DEEP Oceanboards 7'2" Minion // Review

Well I'm back from the maldives and haven't really got a lot to add in the form of a review to what has already been said by others. But I have a few observations that might contribute to things moving along. Of course I have no decent photos as my lovely wife was always surfing, and then when she did some camera duty she thought the zoom issue could be corrected on the computer at home. So if anyone wants to see some footage of a surfing speck in the distance please do let me know. The South Africans and other Aussies are going to send me CDs of photos sometime soon.

I've ridden my 7'8"x28 1/4"x4 1/4" 110L minion for the last 5-6 weeks in everything from 1ft fat rubbish to 5ft walls, and with shapers fins, cdrives and several other combos. I reckon it is fair to say that with all the switching (including getting back on my starby 8'5" a bit for comparison) that I'm still dialling it in. My first couple of surfs were sensational but I have struggled to tune back into the speed I could generate since.

Fins
I have shapers S7 fronts and MGX 1 rears in it, with the darc drive. It's goes well, but I reckon I need S9s and larger rears to get it going better. Too slidey for me. Cdrives were great, but even after some engineering work I couldn't avoid the whiz zing sound in bottom turns that I think kicks in from the gap between the fin base (they're very long in the base) and the tail lift. It pushed thru bottom turns well but the sound gives you the sheets. I've put starby 4.5" rears in it and that seems to make it hang on a bit better

Getting it going
I'm a bit old school, as I learnt on a single fin and surfed thrusters my whole surfing time. As a result, I find it hard to jam it back on the tail, which is where you really need to be to get the best out of it. It's also hard in slightly fat waves for me to get myself right to the. Back of the board, with my back foot ending up just in front of the tail pad and not on it. I did find it best at Riptides, which is a pure fun peak with a wall on the right ones, not very round, and you could just go top to bottom off the lip or a hook and straight into another bottom turn. At kandooma, which is a lot quicker and down the line, I have to say my starby 8'5" was the best bet. Maybe it's the cdrives in it as a thruster, but it surfs those kind of waves so well. I just could not get the minion wound up like it and struggled to make a few waves that the starby would have made.

Paddling
What can I say? It paddles better than the 8'5" and people were amazed at what I could catch, and so was I. Its way more stable than it looks.

The only thing I would do differently is reduce the volume. I found and find the rails have too much foam for my weight, especially if there is any chop, and they pop out more than I'd like. It's also a little corky at 110litres, thought spends a bit of time with its backside underwater. Hopefully I'll be up for another next year and will look to thin it out and go a little narrower, maybe 27 1/2", around the 100-105 litre mark, to get the rails thinner

Look I could be wrong but I get the impression that a lot of the guys who are considering going the way of the Minion are being overly conservative in how big a board they wish to choose. My understanding is that these boards lend themselves to a different attitude in terms of volume and length and unless you get your head around this then there is really no point in going in this direction. These boards have a very different design to conventional sups and as such you simply cant look at volume from the perspective of the board that you are currently riding. In other words a 95 L Minion is very different to a 95 L normal sup simply due to the fact that the design principles are worlds apart. These boards are meant to be short and narrow. It comes with the parallel rail design which seemingly allows for a more efficient planing dynamic on a shorter board so strictly speaking you cannot compare these boards as they really are chalk and cheese. Its quite possible that riding a bigger Minion may be far less suitable to your needs than going for a much smaller version. More than anything I think these boards require an altered mindset which gives allowance to the potential that they have to offer.

Just my opinion of course.Ozzie

Yeah - it's tricky leap of faith for $2700 and at apparently 8kg they are pretty heavy for their size. Surfboard shapers are pretty old school in terms of using exotic materials and construction. The dudes at ASP Boards in Christchurch are making carbon 8' 5" x 29" 116L weighing in at 5kg! I'm interested to see what JP come up with as in another thread there was a photo of a prototype which looked like a Minion but I'm sure the JP would be much lighter but may cost more.

Yip the JP looked a nice minion type board but from what i understand wont be ready till 2016..proberly close to 3k ...be nice if someone was able to custom a minion type board in NZ. I know you can get customLSD shapes made up fron Nik at sup shed but id imagine they would be close to same dollars.
wow i thought the minion would be lighter than that.

Stevo im sure i read it in a post that they were more than likely going to be put out in 2016..i dont know this for sure sorry. I rode the 8"6 LSD flashback for a bit..enjoyed this board too. I see on Deep FB they are packing the container as we speak.

My DEEP Minion (7'2") is only 5.9kg - not sure if the ones heading to NZ are the same construction but you guys should check them out and see how light they are.