Had hoped to take the Freak Fish along to this one but sadly(!) I will be on my way to the Mentawais just after this event so looks like it will be another year before i get over there. I’m sure it will be a great event. Contact grantnewby@bigpond.com for more details…
Just booked a trip to Mentawais for March… so will be a great proving ground for some of my new shapes. Will be doing test reviews from the boat straight onto the blog after my sessions. Test pilot Ant Danks also in tow so we hope to get some great footage and stills too. Hoping for a bit of the stuff below… that’s me up in the Banyaks a few years back.
Right now it is pretty flat around here… and cold with snow forecast tomorrow. I have 2 boards in artwork which should go for glossing tomorrow and under two children’s trees for Christmas. 2 waiting to be shaped… a FreakFish and a Cleanline – hope to get the FreakFish done tomorrow. An Atlantic POD in the pipeline and i think I'll make myself 2 more for myself for the trip, an new FreakFish and a Cleanline.
This board was inspired by some of the most significant influences on my shaping… Malcolm Campbell’s bonzers of course, a little bit of McCoy’s loaded dome Nuggets and a healthy dose of Cheyne Horan’s boards and the spitfire theories from Revolution...
6’2” x 20 1/2” x 2 7/8” – rolled deck with pinched rails. Rolled V boat-nose into vortex channel inside rolled V, exiting into a panel V through the tail. REVO bonzer spitfire sides and a McCoy gullwing centre fin. Can be ridden as a Single fin or as a REVO5.
The REVO sides are using the fluid dynamic theories more popular in sailing after the Ben Lexcan keel led the Australia II to the America’s Cup victory in 1980. One part of the theories is that a vertical keel has less resistance than a sloped one due to its reduced initial contact area. Anyways thought it was time to apply some of this to a board and inspired by something similar on a Revolution Board and with encouragement from Noel Whitman of Revolution the Riddler was born. Watch out for tweaks in the near future after its first wetting.
Hope you enjoy.
Had the Atlantic POD EVO6 bonzer out in some fun surf the other day and it flies. Waves were overhead and clean with almost no wind… some lovely peaks with long rides and plenty of wall. The board has really quick wave entry with the fins offering low drag and heaps of drive off the bottom. Faded bottom turns no problem with excellent hold; cutbacks kept a decent amount of speed through the turn. These fins seem to be really neutral handling, predictable and have a great balance between drive and hold.
Rode them another day at another spot, a little more hollow and quick and the fins were equally good but perhaps a little less control in the steeper stuff. A conventional shape would have offered a little more control and less drive – which would have worked well on that day as the board was outrunning the curl a bit too easily.
More reviews on the other set-ups when the surf comes back.
