Paddling the Javelin.

[DavidJohn]

Pill.. Welcome to the Zone.. Here's some pictures that I took today.

Kristi was looking great on the Jav.. and what a beautiful day.

I did get a wave out on the main beach but I couldn't stay long.. I left before I got my hair wet..    

How could you fall off a 10' Mana in those perfect conditions..  

It was a bit cold and foggy when I left home and once the sun started to shine through the cloud I could see all these hot air balloons hovering over the city.

Those little orange dots are balloons.



It was a great sight as I got to Ocean Grove and I watched some great sets come through.



Looking south the beach seemed to go on forever.. the weather was perfect.



Phill, Kristi and I headed over to the inlet (Barwon Heads river) behind the main beach so she could test paddle the new Naish Javelin.



It was so glassy and the Jav looked fantastic waiting at the water's edge.











Kristi doing a little skipping warm-up.





Kristi knew within two strokes that the Jav is a very fast board.. As Phill and I watch he said "yeah.. It's quicker alright" just by watching.



Here's a few pictures of Kristi looking pretty good on the Javelin.















This is the fin that I'm now running on the Jav.. I think it's about a 9" fin and made by a local guy.. He makes beautiful fins.

DJ

[greatdane]

DJ, that looks very similar to the 9" fin I'm using on the Jav.  Sheds weeds a bit better than the stock Naish "dagger" fin and tracks great. 
Judging by the pics, Kristi weighs a LOT less than I do.  It would appear she barely changes the water-line of the board when she is on it
I thought I was going to race it yesterday, but had the date wrong... race is today and I'm at work... oops.

Great photos as usual.

[NickFL]

In the images it looks like she doesn't weigh enough to get the nose into the water but watching the video you can see she does get the nose into the water.  Looks fast.  Nice little area to paddle.

[DaveSmith]

Can anyone compare the 14' Naish Javelin to the 12' 6" Surftech Joe Bark Competitor on:
1. Sprint speeds.
2. Construction and durability.

[paddledaddy]

Hey DJ: Is the Javelin faster than the Naish 17' in flatwater or vice versa? How about in headwind chop? I would assume the 17' is much faster in all other regards. I am just thinking the Naish 17' might be a board that could be used for both downwind and local racing. I was getting ready to pull the trigger on a Starboard Surf Race as a board that could race or downwind but am afraid that it might be too tippy for me as described elsewhere on the zone. I would kind of like to reduce the number of boards in my fleet and having a board that can do two things well might let me do that. Hmm, so then the question is: Is the Naish 17' faster in a race situation than the K15? That sounds doubtful. Maybe I can't live with fewer boards.

[JonathanC]

Hey paddledaddy, sounds like you have the new board head spins!!!! I think the best thing you could do would be jump on a plane, come to Melbourne (you can stay in the spare room) and try out my K15 and Surf Race and DJ's 17 and 14 Glides until you can make a decision Seriously you would be very welcome!

I did a very rough down-wind run last weekend on the Surf Race and it turns out that the board I thought I couldn't fall off - I could fall off! In super choppy stuff it suddenly feels pretty tippy but still fast, awesome at catching swells and fun to ride them. Conditions were challenging and I'm pretty sure I would have been falling off the Glide 14 just as much.

DJ and I haven't done the back to back speed comparison between the K15 and the 17 Glide yet. The K15 is a superb cruising board as well as racing board, and surprisingly a real hoot in the light down-wind conditions I have tried it in, it actually has plenty of rocker and it's great fun to get back into surfing stance and blast down small faces. Looking forward to trying it in bigger stuff and seeing if it feels too big, actually think it will be fine, it's fun having that big nose pierce and just not cause the board to lose too much speed and come back up. It has this momentum on a face and will surge over the wave in front and get onto that wave, reminds me very much of the feel of 'admins' F18 that I did a Maliko on.

My gut feel is that the K15 would be faster on the flat than the Glide 17, that is only a guess though , but they are very different boards, if at all possible you really should try them before you make a decision. I just love the Surf Race, so versatile and 'nimble'.

Good luck with the decision making - the good thing is that all the boards you mentioned are great, just different....
   

[DavidJohn]

The 14' Javelin is defiantly faster than the 17' Glide in both flat water and paddling into the wind even with small headwind chop but once the headwind increases to the point it's getting very rough the 17 then becomes faster because it's so much more stable.. Also in real DW conditions the 17 is also faster and IMO the Javelin could not used in real DW conditions because it's too tippy and would not have enough rocker.. It's a real flatwater board.

I did a big paddle once with a friend on his SurfRace and me on the Jav and there didn't seem to be much in it but I seemed to be doing it easier and if we put the hammer down I'm sure the Jav is faster.. Another day we paddled with him on his K15 and me on my Jav and we were also pretty equal but again I'm sure the Jav is faster if we were to race.. Yesterday I paddled with a friend on his K15 and I was on my 17 in flat glassy water and there didn't seem to be much in it but again if we were to go hard at it I'm sure the 17 would be faster mostly because it's narrower.

It's sounding like I think Naish boards are faster than Starboard boards regardless but I don't mean it to sound like that.. Sure I'm a big Naish fan and only paddle Naish but they are very good for what they're designed to do.. I'm still not convinced that the SurfRace will make a great DW board.. Same with the K15.. But then they're both not designed for DW'ers.. I don't think you can beat the Naish 14 Glide for that.. In fact IMHO I think the 14' Glide is the best do it all race/DW/flatwater board out there.

