Okay guys this is my first gear review so go easy on me
Paddler Bio
28 year old male, intermediate surfer and downwind paddler, 186cm 93kgs.
Usually ride 11'2 Starboard blend, but have also ridden starboard 12.2, 10 x 34 whopper and 8.5 .
Board
Starboard the Pin 12'6 x 30 Tufskin construction.
Conditions
light south easterly wind 2 knotts, glassy water early morning Swan River Perth.
First Impressions
With much anticipation I finally got to demo the 12'6 Pin.
When I first jumped on it took me about all of 20 metres to adjust to the board. I played around a bit to see where the sweet spot was. Initially I was too far forward on the board and the nose was displacing too much to begin with. Later I actually liked shifting back and forward to switch between a more planning ride and a displacement one. As you can see from the photos it has an interesting displacement like front which is really good for cutting through wind and boat wake chop.
The rails are quite sharp towards the rear of the board and at first took a bit of getting used to when adjusting my paddling technique and stance.
The board glides really well and has a real nice smooth feel through the water.
It is not corky and you sit quite nicely above the water not too high not too low.
There actually is a fair bit of rocker on the board and I personally think this would make a good downwind board for small to medium conditions.
At 30 inches wide it is very stable.
Weight - the baord feels lighter than my 11'2 Sportech but cannot give you exact figures.
I took my Garmin Forerunner 405 GPS watch with me to record the route and speed, but as is my luck the Garmin site is being upgaded so cannot upload the GPS data, but will do so soon.
Overall very impressed by the board. Has enough versitility to be used on flat water, crusing and small to medium open ocean downwinders.
Would I buy one ...... as soon as I return this board I am leaving with another one but this time it will be mine.
Cons
Yawned a bit more than I expected (7-8 paddles either side which is the same as for my 11'2) but that may be because I use a very large fin on my 11'2 so would probably use the same on this one and would be even better
The tufskin construction is very durable but does get dirty quite easily, you can see finger print marks on the board which look tough to get out so I will be going with the Sporttech or Technora construction.
Cheers
Reagan (Zimbo)
