Walzer Pintail

[Surfdad]

I did a fairly extensive writeup of this board over on WW but wanted to post some pics and details on this board here on Tigeowners.com

Sean Walzer was a huge skimbaorder back in the day, I do believe he won several regional championships. Now that he's in his late 30's he's an OLD MAN! Sean Walzer hooked up with Sean Ward who was also an avid skimboarder and photographer. Sean has produced a few feature length skimboarding videos. More importantly though, Sean Ward was a fan of wakesurfing and the two of the created the Walzer wakesurfers which are what I call a hybrid design. It's basic shape is that of a skimstyle board, but with twin fins and more nose rocker.

James throwing the tail around

[Surfdad]

The design of the Walzer is a bit more unique than I am describing. The fins are adjustable fore and aft...only about 1/2 inch, but the difference is noticable. The boards come in several thickness, lengths and tailshapes. Allowing folks to create a somewhat custom board without actually having to fiddle with all the details. The rails were very sharp, which I love, it allows for very sharp and controlled turns, but newbies will find the ride twitchy. The board probably isn't suitable for folks that aren't at least intermediate riders.

James boosting some air.

[Surfdad]

If you look at the pictures of James in the air, he's going pretty huge. This board only has 2 3/8" fins, normally larger air takes deeper fins to generate drive. The deeper fins prevent lateral movement and thus more speed down the line. These boards were the fastest down the line that I have ridden, that coupled with the fastest rail-to-rail speed was an awesome combination. The board had a contured deck, along with hard rails, so the board was able to produce drive from the rails, as well as, the fins. It felt very similar to riding a snowboard.

James grabbing mute - this is a hard grab on a wakesurfer as you tend to grab early, thus driving the height down.

[Carter13]

Those are some sweet shreddin pictures.

[Matt Garcia]

Surfdad,

Do you think that having larger fins restricts fast cutbacks and 360's?

Nice pictures by the way.

Matt

[Surfdad]

From on high! IMO, the longer fins actually help with a surface 3. Done correctly, you'll break the fins loose at the beginning of the 3. Up to 4" fins are fairly easy to break loose by hitting the lip and shifting your weight...then when you re-enter, a small or non-existent fin tends to let the board over-rotate while the deeper fins will grab and allow you to track straight.

The cutback is a different story, because you are pushing the fins forward through the lip...what most folks do is a little ollie up onto the lip and push the tail forward in the air. Once the tail is past 90 degrees there isn't much difference in fin depth. Re-entry is a little easier with deeper fins, again it's the over rotation issue.

[NICKYPOO]

Based on your quick review, I'm licking my chops. More please! This really sounds like the board I'm looking for. Twin fins, hard rails, fast, fast, fast.

Where's the contact man?

[Surfdad]

The contact man is Sean Ward:

swardphoto@yahoo.com

Tell him I sent ya

[Surfdad]

One of the issues with a twinny is shuv'ing back out. The first shuv is pretty much the same with no fins, single or twins...obviously no fins rotates easier, but the take off is slippery. Landing on all of the boards is about the same. These pics show James throwing a shuv.

[Surfdad]

second step

[Surfdad]

Shuv landed

[Surfdad]

Now the above photo shows the issue, when the twinny is ridden revert the inside fin extends into the wake up at the nose. This slows the board down, but also tends to grab the inside fin and twist the board into the wake.

I think that having at LEAST the one fin moved inboard a bit would really help out, but probably moving both inboard makes the most sense.

The shuv back out.

[Surfdad]

Back to normal.

[NICKYPOO]

You boys always get me stoked to ride. Thanks for the link Dad. I've already asked for my Christmas present, I just need to find out how good a boy I need to be for the rest of the year.

You'ld be proud of me Dad, my last session out I managed to pull off the walk around varial. Walked it from regular to goofy and finished out my set switch. Rode it out for a good few minutes and got in some good bottom turns and a few floaters before I was done. When I got back in the boat, nobody said ****. I'm like, "Hey, did you guys catch that or what?" "Catch what?", they replied. I guess that just means I'm that smooth, eh?

[dogbert]

Originally posted by NICKYPOO
When I got back in the boat, nobody said ****. I'm like, "Hey, did you guys catch that or what?" "Catch what?", they replied. I guess that just means I'm that smooth, eh?

Two possibilities come to mind:

1. Your friends underestimate the degree of difficulty
2. You're overly impressed with yourself

Since I've actually tried to ride, I'm gonna go with #1.