Here's a few new pics.. and Jonathan's right.. It's a shame you're not here in Melbourne.. 

DJ









 

[greatdane]

I did our Wed. night surf ski/OC race loop last night in gusty conditions (10-15mph)...  I did it on my Javelin for the first time.  I covered the 3.52 mile loop in 38:08 which is 5.52mph.  That is damn near as fast as I can do it on my 18' Bark...  Now granted I could not have maintained that average for much longer, but pretty good speed for a 14 footer.

[paddledaddy]

It's very nice of you Ausies to offer and it would probably be cheaper to fly to Melbourne as you suggest than what I will probably spend on new boards, but I can't get the time off right now to go. Thanks also for letting me highjack this thread a bit. I guess my question has really become what is the fastest board at this, that, and the other thing? I should know the answer at least partially depends on who is on them. I currently own the Naish 12' glide, a K-15, and a 14 foot downwind board made by DW here on the zone, along with a number of more surf oriented boards. But, I can't stop thinking about going just a little faster. The 12' Glide is able to do a little bit of everything pretty well, but just isn't in the same class as the top boards for speed like the Naish 17', K-15, Surf Race, and dare I add another the SIC F16v2.The K-15 took me a bit to get used to but now I am enjoying it and going quite fast on it in flat water and chop, but it doesn't seem to fit my idea of a downwind board, maybe I should give that more time as well.  I keep thinking that there is a majic board that will downwind well and flatwater race well. So I don't have to own them all!

[Marksride]

IMO the Starboard Surf Race can do double duty. I recently won a flat water race on it and then did a smoking downwinder a few days later in 20-30 mph winds with 2-5 ft. swells and stayed out in front of an F-18 piloted by PonoBill. It's not as fast as the Javelin on flat water for sure, in a downwind run I am not sure. You need to be quick on your feet and under 190lbs to make it sing.

[Chan]

Hi Mark,

I tried that board for the first time this week.  I didn't get to spend too much time on it as we were all taking turns.  It's really fun.  The rocker feels similiar to a kayak and seems like it would be the ideal shape for gorge swells.  I'm looking forward to doing a few Maliko runs on one soon.

[noa]

I would be very interested to hear how the Starboard surf race does on a Maliko run.
Any idea how it would compare to a Naish glide 14' in a 20-30 knot downwinder ?

[JonathanC]

Hey Noa, did a down-winder with DJ and Pete both on 14 Glides and me on the Surf Race but it was pretty light maybe 15 to 20. Pete and I both went for it and he beat me by seconds - probably more to do with who got the last wave than speed of board.

Did a solo 25 knot downwinder last weekend, the Surf Race is certainly fast but IMO it's ultimately very hard for a shorter board to be as fast as a longer board in down-wind conditions everything else being equal.

I know that if I had been on an F16 I would have been faster. The thing about a down-winder that you need to keep in mind is the fun factor rather than the ultimate speed, sure an F16 may be faster than a Foote Maliko 14 for most folks (not Jeremy Riggs!)most of the time, but why then do people love their Foote Malilko's? Because it is so much fun to be on a surfing board that is light and nimble, that you can turn easily down a face through foot pressure and paddling and have to walk up and down to trim it. That is why I'm enjoying the Surf Race so much, it's lively and nimble and just seems to get sucked down tiny little swells like nothing I've ever paddled.

It is fun to race your friends on a down-winder but for me there is so much more to it than just getting to the beach first. I'd love to have a go on a Surf Race on a Maliko run, glad to hear there is one on Maui, hopefully some of the locals get to put it through it's paces, particularly Chan or Devin, I think they would just rip on it.

[noa]

Hi JonathanC,
you've hit the nail on the head and i absolutely agree with everything you say.
i actually see downwinding roughly going two ways. one will be the people that want to be as fast as possible from point A to point B and will use whatever gear serves that purpose best.
the other group (to emerge soon...) will be ridding shorter boards and will not be concerned with speed at all. their whole goal will be to surf the bumps as much as possible.
so instead of just catching one and going straight to catch the next one, it will be more like catch it, surf it, carve it as much as it will allow you and once done look for the next swell. it will more be akin to an actual surf session using open water bumps instead of waves close to shore.
what was your impression with the Surf Race in the 25 knots ? how was the low nose behaving ?

[JonathanC]

Hi noa,

The Surf Race was actually fine in 25 knots, seems to me the nose of that board always pushes a little water but somehow the thing is still really fast. Sure the nose went under plenty of times but didn't seem to slow the board down much at all, the funny thing is that I just can't remember what the nose was doing! It obviously wasn't a problem at all because I just didn't have to think about it, there is so much volume in the nose area it just doesn't go far under water. Of course if you took a really steep drop you could pearl it but I've got no where near that.

Also interesting to compare this board to the Naish 14, with my weight (145) the Surf Race has a very similar waterline length to the Naish because so much of the nose of the Glide is out of the water. Two totally different approaches to board design.

I've used the same analogy before in another post but I really relate the feel of the Surf Race to modern short skis compared to the longer thinner style of something like the Glide that is more like the older GS type skis. Both fun, but very different.