Gonz
New Member
- Oct 19, 2004
- 27
- 12
Hi,
Sorry for only showing up once a year or so with a question. Lately I've just been so busy paddling my 14' standup raceboards and surfboards have got much less attention...
Right now I'm on a one-month holiday in southern Portugal and daily surfing is starting to take its toll... My backfoot knee has a partial knee-replacement and after working for 3 years perfectly, it has started to protest a little when I surf my super-rockered HP longboard in a shortboardish manner. I like the board a lot, but it needs to be "shortboarded", either pumped from the tail or ridden from the nose, there's no in between trimming option available. Also the round-pin modern tail asks for backfoot pressure and rewards it with speed.
Learning to drop-knee turn properly would probably help to take some of the twist'n'pressure away from the knee? However it is not so easy when surfing fast beach breaks with a rockered HP board. Drop-knee feels specially hard in bottom turns when generating speed backhand. I still might need to try it more, though I'll never be Ray Gleave
I've also been thinking about a board that offers a bit more supple ride. Not an old-skool board, since I want to be able to ride any type of waves as I mostly surf with my son, who's on a shortboard. We travel a lot, so a quiver is not an option and I do not want to limit our wave-choice to "longboard waves" only.
One answer to my own question is Takayama Noah Ka Oi 9'0 , I know, since I already have a one. It can handle any wave, but it still feels very smooth and predictable underfoot and the pintail does not need much power to sink it for a turn. Sometimes it feels a bit stiff to turn in weaker waves, but that can be handled by turning closer to the pocket. It also surfs very well as a single fin too. However that board is 22 wide, 2 5/8 thick and only 63 liters. Lately I've been riding it on my Bali-trips only since the board excels in strong waves and not much volume is needed in the perfect boardshorts world However, paddling in a 4-5mm wetsuit I'd prefer something preferably around 70 liters, yet quite similar, no longer than 9'1, with semi-pulled in nose, some rocker and a narrow V-tail.
Any ideas?
Sorry for only showing up once a year or so with a question. Lately I've just been so busy paddling my 14' standup raceboards and surfboards have got much less attention...
Right now I'm on a one-month holiday in southern Portugal and daily surfing is starting to take its toll... My backfoot knee has a partial knee-replacement and after working for 3 years perfectly, it has started to protest a little when I surf my super-rockered HP longboard in a shortboardish manner. I like the board a lot, but it needs to be "shortboarded", either pumped from the tail or ridden from the nose, there's no in between trimming option available. Also the round-pin modern tail asks for backfoot pressure and rewards it with speed.
Learning to drop-knee turn properly would probably help to take some of the twist'n'pressure away from the knee? However it is not so easy when surfing fast beach breaks with a rockered HP board. Drop-knee feels specially hard in bottom turns when generating speed backhand. I still might need to try it more, though I'll never be Ray Gleave
I've also been thinking about a board that offers a bit more supple ride. Not an old-skool board, since I want to be able to ride any type of waves as I mostly surf with my son, who's on a shortboard. We travel a lot, so a quiver is not an option and I do not want to limit our wave-choice to "longboard waves" only.
One answer to my own question is Takayama Noah Ka Oi 9'0 , I know, since I already have a one. It can handle any wave, but it still feels very smooth and predictable underfoot and the pintail does not need much power to sink it for a turn. Sometimes it feels a bit stiff to turn in weaker waves, but that can be handled by turning closer to the pocket. It also surfs very well as a single fin too. However that board is 22 wide, 2 5/8 thick and only 63 liters. Lately I've been riding it on my Bali-trips only since the board excels in strong waves and not much volume is needed in the perfect boardshorts world
However, paddling in a 4-5mm wetsuit I'd prefer something preferably around 70 liters, yet quite similar, no longer than 9'1, with semi-pulled in nose, some rocker and a narrow V-tail.Any ideas?
