Saturday, March 7, 2015

My new ride


The saga is now complete as here is my beautiful new white 9' 1" roundtail pin longboard. So how does the new board go.
Well is is usual with a new board, my first session was in absolute shit onshore crap but I was able to discover that it is very forgiving as it has terrific balance.
The second session was again in an onshore but with at least a little shape and I discovered that it is super quick, has an amazing amount of glide considering the rocker in it and is a terrific nose rider!
The 3rd session yesterday was in cleaner side shore conditions and I had a great time as I was able to really push it finding that it is a super lively fun board coping with every demand I made of it. I cannot wait for some conditions when the waves have a steeper face to attack.
In my last post I detailed the story of the collapse of the 9' Walden SLX Mega Magic I used to own for which I received a full refund from the local surf shop. So huge props again to Dave and Alan at the Big Drop Surf Shop for doing the right thing and I hope that Walden will also do the right thing and compensate them in some way in time.
As I mentioned in the post, I took the step I probably should have made initially when I wanted a new longboard using the refund cheque to ask local shaper Warren Thompson to shape me the new board I now own. It is based on the phased out of production South Point 9' 1" Bonga Perkins replica.
Why? Well, I only happened to get the chance to ride one wave on one of them a few years ago and was mightily impressed with it's performance. I had done a swap out the back to give a visiting surfer a go on the 10' longboard that Warren had shaped for me. I have never forgotten how comfortable the Perkins felt and it's performance on the first and only wave I rode on a busy day. I think you will agree he has done a pretty good job and I will tell you how it goes shortly.
Before starting to shape my board Warren was asked by the Big Drop Surf Shop guys to see if he could repair the delaminated mega magic which he duly agreed to do albeit rather reluctantly. Here are some before and after pics which show he did an amazing job of resurrecting it!