LAIRD EPS Surfers

Ooh Ah! This is one fun board!

With all the hype around last week and only being able to paddle Lairds boards on flat water I was itching to see how the boards felt on a wave.

I took the 9'6 x 28 7/8" for a spin this morning in 2-3' beachies to see if it lived up to the hype.

There is a lot going on under the bonnet of this board with its 'fine' pin tail, quads that clustered like they want to morph into each other and a massive single concave up front, under a rather large, potato-crisp-thin nose.

I will write a review after a few surfs but in a word or two - Fun, fast and very stable. This board was a real surprise!

Hopefully we will also have the 10' and 10'6 to demo next week

Yeah I think so Towny. There is a bit of magic going on with this board. It is amazing how different shapers interpret, resolve and balance out the different performance characteristics of a board. You can really tell when a shaper knows what they are doing. I didn't nose ride this board I was having to much fun slapping the lip, but hey, that nose is begging for two people up front!

I have a custom 10' version of this, shaped by Bob Pearson in California.He shipped it to Hawaii where I picked it up. It is without a doubt the best longboard sup I have ridden.Perfect noserider. Blair you're welcome to have a ride on it next time I'm up your way. I'm hoping Ross has some demos for me soon.

Are they the same as the Surftech Laird Pearson Arrow shapes or have they been tweaked a bit?

Sweet looking board... I had bailed on my longboard search, because I realized I didn't want to ride big boards anymore.... SUP's are all sort of big boards to begin with.... but that looks pretty tasty

I love the crispy thin nose and the concave..... and the quads look right.... My last prone longboard had close knit quads... worked great..... in the tail shot with the board leaning left.... you can visualize it carving a sweet turn.

How's the weight on it?

Can't wait to have a go of the 9'6" or so. Admittedly, I would go back to a tri fin setup, which would be the better option for noseriding? It would be so sweet to ride a board that you could consistently hang five or even ten on.

Where do I see these?

AA I surfed the 11' yesterday and it was the most stable 30" wide board I have ever been on

Paddles well, the waves were little A frames (totally the wrong board for it (well with me on it )) and I actually managed to hang some face (briefly)........keen to try it with a big single fin Graffitsup has it right I reckon

Would be keen to demo the 10'6 when you get one in stock

Greg

I was under the impression that Laird had parted company with Surftech and that these new boards are made by swiss company Nidecker, you can see their logo on the pad & underside of the nose, which explains why the dims are slightly different (further refined) from the previous Surftech dims.

I had the 10'6 & 10' Surftech versions, the 10'6 was great, but for the beach breaks I surf I found it too long and ended up preferring my Allwave 8'10 & 8'6.

The 10' was faster than the 10'6 but didn't turn so well I found, I preferred the 10'6 - great for long noserides!

Here's a couple of clips of welshman 'Guts' Griffiths on the 10'6 in case you haven't seen them :

There has been a bit of swell around Sydney this last week so it wasn't hard to get out try some boards!
I have been lucky enough to score 3 memorable sessions on the Laird 9'6 HP EPS Surfer.

BEACHIES
First chance to try this board was in 3-4' beachie's last week.
Peaky waves, bumpy conditions, light winds. It was your typical mid-tide beachie, fat out back, sucking inside.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Wow, this board is fun! I like a board that you can just hop on and not have to second guess. This board is refined and well balanced. I was pumped after this surf (which is why I started the thread).
Smack, smack, smack this board loves coming hard off the bottom and hitting the top.... even managed a rare floater. Woohoo

THE PEAK.
A few days later the swell was up a bit from the south and I turned up at our local break with the northern peak feathering 4-6' out back between 3' lulls. I had only packed my Naish 8'2 X32 hoping for some sucky walls but when I saw the peak wanting to break I realised that maybe I should have put the Laird on the roof! What I needed was a bit of length and glide to pick up the sets further out. Yep, the decision was made to drive away and get the LAIRD. Something I didn't regret.

