my experience with the short Starboard boards

[cammar]

I'm 155 (70kg) and lately I had the chance to test a couple of short starboard boards (all in clean knee to waist high surf).

I'm blown away by how well these guys seem to have figured out these shapes.

I had three sessions on the pocket rocket 8.5x30 and here's what I feel like pointing out:
- very stable at that size
- super loose
- overall very fun

Then I had one session on a 7.4x29.5. The balance was a bit more challenging, but still not bad at all.
The board doesn't move much when you paddle (just like a regular shortboard), so you need to take off in a steeper section of the wave. But once on the wave... oh my. Thanks to the aid of the paddle, I was able to achieve turn radiuses and cutbacks that I still can't quite get on my regular shortboard (I started shortboarding one year ago, so I'm still a novice in this area).

Soon I should be able to try a 7.11, which I think it's a better match for my weight/ability and I'll report my impressions here.

Just one more thing: after those four sessions, I took out my Kazuma 9.3x27.5 and here's what I feel like reporting as a comparison: unnecessarily unstable.
The board had a lot more drive, but in knee to waist high summer waves (south shore of maui has softer waves than north shore winter waves), drive is more of a bad thing than a good one.

Cheers.

PS. Dave Kalama's secret spot revealed here: http://mauisurfreport.blogspot.com/2010/06/dave-kalamas-secret-spot-revealed.html

[Chan]

Glad you had some fun ones cammar.  I notice you didn't reveal your secret spot.  You should come do a Maliko run with us this afternoon.  It has been so fun this week.  Hope to see you soon.

[cammar]

Hi Chan,

my secret spot was just as secret as Dave's... Lahaina breakwall at its best with clean chest high sets and moderate crowd. With my Rusty Piranha 6.6 I was all over the place. Very, very fun.

I missed the Maliko run. I chose to go back south, but of course the onshore breeze was on it and it sucked.

I got a Starboard 6.6x30 on my car. Stay tuned for the report on that. Cheers.

[noa]

Hi Giampaolo,
first of all it's good to see you back and active on the forum, been a while. i'm also glad you're enjoying paddlesurfing again. 
thanks a lot for the board reports. as you see from my threads in the gear section, i'm in the market for a board.
my selection so far is either from Starboard the 7'11 or 8'5 pro. and from Naish the Nalu 9'.
up until recently i had an aversion to the short/wide philosophy that Starboard abide to and was much more inclined to go the longer/narrower option bringing me to the Nalu 9'.
that was until i tried a friend's Starboard Converse 9' and was very pleasantly surprised. that one is still a little too big and chunky for my taste, but i'm starting to think that one of the shorter models would be just what i need.
we're the same weight and our waves here in Crete are usually weak (mediteranean waves, although on occasion we get some gems you would not believe) so again i think the Starboard style would suite these conditions better.
any advice would be greatly appreciated. enjoy the summer waves and please say hello to your old 12' Timpone for me, what a legend of a board.

[Weasels wake]

PS. Dave Kalama's secret spot revealed here: http://mauisurfreport.blogspot.com/2010/06/dave-kalamas-secret-spot-revealed.html

Loved that clip, saw it right after you first posted it, I also liked the custom sail clips that you ran with Hot Sails Maui, I was the one who suggested the venetian blind panel,,,,, yeah,,,,,, I know.

Cheers yourself 

[cammar]

Cheers Noe and Weasels.

Right, it's been a while... I have to thank my foot injury for that and it might be just a temporary return of the flame...
I still like regular surfing better, but just yesterday I unfortunately found out that the kicking when catching a wave on a shortboard doesn't feel the best, so I will have to stay away from it for a bit longer.
So now I'm left with regular longboard or standup... that'll make for more standup sessions.
This morning I'll pick up a 7.11 and test it over the weekend, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, here's the report on the 6.6x30.
The balance was a bit more challenging than the 7.4, but still not too bad! I was really surprised by that.
Compared to the 7.4, the 6.6 moves even less when you paddle and you have to take off even more steep/deep. I think I was taking off in spots in which I would have been with my regular 6.6 surfboard!
So the SUP advantage of catching the wave earlier is completely gone with this board.
You still have the better visibility, but not so much the speed of paddling towards the peak faster (guys on regular boards were paddling as fast as me).
Plus you have to be quite careful at putting the board in the right position so that with the last couple of strokes on one side it will end up in the right angle with the wave. The board does tend to turn quite a bit when you paddle on one side only.

