first impressions of the naish maliko 26" dw er

first up I have taken to a style of paddling that I have got from beau and travis where your hands on the paddle shaft are a shorter distance apart which really pulls your board along but is very punishing on the quads and gluts blah blah blah
those guys are iron men.





so Im not looking to rounded bottom boards as that's just more taxing on top of what im already getting. sure I know a lot love that type of rolled bottom.

so the full rail double concave wide planning type nose gets my attention straight away every time.

I dig these kind of dw board shape


i dw from Tugun to the alley and I missed the best wind picking up the board. a bit of a shame. still enough to work with though

boards stable with a bit there to get it going and keep it interesting. sound confusing but I could keep it even or tilt it at will.

very comfortable to use

I had the nose a bit under a few times without realizing pushing for some bumps. I can say I felt no difference


. once on a bump the board glides super good so connecting becomes a treat.

I also like the rocker where you can step back to slow things down and then press forward and the speed comes on.

I reckon that's a very good feature. some take off and there no slowing it so you end up out running every thing- stop/ start stuff.

I seemed to be finished before I knew it with out using much effort. I felt ripped off and wanted to go again immediately.


l wanted the 24" version but couldn't get one so took the 26" until some more 24" boards arrives with the plan of giving this one back.


but im pretty sure ill keep it for big, or long, or north dw runs and still get the 24" too.

naish are on a good thing here I believe


thxs to surf fx for helping me out

cheers

Good review lace.
Ive only paddled it in flat water and chop haven't DW it yet but the brissy guys who have DW it rate it very highly.. A very easy board to dw though quick.. Also everyone's raving how quick it is on flat... Could be a good one board quiver for most people.

How do you find the weight of it ? Compared to ur custom dc's of late ??

LACE I assume you got it out again today for a another run.. how is it stacking up??

Well, in fairness to Naish, you are not comparing like with like when you compare the 26" wide Maliko to an Ace. The 25" wide Ace is really 24" wide when measured using real inches not the fantasy ones that Starboard has created for themselves.

And the other thing: how many people really have the skills to stay on an Ace when the bumps get above knee-height, and there is a mix of swells, especially for over an hour? So I don't know what your DW conditions were like, but I'd hope that the Maliko would get closer to the Ace, or actually be faster for most people, as conditions get more festive.

Mind you, downwinding (unless you are in a race) is not really about (average) speed anyway. That's like measuring the success of a surf session by how far you travelled: There probably is some kind of relation overall, but you can't reliably infer one from the other, and if distance travelled became your main aim of a surf session you really would have missed the point.

But of course for overly competitive types, matters of style and enjoyment mean nothing compared to arriving at the end point first (and thereby spending as little time as possible on the course, even if it means pain, and essentially downwinding alone and where one can't look out for your mates).

update. got a close to 20 knot short dwer in after work.

today I stood right back and move forward when I had to.
board went really well and my mate I seemed to spend a lot of time in a surf stance not paddling much.
he reckons this is the best 14 ive been one. he paddles a 17.4 bullet.

very enjoyable board to use. pace was very good and probably the most even graph line ive ever none according to gps.

so what we got is a stable surfing style dw that at 26 " in the case of this board, that is fast too


my other boards are 24 inch so I can hardly wait for the 24 inch version. unfortunately it doesn't come till December.

I can say the 26' version is a piece of cake to use


cheers

ok . another run today in se winds.

unfortunately the swell kicked in and made every thing a bit up and down so our times compared to yesterday were bad.

yet we got a lot of rides


I had a good time of it riding bumps until we hit flatrock, vikings and the alley rocks were the swell at gthat size bounces back and made it difficult to get anything to happen.

within a minute it happened- links to short one offs

yes my mate with the bullet loomed up from behind. I didn't have to look . I could hear his board bashing through with the weight and momentum and the steering the bullet has.

hard work for me but I wasn't falling or anything, still stable.

as soon as I got level with the alley I was off again

thinking about it later I should have gone inside a lot earlier so I wouldn't have to cut against all that stuff.

so I love the board but im thinking its not as good in uneven messy. but then again not many boards are.


actually I gave my mate ago for a bit and he loved it. mentioned how agile and well it turned and the off the mark go