To anyone out there that either owns or has paddled/surfed the starboard pocket rocket, can you please share with me your thoughts on the board and if you don't mind also your age/weight/height/experience and any comparisons to other sups you have owned or ridden.
Thank hilly - had read that a while back. I read heaps of reviews form o/s and keep hearing how the board rocks and how its the biggest selling board in the world under 9ft and all the other hoopla but are all the reviewers 25 years old and fit and strong and weigh 65kg ? Thats stuff I want to know and I really want some honest advice - warts and all on the board and not just reviews written by test pilots for surf shops. If someone has bought one and hates it or its too small or whatever please feel free to PM me if you don't want to post your thoughts.
Happy to post here great board for smaller surf, I have ridden the 9 foot stinger at 105kg and that was amazingly stable and surfed well in the small stuff I had it on. Coreyb will respond soon I would say, he really likes his little starboard.
Sacrifice glide as they feel like a disk, but once you have been on it for a while it would be fine.
Demo it as surfing feel is really personal, there are lots of production boards around that length now. For me it would not be top of the list.
Hilly is right, I do love my Pocket Rocket.
I am a lightweight around the 65kg mark, Im 35 not 25 but would say I am fit.
I usually ride a shortboard and got into SUP to keep me motivated when the surf wasnt doing it for me. (Quite often these days)
The surf I ride most days is short and sucky.
I feel the less board going over the falls with me the better.
I think the extra ability to turn the smaller board once on a wave more than makes up for the lack of paddle power.
I have ridden it in surf pushing up to double over head and while it is a challenge, I find its the size of the board I have most trouble with. Trying to stop the bounce, I can only assume a bigger board would be harder? The board does feel small when out in bigger waves, but I think the extra bit of width helps.
I have compared it to a few other boards often back to back and still like it the best. It might be beacuse Im used to it, or because it really is the best.
Either way, Im not changing anytime soon.
Thats my two cents and only my opinion....
I weigh 87 kilos and over the hill age wise and came to Bali in June and wanted an all round board ..
Last year I went down from my 9'8" to a 9 footer and rode it all over Bali and liked it ... but this year I was talked into the pocket rocket .. and have not had a bad day on it ( well one when I broke my ribs but that was my fault ) .... a good all round board ..just change the fins to suite the waves .. Im using a set of shapers 5 and 3 for the small or easy days and starboard 5 and 7s when it gets big ... and when you know your going to hit the reef use the plastics which came with the board .... its a great board and even fits into a Jetstar Flight (if your not going thru Darwin) ....
Hi, I'm 68kg and used this board and the 8'5" pro. I really like both, but the pro feels faster on the wave, and also paddles faster on the take-off. It does feel a bit less stable, but you get used to it quickly. For me the pro is the one!
Coreyb - thanks heaps for the low-down. What you get from the board is what I would want to get from it as well.
j.j - thanks also - the only concern is that I have had a few surfs on the 8.5 pro and loved the stability of the board but found it very slow paddling in and also on the wave. I was hoping the pocket rocket would be noticably faster due to its flatter rocker.
All advice is greatly appreciated - sounds like its a board you really need to demo but they are very rare in these parts so may have to bide my time till one pops up to try.
Hi, my name is Carlos living in Spain, I am 85 Kilos and have some different sups. Had the 9 fusion from Coreban and sold it the 2nd day, good looking board but felt it heavy and slow on the wave, still recomend it as a first board to entry into short sup boarding.
The board i use most is a 9´1 pro from wich i love the glide and speed, also own a 8´5 pro, and my best friend has the pocket rocket so I have ridden all in very different days and conditions the last 6 months.
I am 85 kilos and had no problems with none of the boards above i terms of float.
From the 9´1, love it´s speed that let me hit the lip harder, even when is not big, it drives sharp clean turns, but is pretty unstable in chop and it tends to nose dive when you try to reentry narrow turns. (it is my favourite board because of the speed but it need more nose rocker.
The 8´5, is stable, I even use it for recreational paddling when my friends borrow the 9´1 and the 9Hero i have for my girlfriend, it works. In the wave feels nice on sucky waves but slow on mushy. I´d like it to be faster.
The Pocket is stable and also nice glide in the wave, i think I like it better than the 8´5 pro as it turns less but is faster in more real world onshore waves. I´d like it to have a simple cleaner outline with the hips integrated in one curve tough into the outline template.
For a perfect compact board, i´ll get the width and outline of the 8´5 pro and the rocker of the Pocket Rocket, i would also thin the rails a bit specially on the tail of booth boards. I like rounded pintails more, simple clean lines.
It is so bad i can´t find on the market the board i´d like to have.
I like fast flat rockers, i would just flip just the necessary scoop rocker and tail kicker, mid thickness on rails and slimed on the back, 29 to 29,5 width to be easy on non perfect conditions but still be manouverable and fast, 8´2 to 8´8 size. Volume something between 125 and 130 litres for me is enough. I´m waiting for the 2011 starboard catalogue to see if the come with something close to this, otherwise i think i´ll go custom on my next one.
Regards.
i had the 9'0 then the 8'5 i prefured the 9 as it was just a bit faster to paddle in and more stable and dont think the 8'5 had any real benefits however booth delaminated in a few sessions so i was gutted at the time
