Santa Cruz Surftech

[Surfdad]

I had to. 5'8", 17 inches wide, 7" of nose rocker but get this - with fins it's less than 5 pounds, about the same weight as a 4'6" Walzer Alpha. It'll probably ride like a log, but it'll be interesting to see.

Anyone got a guess on how it will ride?

[Timmy!]

Cool! Won't it be hard to turn with those 3 monster fins on it?

[ragboy]

When I was surfing in High School, all of our ripping boards had 3 fins in that config. Turned quick, but also gave you a means to propel/pump. If your back foot is above the last fin, behind the first 2, and you push the back of the board right and left hard, the board rotates closer to the axis of the 2 fins, and the back fin is like an oar, and propels you. Its kinda of the same action if you pump a skateboard back and forth and propel without kicking. I believe the 3 fin setup like that used to be called the "thruster".

[da.bell]

You will be using surf wax for that baby... Looks a little slick in the pictures.

So, here is my guess, without surfwax, you will be sliding off that baby.

[ragboy]

Man, that brings back memories of RAW nipples.

[da.bell]

Or pulled chest hairs...... he he he

Sorry Surfdad, we got a little

[ragboy]

I am a hairless beaner. As far as chest hair goes. Never had that problem. But surfing in california, waves break pretty close to shore, and you would get some sand would get on the wax, and so it would sand paper your nipples off. You could wear a rash guard, but that was for wussies.

[Surfdad]

You guys are funny hair removal and sanded nipple conversations

We have a kick pad for it, but I think we'll just wax it to see how it rides. If the ride is too ugly we'll sell it.

Ragboy is discussing the functionality of a thruster - I was thinking that the narrow width would help offset the incredible length Or...not

[wakeboarder247]

I think it will ride like a beast. I don't think it will be fast enough behind the boat. My guess is you won't have enough speed to shred it around. I think it will ride like a longboard does in the ocean.. but behind a boat..

[dogbert]

Some of you may consider this off-topic, but I bought Ryan a CWB Marius Platinum wakeboard the other day. The board is pretty amazing because it's corners are tapered up. The acceleration he gets from that is absolutely incredible. He was riding a Byerly pro model before that and he could generate a fair amount of speed and jump pretty high. He's had to actually adjust his riding style because he was getting too much speed early in his cut. One time he just let 'er rip and launched himself so far out into the flats that he almost couldn't handle the landing.

I would think having the back of that board tapered slightly upward, with maybe a really flat tracking fin would get you the same effect on a wake surf wake. Thoughts?

[Surfdad]

I don't know. I have heard so many conflicting stories about hydro dynamics and surfboards

We had a kid from the Isle of Jersey out on our boat a few years back - rode a surftech...I think it was close to this size. He RIPPED, but the style is different. He rode really aggressively - almost ANGRY The board is capable of really tight turns and so he would bring the nose up and over the lip and do these HUGE snaps...I think the extra length made it look impressive.

My guess is that it will ride MUCH less respoonsively than say our Bullets, like 247 theorizes, but that it can be ridden HARDER than the Bullets. We'll see

[Surfdad]

I forgot to bring the camera yesterday, but we rode this thing yesterday. It had pretty significant drive, but "turning" in any sense of the word was NOT something that anyone would think it capable of. We removed the trailer fin and it still was like a train on the track. Then just for chuckles, we took ALL of the fins out.

THAT loosened it up, although...can't say it turned, it mostly slid. Slid sideways, backwards, up and down the wake. It slid 180, 360, 540, 720 upwards of 1080.

So, what I MEAN to say is it's a GREAT board and someone really needs to buy it

[dogbert]

Sounds like you turned it into a surfskate of sorts.