Board: Smik the Jack 5’4 x 21” x 80L
Discipline: Winging, Parawing, Downwind (primarily DW parawing)
Reviewer Skill Level: Intermediate to Advanced DW wave riding
Weight: 80kg
Affiliations: None, paid full retail
Review based on around 30h of riding at end of the Perth season, in zero knots (it paddles well!) to 30+, flat water through to 6-8ft+
I’m a sucker for a short board in every sport and I couldn’t get out the door fast enough from the SUP party when parawings came out. Over the last 12 months I have ridden a number of boards in the ML category from 5’9 to 6’1and spent a good amount of time thinking “what is that six inches at the front actually doing?”
I know in theory that length = planing speed = lift etc, but my experience with pop-up on a parawing is that you either don’t get the speed to really make that worthwhile and have to rely on a pump up, you have a swell line to run down to get up, or you have enough wind it doesn’t matter.
So in my head while idly awaiting a gust to get up in sketchy end of season conditions, I had been quietly designing my next custom board. Before I had that really figured out though, the Jack popped up (so to speak) and it was very close to the thing I had in my head – close enough that I bought it sight unseen (and the fact it already had my name on it was a nice touch).
Sooo… Enter the Jack. The core bits I were looking for which work a treat:
Double concave with an aggressive V on the front. Having tried a lot of boards, this is a non-negotiable for a good design for me. Bounces straight back off after a touchdown, rather than dragging you to a halt (makes meaningful eye contact with Skybrid), punches through chop to pop up and releases earlier for take off.
Stability without excess width. I have ridden narrow midlengths (18”) and wider wing boards (22”+) and the 21 is a good middle ground. If I was designing this myself I would have gone around 20”-20.5”, but the volume has to go somewhere and the little bit of extra length across the board stops this from being too blocky. The flat back half of the board works well, I would have bevelled the rails more rather than the fairly much straight vertical, but it works.
Volume up front. A necessity with a parawing, and doesn’t introduce any compromise for winging. Stomping the front foot gives you pop off the water, rather than sinking the nose. More generally, volume everywhere. I was a bit wary on the amount of volume squeezed into this small board, in my head I felt it would have been better off at 70L, but it works and is surprisingly Tardis-like. Because its short it looks very thick, but side by side with a 5’10 Skybrid of similar volume it is not noticeably any thicker, with the volume crammed at nose and tail. The sunken deck works a treat and makes it feel like a much lower volume board. I thought I would want to drop some more litres, but having used this in all conditions, I’m now rethinking that. The extra volume works in light conditions and is not a hindrance any other time.
Performance. On or above the water, it kicks ass. I can get up in the same or less conditions than any longer board I have had for the same volume. It is extraordinarily responsive to pump, as it is a perfect lever length where you have pretty much the same length of board in front and behind you. Basically since getting this I have been able to pump through anything and recover (usual weed disclaimer) and pump up in ridiculously marginal conditions.
Getting up is far more stable than it should be, I have used this multiple times in trash conditions (30kt washing machine stuff) and it is much more stable than the other boards that I have had. I can’t really pin why this is, as on paper there is nothing in particular that suggests it shouldn’t be a corky mess, but it is definitely the easiest board I have used for getting on to, standing up and getting going.
On a wave it feels like a performance shortboard, nimble, easy on axis pivot and it has upped my carving game. Swing weight feels zero (and if you think that about your current board, you’re absolutely wrong, try this and change your mind), 360 loops on foil are now in the equation for me and carves are now rail to rail. On that note, recovery from a rail hitting the face is much more doable and getting hit from side on is more stable than I have experienced with other boards.
Downsides. Only two:
Small one - unless you have experience sitting in stress positions on a concrete floor in a POW camp, the diamond pattern grip is ridiculously hard. It would be much nicer to have a Duotone-like soft grip for bare knees and a better board feel. Minor, but annoying when it’s close to otherwise perfect.
Big one - the positioning of the foil track is bananas. It feels like they never updated the location of the tracks when they scaled the model size, as the rail starts at the mid point of the rear strap, and then continues to the middle of the board, about a hand-width behind the front strap. So the only place it works for me riding Armie gear is wedged as far back as it can possibly go, and then its juuuust on the cusp of workable. If I was wearing straps, I am not sure this would be doable. As it stands I can’t get the foil far enough back to be able to put my foot against the rear ridge (which would be the ideal, so you can pump up with foot pressing against that and then bring forward a smidge as you start downwinding). I would definitely recommend trialing this before you commit, as it may not work at all with your foil setup if your foot needs to be forward of the mast and/or you ride with straps. Might not be an issue with the larger sizes I suspect.
TLDR:
In short, an amazing board that goes hard in all disciplines and all conditions, well priced and also fits longitudinally in a ute tray, with no noticeable compromise from being shorter. This is my only board for parawinging and winging, I have the budget to have multiple boards but just don’t need anything else. 7.5/10 as it stands, would be a 9 if the tracks were positioned a bit better, and a 10 with better deck grip and a more durable paint job.
Finally a mild disclaimer that you will need to be able to pump up properly to get the most from this. If you're pulling yourself up on foil using the wind, then you will probably struggle on a board of this length. To ride this you're not really using the planing speed to generate lift, instead you are getting the board to release from the water surface using your pump technique, and then getting lift from the foil. On a wing you can get away with this and its likely a great board to learn how to pump as its very obvious and responsive to the inputs, but if you are parawinging and don't have pump technique you are probably going to have a bad time with this.
