Wavesareus said..
Trying to decide what size in these minions tempted to go crazy and try 7'8 but I also want to be able to stand on it out the back in chop so tempted for the 7'10 very hard choice I just don't want to be sitting on the board and only stand when a wave comes, defeats the purpose

What are your dimensions?

i rode the 7'8" x 28 1/4" x 4 1/4" in a stack of chop on sat arvo and it was fine, and I'm 6'4" and 85kgs....you'll get used to the chop.

Well I'm back from the maldives and haven't really got a lot to add in the form of a review to what has already been said by others. But I have a few observations that might contribute to things moving along. Of course I have no decent photos as my lovely wife was always surfing, and then when she did some camera duty she thought the zoom issue could be corrected on the computer at home. So if anyone wants to see some footage of a surfing speck in the distance please do let me know. The South Africans and other Aussies are going to send me CDs of photos sometime soon.

I've ridden my 7'8"x28 1/4"x4 1/4" 110L minion for the last 5-6 weeks in everything from 1ft fat rubbish to 5ft walls, and with shapers fins, cdrives and several other combos. I reckon it is fair to say that with all the switching (including getting back on my starby 8'5" a bit for comparison) that I'm still dialling it in. My first couple of surfs were sensational but I have struggled to tune back into the speed I could generate since.

Fins
I have shapers S7 fronts and MGX 1 rears in it, with the darc drive. It's goes well, but I reckon I need S9s and larger rears to get it going better. Too slidey for me. Cdrives were great, but even after some engineering work I couldn't avoid the whiz zing sound in bottom turns that I think kicks in from the gap between the fin base (they're very long in the base) and the tail lift. It pushed thru bottom turns well but the sound gives you the sheets. I've put starby 4.5" rears in it and that seems to make it hang on a bit better

Getting it going
I'm a bit old school, as I learnt on a single fin and surfed thrusters my whole surfing time. As a result, I find it hard to jam it back on the tail, which is where you really need to be to get the best out of it. It's also hard in slightly fat waves for me to get myself right to the. Back of the board, with my back foot ending up just in front of the tail pad and not on it. I did find it best at Riptides, which is a pure fun peak with a wall on the right ones, not very round, and you could just go top to bottom off the lip or a hook and straight into another bottom turn. At kandooma, which is a lot quicker and down the line, I have to say my starby 8'5" was the best bet. Maybe it's the cdrives in it as a thruster, but it surfs those kind of waves so well. I just could not get the minion wound up like it and struggled to make a few waves that the starby would have made.

Paddling
What can I say? It paddles better than the 8'5" and people were amazed at what I could catch, and so was I. Its way more stable than it looks.

The only thing I would do differently is reduce the volume. I found and find the rails have too much foam for my weight, especially if there is any chop, and they pop out more than I'd like. It's also a little corky at 110litres, thought spends a bit of time with its backside underwater. Hopefully I'll be up for another next year and will look to thin it out and go a little narrower, maybe 27 1/2", around the 100-105 litre mark, to get the rails thinner

Wavesareus said...
Keen to know how a 7'10 128 lite minion compares to a 8'3 x32 I find the x32 yew a pain in the ass one paddle stroke and it's on a 45 angle

very hard to navigate this yellow beast , in fact for a wide board it's fairy unstable to much rocker I guess

You need to paddle with your feet not at 90 degrees to board. I have a jp 8'2 x 32 and worked this out pretty quickly. Stand square to board when stationary but once i get moving I pull my left foot back a fair bit ( I'm goofy footed), I find I can the paddle on one side and turn the board as I go to keep straight... Works for me anyways;)

Wavesareus said...
Keen to know how a 7'10 128 lite minion compares to a 8'3 x32 I find the x32 yew a pain in the ass one paddle stroke and it's on a 45 angle

very hard to navigate this yellow beast , in fact for a wide board it's fairy unstable to much rocker I guess

For a short board They dont get much more stable than the x32 mate. You need to develop a c stroke to stop the yaw.

Wavesareus said..
I should use the words boxy rails and Corky

or simply "SUP"?

Look I could be wrong but I get the impression that a lot of the guys who are considering going the way of the Minion are being overly conservative in how big a board they wish to choose. My understanding is that these boards lend themselves to a different attitude in terms of volume and length and unless you get your head around this then there is really no point in going in this direction. These boards have a very different design to conventional sups and as such you simply cant look at volume from the perspective of the board that you are currently riding. In other words a 95 L Minion is very different to a 95 L normal sup simply due to the fact that the design principles are worlds apart. These boards are meant to be short and narrow. It comes with the parallel rail design which seemingly allows for a more efficient planing dynamic on a shorter board so strictly speaking you cannot compare these boards as they really are chalk and cheese. Its quite possible that riding a bigger Minion may be far less suitable to your needs than going for a much smaller version. More than anything I think these boards require an altered mindset which gives allowance to the potential that they have to offer.

Just my opinion of course.Ozzie

Tang said..
but even after some engineering work I couldn't avoid the whiz zing sound in bottom turns that I think kicks in from the gap between the fin base (they're very long in the base) and the tail lift. It pushed thru bottom turns well but the sound gives you the sheets.