The stand out's in this session:
1. The board takes the bigger drops with ease. The refined, pulled in tail allows the board to comfortably hold a rail at speed.
2. At first the nose was daunting on the bigger take offs. I have been riding pulled in noses for the last 4 years and to get back on a full nose and take decent drops took a bit more commitment. Think Laird, I say - just charge it! It worked!
3. At 4" the board sits a lot lower in the water than my near 5", Naish X32. The thinner board does enhance stability except when there is a bit of water moving around, which there was this day. With the whole board sitting lower in the water the board is more prone to water movement.

The glide of this board was a stand out. When the rogue set appeared I had a frantic paddle to get out wide and into position. The reward was a screaming set all the way to the beach. Ooh yeah! Loving that bit of length to pick up the big ones and the confidence to lay down some high speed turns.

SCREAMING WALLS.
There is a special place north up north that only breaks every 6-8 weeks, if the tide, wind and precise swell direction come together.
Earlier this week it was on. I arrived to a mill pond, but paddled out to 4-5' sets between the lulls!

Once again this board just did its thing. It was easy to get into the long period swells and it loved coming off the top on my back-hand.
This was the perfect board for this break that will reward you with 300m rides if you have the board to carry your speed through the fat sections and race around the closeouts.
The board handled long walling fast sections with ease, and generate a real squirt off the bottom.
The only trade off for me this day was the wide nose. With a 12 knot off-shore wind coming up the face it made it extra hard to get into the smaller waves that didn't have a the push of the sets.
The nose came into its own though when getting around the fat sections, this board nose rides with ease. You can camp all day up there if you want!

SO IN A WORD - FUN!

In a few more words......

RELIABLE: Its just an easy reliable board that handles a range of conditions from small beachies to peaks and long walls. Beyond that the full nose would get caught up in steep sucky drops and hard cut backs.
Keen to try the 9'6 Hybrid in these conditions!

GLIDE: This boards paddles well. The straight outline where you stand and the big concave up front combine to make this a board that has good glide for its size.

FAST: The quad set up on the Laird is notably fast. It continued to surprise me, making sections that looked un-makeable.

VOLUME and STABILITY: This board is stable for its size. The nose stability is noticeable and plays a big part in overall stability. 125L is plenty for me at 90kg, but I reckon the 9' at 120L could be a handful in bumpy conditions for my weight.

PERFORMANCE: The 9'6 is just so lively- it rips like a high performance Mal and wants to squirt and turn as soon as you step back. As it is Mal styler board I would prefer the comfort and stability that 9'6 offers.

CONSTRUCTION: I tested the HP or high performance model. It is light and as mentioned came with 'custom' foot wells. The Wood Veneer composite board is a tad heavier and would offer more durability.
The word from the distributor is that his DEMO boards are from the first batch a few months ago that came in a bit soft. He has assured us that all HP EPS boards being shipped out now are a lot harder and more durable.

Balmoral Paddlesurf will have demo boards in later this week so we can see for ourselves!
- 9'6 Hybrid Demo
- 10' Wood Demo
- 10'6 x 30 Demo
- 10'6 x 32 Demo

For me the weight saving and classic look of the HP EPS boards is a winner

I like a board that I can just hop on and it goes. There is no second guessing this board. It is refined at every turn and to be honest is hard to fault. It wasn't easy but I reluctantly handed it back yesterday. I have caught some of the longest, sickest walls in a long time on this board so it is hard to not feel a warm glow of affection towards it.

Grab one and see for yourself! AA

That 10-0 is sick

AA, what size quads are on that 9'6"?

Thanks for the feedback on the review guys and all the enquiries. For those chasing, the Demo boards just landed today!



The wood laminate looks sweet and we can confirm that the HP EPS boards we received are significantly harder than the demo boards we tried last week.


10'6 x 32"

10' x 29 (and 10'6 x 30")

Bottom of Wood laminate board

Wood finish