hey guys
recently picked up a new 2017 sb pro 8'5 x 29 x 112l in starlite. I've been supping for appx 6 months after initially surfing and then an archillies snap which has now allowed me to surf for the past year. 70kg.
First impressions:
after coming off an 8'6 x 31 x 121l board I thought this might've been a step too far. 2" more narrow and a lot more 'short-boardy' shape. Especially after reading reviews that the 2017 pro was far less stable than the 15/16 year models
i jumped on and it felt fine! Yes it is more reactive and agile but stability wise, it actually feels more adept to changing/ countering balance and I actually come off less on this board than my old wider, longer and higher volume board. It's quite interesting.. I've been out on it for about 4hrs now in both smooth and choppy conditions and only come off twice through my
own accord.
To ride:
like my sb pocket rocket, this felt naturally intuitive- right away. It felt like riding a surfboard again and was more than happy to glide down the line or stand on the rail and engage the tail. I could pick up more small waves than the longboarders and also pick up the bigger ones before the shortboarders. The stock thruster set felt good and nice to set up a bottom
turn. I tried it as a quad yesterday with extra small trailing fins (4.5 on the front) and it felt average. Didn't have noticeably more speed or looseness and I lost some of that pivot from the thruster that I was liking.
i've only tried on waves knee-head (maybe slightly overhead) and it feels good all over. Started getting some spray on re-entries with the quad yesterday and handled some pretty late and hollow drops. Seems to have good glide / paddle speed too.
If anyone else has some quad suggestions for my weight I'm all ears? They worked better on my 8'6.
My only suggestion is a combination of the width / rail / rocker in the nose. Its quite easy to sink the side of the nose when taking off and I haven't had this on any other boards I've ridden. I think the nose needs to be widened slightly to give better planing when taking off and keep it from slicing under the water. It seems quite hard to recover from any slight pearling whereas the nose pops back out on waves from my other boards with slightly wider / fatter / rounder rail noses.
hopefully going to try it in overhead conditions tomorrow
I recognise that garage...did you get permission to post that pic...haha. Congrats on the new stick - sounds like you've made the right call.
IMO, pearling is inevitable on performance orientated boards until you get them fully dialled...which only comes with time on the water. I initially struggled with this on my Insane (I still do when it's choppy) but I wouldn't change the nose for anything. The whole point of a pulled-in nose is to offer more performance (less swing weight) on the wave so give it time dude...it will click
For the pulled-in nose, the trick is that your front foot (and especially your front heel) must be closer to the stringer than with wider boards. Having feet wide apart on each side of the stringer works on wide boards but puts you off balance with paddle movements on narrower boards.
Also, with pulled in nose, you should have the nose a bit more up in the air, virtually "chopping off" the last 4"-6" part of the nose. This way you keep the tip of the nose as a kind of safety reserve to prevent pearling.
This said, I think full pointed noses are not worth it. Full squared noses are cumbersome and reduce performance, but a compromise, like a square nose 4"-8" at the tip gives you a hell more safety in drops while not really impacting performance. But this is important mainly for a 7' board. You will tame easily a 8'5"x29", especially with your 70kg. It may even feel huge after some time on the water :-)