Normally, fins make noise when the point where the water flows rejoin at the back oscillate from side to side. To counter this, you can either:
- have a sharp trailing edge... but too dangerous for you and your leash
- force the reattachement point on one side: sand the trailing edge asymmetrically, as a wedge.

e.g: http://jp.surffcs.com/eu/technology/fins/faq.aspx
Fins hum because of unstable water flow at the trailing edge of the fin. This generates vortices or turbulence which results in a fin that hums. To fix it, use 100-150 grit sand paper to make a bevel on each side of the trailing edge. The idea is to reduce the likelihood of water separating by thinning out the trailing edge. We recommend you sand the fin a little then surf the board again, if it still hums sand it some more. For safety reasons we intentionally manufacture our fins with a rounded trailing edge. On rare occasions this causes the fins to sing or hum.

ghost4man said..
Look I could be wrong but I get the impression that a lot of the guys who are considering going the way of the Minion are being overly conservative in how big a board they wish to choose. My understanding is that these boards lend themselves to a different attitude in terms of volume and length and unless you get your head around this then there is really no point in going in this direction. These boards have a very different design to conventional sups and as such you simply cant look at volume from the perspective of the board that you are currently riding. In other words a 95 L Minion is very different to a 95 L normal sup simply due to the fact that the design principles are worlds apart. These boards are meant to be short and narrow. It comes with the parallel rail design which seemingly allows for a more efficient planing dynamic on a shorter board so strictly speaking you cannot compare these boards as they really are chalk and cheese. Its quite possible that riding a bigger Minion may be far less suitable to your needs than going for a much smaller version. More than anything I think these boards require an altered mindset which gives allowance to the potential that they have to offer.

Just my opinion of course.Ozzie

This is good advice as especially requiring 'an altered mindset' It is a leap of faith to really go for it and get the optimal size Minion versus what you are used to as being a small board. The more I look at this Minion concept there more I look at my 8'5 and wonder why I need all that board up front? What if I chop 1' off the nose and straighten the rails (so they are not curving around the middle and getting narrow in the tai) and have a wide tail as that will keep the volume/stability where you need it on a super short board?...

I'm 85kg and ride the 8'5 x 28.75" Fanatic ProWave @109L but I need to look at the Minion 7'4 X 27.75" @104L - which on paper looks like a big difference being 1' shorter, 1" narrower and 5L less volume. But from what I am hearing is that the stability of the Minion will be similar to the ProWave!?…But…and it's a big BUT, I'd need to stump up NZ$2700 to find out if my gut feel is correct…or not!

Yeah - it's tricky leap of faith for $2700 and at apparently 8kg they are pretty heavy for their size. Surfboard shapers are pretty old school in terms of using exotic materials and construction. The dudes at ASP Boards in Christchurch are making carbon 8' 5" x 29" 116L weighing in at 5kg! I'm interested to see what JP come up with as in another thread there was a photo of a prototype which looked like a Minion but I'm sure the JP would be much lighter but may cost more.

Yip the JP looked a nice minion type board but from what i understand wont be ready till 2016..proberly close to 3k ...be nice if someone was able to custom a minion type board in NZ. I know you can get customLSD shapes made up fron Nik at sup shed but id imagine they would be close to same dollars.
wow i thought the minion would be lighter than that.

Supmaori said..
Yip the JP looked a nice minion type board but from what i understand wont be ready till 2016..proberly close to 3k ...be nice if someone was able to custom a minion type board in NZ. I know you can get customLSD shapes made up fron Nik at sup shed but id imagine they would be close to same dollars.
wow i thought the minion would be lighter than that.

Where did you hear that the JP was not available until 2016? But probably right as the JP 2015 range has just been launched. I had a production 8'6 LSD and it is a really nice shape but the LSD custom shapes are lighter and look good but they don't make a Minion shape. I reckon the windsurfing brands that make SUPs have the lighter/better construction out of the Cobra factory in Thailand as they have all the hi-tech materials. A bit controversial but to me the surfboard brands I see seem heavy and made old school like large surfboards rather than deploying sandwich construction techniques…but I could be wrong. I'll need to pick up a Minion to see if 8kg is going to be 'feel' heavy for such a small board and annoy me, or not...

Stevo im sure i read it in a post that they were more than likely going to be put out in 2016..i dont know this for sure sorry. I rode the 8"6 LSD flashback for a bit..enjoyed this board too. I see on Deep FB they are packing the container as we speak.

My DEEP Minion (7'2") is only 5.9kg - not sure if the ones heading to NZ are the same construction but you guys should check them out and see how light they are.

Stev0 said..
5.9kg sounds good! The 8kg number came from page 8 of this thread below:

toppleover said..
Just put it (7'10 @119L) on the scales now - spot on 8kg, inc fins + deck pad also mine has the vacuum bagged deck (stronger but also a bit heavier).

I would be wanting vacuumed deck, no deck grip could be compression issues

Kami said...
IMO Casso is too conservative riding 7'2" should go shorter

Ha. Keep in mind, I'm 86kg and wanted to keep it pretty thin (3 15/16") so my feet are closer to the wave. To go shorter I'd have to go wider and wasn't too keen on anything over 27" - I think the parallel rails work better when they are closer together.