I tried out the Hobie 12'6 from Stand Up Paddle Perth. Straight away I was amazed with the stability of the board. The designer states that the concave section through the middle of the bottom of the board gives the stability of a board nearly an inch wider - I'm not sure how they worked that out, but the board is very stable and narrow at 28.9". The thing that impressed me most was the way it performed on a downwinder - Fremantle has a short chop, not much width in between troughs, a board will plough straight into the wave in front, so foot work is important (not my personal strong point). The nose on the Hobie is quite full and combined with the gentle rocker it floats up out of the wave, rather than penetrating it. The sunken deck adds to the security of stability as well as a great connection to the board.
I was expecting the downwind performance to compromise its flat water speed...I was wrong. The nose of the board defects the bow wave in a similar way to a displacement nose - think Bark or fanatic, but it's not a displacement nose. I found I had to stand a little forward to achieve this, which meant that the tail was slightly out of the water (<10mm) - which I wasn't too sure about - you can't have it all I guess.
Anyway, I was so impressed I got the 2012 model in Bamboo/carbon and ...seafoam green! It looks awesome and very well constructed. I remember one of the guys from Australia II explaining that her decks were painted green as they researched the colour that created least glare when reflected by the sun - a white board can be a bit hard on the eyes when you are staring at the nose for an hour or so! The bamboo construction is more durable and resists compression, it is also lighter and looks great.
They have also put non skid on the deck behind the deck pad - which is a great idea - reduces weight (having a long deck pad) and allows for easy drainage. They have also provided 2 leg rope mounts in front of the carry hole to put an elastic cargo strap or if you want to mount your leg rope forward in a downwinder.
The buoyancy in the new model must be less than the 2011, as this board now sits flat in the water..........looks like you can have it all!
Hi Greg,
Nice one, I have a few pics too which I will add. You now have me curious for the 12'6" Hobie for the Doctor. I'll be paddling it this week in the next downwinder to see if it goes any better than the Fanatic 14 Ocean.
DM
Hey Goochie'
, where did you buy the Hobie from and did it come with the bamboo race fin?
Hi Liquid8
I bought the board from Stand Up Paddle Perth. Darren is great to deal with. The bamboo fin was from the previous 2011 model. The latest 2012 model comes with a Hobie Logger fin - looks like a wide Dolphin fin.
Cheers
Gooch
Have you had a chance to swap between the two fins to see which gives better tracking?
I have also bought two of these boards from Darren at AKS, I got a Aqua and a White one. I have found that the dolphin style fin it comes with only allows for about 5-6 strongish paddles before having to swap sides in order to maintain almost straight tracking.
They are great boards though very well made and strikingly beautiful. I am down from Kununurra (recently moved) and after surfing for 20 years I needed to get back in\on the water and in Kununura there is almost always no wind and perfect glassy freshwater lagoons and 70kms of the Ord River to paddle down stream on, absolute magic.
I am in Gracetown Mrgaret River at the moment and have had some surreal afternoon paddles in Cowaramup Bay between South point and North Point. The dolphin fin seems to work well in the ocean, with the Hobie proving to be a highly stable and versatile board that you can easily catch the waves at Huzzas on.
I wonder what sort of fin shape might improve flat water paddling?
I found the bamboo fin, being much deeper, seemed to be more stable in chop and side on sea. It also was looser, which I think is due to its slim outline. Tracking wise I felt both were similar. I had both fins right aft in the fin box.
The trick with this board it seems is to stand forward in flat water, just til the water breaks off the nose. The sides are quite rounded, which is where tracking suffers vs a sharper edged board, but it improves significantly when the nose is engaged - increasing your overall waterline length. It's a great all round board in this regard.
If I may add- be aware of your board balance. I find the edge digging in on the side your paddling will steer you away from your paddle side. Pressure thru the opposite foot should allow you to paddle 8-10 strokes on one side.
Beautiful boards - the blue and white must look great!
Hope that helps
Cheers
Hi Guys,
I took the 12'6 Hobie Race out for a downwinder this afternoon. Wind was 18-25 knots from SSW and the chop/swell very SW.
This was the first 12'6" I have downwinded on and it felt really short. Stepping back a foot behind where I would normally stand made it much easier to get used to. The fin I used was a FO Weedster 230 which in hind sight was a bit small and heavily raked.
The board was very forgiving and I only had 4 falls in 8km as opposed to many more on the 14'er I rode last DWer. The rounded rails allowed the board to side slip at times when pushed around by the cross chop and allowed it to fall into some runners.
I don't know if it was any quicker or slower in overall speed but if you count the lack of falls, it would have been much quicker. The nose does bury a bit in the back of the wave in front, a couple of well placed strokes and the nose pops up and starts planing staright as Goochi says.
I had some absolute cracking runs and the Hobie felt much easier to control and very loose. I had no problem paddling cross wind out to sea and in fact had to regularly paddle on the left to keep going downwind. I think a fin change may help this and would likely make the board a bit faster.
I'll change fins for the next ride and will also try the Hobie 14'er. Overall, really happy with the DW performance.
DM