On the wave the boards is clearly super-extra loose. The use of the paddle allows for sharp cut backs, slashing tail slides and everything that your skill will allow you.
I did have the feeling to be riding on the lid of a styrofoam cooler though...

In the end, even though I had a lot of fun testing it, and while I wouldn't mind AT ALL to own the other two small ones that I tried so far (8.5 PR and 7.4), I would not buy this board. Too much struggle for the fun. Maybe for lighter persons or kids. Or maybe for better surfers than me!

One more note: just like the 7.4, it had the blue touch finish. I'm not a fan of it. It's more slippery than the pad (or wax) and if you fall often (and I did a lot of that with the 6.6) it may give a rash on your belly (unless you wear a shirt, of course) and on your knees.

[noa]

very interested to hear your impressions on the 7'11. enjoy the ride and keep us posted...

[PilonSUP]

Thanks cammar..

[PonoBill]

Damn, now EVERYONE is going to know about Lauiopoko and it's towering offshore reef break. Next thing you know the tow-in sleds will be everywhere.

[cammar]

So, I got to try the 7.11 that I thought was going to be the perfect board for my needs.
I have a very positive feedback for it, but not a 10/10.
At my weight and ability, the board is plenty stable. So stable that I felt that I had some unnecessary width under my feet. Sat afternoon, a light onshore breeze picked up around lunch time (before glassing off again at 4pm), and that's when I appreciated the width, instead. Can someone come up with a system for variable width, please? Like a couple of little amas that automatically retract when the board is on the wave...

Whenever the board is in the pocket it reacts beautifully. It rides like a short mini malibu and it's really fun.

The only time in which I wasn't super happy, was on a non particularly steep section that had to be pumped in order to race down the line because another section ahead was getting steeper (many waves like that at 1000 peaks).
In this particular situation, the board felt kind of slow and lacking the ability to accelerate and gain speed pumping on the rail.
I tried and tried again all six hours (two sessions! of Saturday to get that down, but I didn't manage to. And I didn't remember having the same feeling with the 7.4.
Overall I had a blast, but without the feeling of having found a magic board.

So Sunday I did two things:
1) I replaced the stock 19cm (7.5") Starboard center fin with a smaller 6 inches one
2) I picked up the 7.4 again to compare it on the same day/condition

I got in the water with the 7.11 and the 6 inches fin and even though it was a little better, I still wasn't happy about the "pumpability" of the board. After an hour I switched to the 7.4.
The increased slowness while paddling and need of a steeper take off (missed the first couple of waves) initially concerned me, but as soon as I tuned my take offs and rode a couple of good ones I was again overly stoked.
This board has a full-on shortboard feel and I could pump the rail in any conditions.
It just felt more responsive, turnier and more fun overall.

I wonder if that has to do also with the fact that the 7.4 had the Star Touch finish (no pad). IMO in fact, being a soft medium between your feet and the board, the pad introduces a latency time between the moment when you put some pressure and the moment when the pressure is applied to the board. Not only that, but it probably absorbs part of the pressure too.
I would have loved to try a 7.11 with no pad to see if I was right...

The balance on the 7.4 is for sure a bit of a challenge, but it's incredible how at the end of the test I was already more at ease on it.
It's a board that fits better my style and my natural (late) evolution towards shortboards.
It might not be the best winter board (you never know!), but right now it's summer and I don't even know if I will be alive by the time it's winter (that's my outlook on life). My slowly healing foot doesn't allow me to do regular shortboard surfing yet (can't kick when paddling), so it's the board I need... NOW.

Time to start the price negotiation... (won't report on that).

Photo of Saturday morning session in this post on my blog: http://mauisurfreport.blogspot.com/2010/06/harsh-board-test.html

[noa]

Hmmm, interesting. Not exactly what I was hoping for however.
Do you think the slugishness of the 7'11 has to do with it's rocker line ?
Would the 8'5 pro be better (although it's meant to be the same shape as the
7'11 just bigger) ?
I also think the stock  fins on it are a little too big. Did you find any other differences
in it when you replaced the center fin ?
Of course, thanks for all these reviews.

[Sup-position]

Looks like an early production Candy 711 still with the handle on rail.
Pre Honeycomb Fins.
Did you try different side bites?
I have found it makes a huge difference
in speed generation pumping down the line.
Also the center fin makes quite a difference
in the performance of the board when making those cranking turns
and holding in steep sections.

