again, like the first time on a stand up board.  Despite the challenge,  I really enjoyed the three waves that I caught and once I was going, the board popped up and rocked.

[Tony DaKine]

I started out with an 11'9" Angulo. At 31 inches wide it was very stable and was a good board to get the fundamentals down.

Although my daily riders are a custom PSH 10'6" x 28 7/8" and a production PSH 10'x27, I've paddled the production PSH 9'2"x27 and Blane's 9'1" Mind Blower.

When stepping down to a smaller board, I felt like I had to work a lot harder for a few sessions until my body learned to adapt. I like that feeling though and one of the reasons I bought the 10'x27" was so I could master that and ride pretty much anything afterwards because it's very tippy for a 220 pound guy.

My personal preference for a downwind/small wave board is to ride high in the water but for a pure surfing board, I like a lot of water washing over the deck. I'd probably say that if I was absolutely still in flat water, I'd want the water come up to about a centimeter below the deckline.

Another thing I noticed is when you go short, say shorter than 10' you start to get a lot more front to back instability and your sweet spot gets much smaller. It's one of the reasons why I like the way Blane cuts holes in his deckpad where he stands and replaces with different grip pad. You can get up on your board and find the sweet spot so much faster.

 

[MichaelF]

I went out yesterday am on a custom 10'6 joe Blair that I have been using for two months and had a great session in 2-4 foot waves.  In the afternoon, I was having a ding repaired on the custom and I decided to  take out my 12'1 laird board that I had not been out in months. 

Unreal the difference.  I still caught some nice waves but I had to work so hard to push into the cutbacks and it was huge chore to turn.  The length made it almost impossible to turn quickly in the surf zone and into waves.

Also, while the laird goes straighter on the padde, takeoff were much easier and glide almost as good on the shorter Joe Blair.  Less than two feed of difference but what an entirely different experience.

[toejammer2]

Hello all!
I have been riding my 9'11 Blair 29.5 wide quad fin since the end of Nov. I had been riding an SOS Big Red for about 8 months. I thank S.O. for giving me stoke  with his shaping skill. However, since I've been surfing since '72, the shortboard revolution is still in my blood. I hopped on my Blair expecting the worst  in terms of stability(I'm 5'11, 180 lbs and wear a fullsuit with booties) but was really quite shocked that the darn thing was quite stable (glad it was still 29.5"wide!)Punching through waves with the pointer nose was actually much easier than the Big Red.  Paddling distances is not my focus. I wanted a wave rider and I got it. Its nice to be able to feel like I'm making a cranking bottom turn with the ability to get alot of speed from roller coasters. I still need to stick my paddle in the face at the bottom of small to medium sized waves, but on bigger sets I've come close to non paddle supported surfin. Last week I hopped back on the Big Red out of curiosity:

-The 12' Big Red seems to be much harder on my knees (old windsurfing injury) due to much more board to whip around.
-The Blair 9'11" feels like it paddles faster and easier, but Big Red wins hands down in glide once you get it going. Also, of course the Blair is much more fun and looser on waves but there is much to be said for the long distance you can ride ankle biters on the B.R. Hmm...lets see..cross step to the nose...cross step back to the tail for a drop knee turn-its simply a different type of surfin. shortboard vs. longboard style
-I can't see ever going back to a longer board after the Blair. Yes its a challenge but I think it is a natural evolution-  easier turns and tons of potential to make moves that have been out of reach all these years of prone surfing in marginal n. calif conditions with tons of peeps out all the time. I see a roundhouse cutback and nice off the lip in my future.
A BIG SIDE NOTE....If you sail MAKE SURE you buy a SUP with a mastrack i.e. S.O.S and Blair come with them. OMG! I have been able to wave sail our local surf spot-smooth green righthanders that fire down the beach in the spring/early summer/fall with my Big Red in side off conditions. Unfortunely B.R. seems to be a dog in onshore storm sailing-no problem! the Blair quad although not that fast totally gives me access to waves, jibes on the face and "skateboards" on the face of waves. I was so totally unexpectedly stoked. I can't wait to try it in side off conditions!
Have Fun!