I used Future Vector Foils (special bases) and a 8-1/2" Cut-away.


www.Sup-position.com
Huntington Beach, California, USA

[NiclasC]

Hi everyone,

I'm new, but as an avid reader of GP's blog I found me way here.

GP, the 7'4" sounds much like the AHD Sealion, doesn't it?! Can you perhaps compare the two? I know you've sailed one. Have you SUP'ed it as well?

Unfortunatly I have no waves (south east in Sweden, Europe) without lots of wind and therefore my Sealion doesn't get used in waves comparable to the south shore. However I've paddled it in flatwater and 1' chop and it sounds very much like how you describe paddling and taking off with the 7'4" and 6'6". Would be really interesting to hear about any similarities/differences.

Starboard 7'4":
Length: 225.6 cm
Width: 29,5" / 75 cm
Tail Width: 18" / 45.7 cm
Thickness: 4.2" / 10.7 cm
Volume: 111 liters

AHD Sealion 7'6", http://www.a-h-d.com/news/boards/sealion/
Width: 29,1" / 74cm
Length: 232cm
Tail width: Swallowtail, 23,4" / 59,5cm OFO
Volume 135 liters
Weight: 8,5kg
Fins: 2 x 18cm

[cammar]

Noa,
I guess my report on the 7.11 sounded a bit too negative. I didn't give it a 10, but I would still give it a 9!
Its "bad luck" was that right before I tested it, I tested the shorter 7.4 and 6.6.
If I didn't take those boards out first, it would have probably been a 10! It's all relative...

I thought about the rocker too and roughly measured it on the beach: the 7.11 and the 7.4 have pretty much the same amount of rocker (and the same amount of V in the tail). Not an accurate measurement (I did it with the shaft of the paddle), but still an indication that there's not much difference there.

IMO, the difference is in the size. Even my beloved 8.6 Town&Country Rapoza (best board I've ever ridden, still laying in two pieces in my garage) would not pump and accellerate as fast as a whatever shitty sub 7 board.
Smaller boards are easier to pump, turnier and more reactive. That's why last year I decided to start shortboard surfing (good luck with that at age 46!) and face a whole universe of disantvantages.
The 7.11 is a bigger board than the 7.4, that's it (unless Ralph is right with the fins).
I would NOT recommend you to get a 7.4, unless you're happy to limit your session to perfect glassy conditions only (which is pretty much what I'm going to do. If it's choppy, I'll take my regular 9.0 out).

Ralph, yes it's a handle on the side (which is not the best) version with no honey comb fins. I do have a couple of 4.5 honey comb side fins and if I take it out again I might try those (or some smaller FCS GX). Will let you know.

Niclas, the volume difference will tell you that the Sea Lion is a WAY easier board to balance on.
Look at the tails and you'll understand how on the wave, the Starboard is, IMO, way better than the Sea Lion. I was never able to master rail to rail cutbacks on the Sea Lion (even though I saw Bruno doing plenty), instead it's super easy to do them on the 7.4.
Also because of the different rocker line. I didn't write down the measurement, but I remember the Sea Lion having a pretty straight rocker line (that's why it planes so easily when sailed in flat water).
In other words, the 7.4 is more of a surfboard. The sea lion is more of a sailboard. My 2c.

Kilo Nalu buoy shows 1.5 feet at 16 feet from the Tasman Sea (that in Maui translates in very inconsistent knee to waist high). I might have to go again this morning before I take my car to the mechanic (it started going on three cylinders yesterday evening).... hope I make it!

[NiclasC]

I meant that paddling them, i.e. the twitching and turning for each stroke, would be similar.
I'm not sure about the straight rocker. It depends on where it actually starts and whether the rocker line is curving all the way or not. I agree, the Sealion is straight the last bit, but what makes it so extremely turny then? Must be a short rocker? I noticed I really had to climb really far back to get it planing, which felt weird. And when paddling, my, it gets going on almost no waves at all. But I guess that too should indicate a pretty straight rocker, if ever so short?!

Ah well, hypothetical stuff anyway since the thread was about them starboards. I just thought that _maybe_ it could be an interesting test. And just maybe, the 7'4" could do with a windsurf rig if stronger built and/or straighter rocker.