This morning I used a demo of the new 12'6" Glide on our down-winder..

Loved it.. Loved it so much I bought one.. and stickered it up this arvo... Oh yeah.. and changed the fin..

DJ

JonesySUP said...

is that fin just for DW?

Everything.. I hate dagger/pointer fins.

DJ

Nice stickers

so how do you decide which board to ride on a given day?

nice dj, for a moment then i thought you were going to say i liked that much i brought the company

Wow. I've been on the 12'6 x 30 a few times now and liked it better each time. Nice pickup DJ.

PeterP said...

We have 2 guys and one lady using the 12'6 Javelin (which is the narrower 28" version of the 12'6 Glide) on our downwinds. We've been out in 40knot+ winds and they are handling as well as the 14' Glide. In the hands of Chris Bertish it's as quick as anyone on 14' so far. We're having another dwd race on Wednesday then we'll see if he can continue to keep up - I've tried the 12'6 once and although it's a great board the 14' is definitely still quicker.

I found the 12'6 Jav virtually as stable as the 14' Glide and it's feather light - 1kg less than Glide. What I really like about is that it's competitive in flat, ocean and downwind and fun at the same time.

Let us know how Wednesday goes.. It's great to se more and more of the shorter boards working on down-winders.. It did seem to bog down a bit if I moved back too soon but I soon found that I could stay forward and not worry about pearling because with the nose shape it doesn't slow down at all once it's under water and the big volume helps it pop back up.

DJ

JSUP said...

I have the 12'6 Javelin, i'm still getting to know the board, and learning where to stand on the board. Interested to hear that you have changed it. Whats the difference between the fins, is one better suited for surfing and or keeping the board straight.

Fins are a personal thing but my experience with dagger/pointer style fins is they don't work great at low speeds and the faster you go the better they work.. and how fast do we go? .. IMO pretty slow.. They create a lot of lift making the fin want to twist at rise the board to one side or the other.. This is great for windsurfing because they help you go up-wind using the opposite rail and the fin almost lifts the board creating very little drag.. but totally not revilent to us.. Where they don't work is going down wind.. Surfing.. and slow speeds.. all of which we do.. They do have low drag but I doubt you'd really notice it.. They are pretty good for stability once stopped because they are pretty deep.. but it's because they are pretty deep is another reason why I hate them.. They touch well before a normal fin will touch.. and when they do touch they grab.. and not drag or slide like a normal fin.. Anyone who is a keen windsurfer and uses them on their slalom boards (because you wouldn't use one on a wave board because you can't surf with them) will know how well they go upwind.. In fact they will make you go upwind weather you want to or not.. and when you head off the wind to jibe the fin will often make the board rail-up and try and buck you off.. unless you're a good sailer and use a lot of force on to hold the rail in.. I've been on runners at high speed where you would often have the fin humming and the board has bucked me off.. They can get very twitchy with little toe and heal pressure on the rear foot... They also catch anything like weed.. plastic bags etc and not let it go.. and you need to be very careful paddling across any ropes that come of floating bouys so if you at paddling around them and close like in a race chances are you will hook up the rope and go A over T... You can't beat a good dolphin shaped fin.. IMO.. I don't know why Naish continue to use them.. Check out what Starboard are now using on their flat water, race and DW boards.. That fin makes more sense to me.

DJ

Thanks DJ and Peter P for your responses.
I've just put my order in for a std 10.5 Naish Dolphin fin.

JSUP said...

On second thoughts I might go for the Futures Jamie Mitchell 9.25"? Looks like a very good fin, thoughts?

Yes, do it, looks like a great fin.

Another option for you is this new Slater Trout signature model carbon fibre fin from FCS. Annabel Anderson swears by it. I got one recently and it's great.

Dear DJ,

Seems like you're picking up all the new Naishs I covet. I weight 72 kilos and am looking at the Nalu 10'10" or the 12'6" Glide. I am looking for a 90% flatwater board. Any recommendations?

Thanks and not willing to spend the xxx for the Jav...

Mike

Double thanks DJ for responding to my inquires. Of course you had me convinced to buy the 10'10" off of your "Stand Up Zone" response, but now you're making me do a double take on the 12'6". I take it that getting a 12'6" around is a whole lot different then tossing my 9'0" or 9'8" in the back of my 4Runner. Plus it's going to have to live outside at 12'6". Naish has both weighting 31 lbs, so it's a typo on their part or that extra 20" of swingweight makes a huge difference. Having a second surfable SUP is a bonus (selling my 9'8" Starboard), but will I be able to turn the beast 10'10" at 155 lbs? I found my Extremist impossible to turn. It may come down to your lug-ability factor. A bit stormy here today and a cutting bow would have been nice. How does the 10'10" do in a bit of chop?

Chris did our dwd today on the 12'6 Catalina as the Jav 12'6 was in for a ding repair.

Well, I wish he would do that more often, as he was for once comprehensively beaten. Catalina is definitely better suited for flatwater.....

More wind tomorrow - will update then....

Ok - so we had a decent downwinder tonight as part of our weekly race series. 23-32knots - strongest we've had to date but still weak for proper Cape Town conditions. Ivan van Vuuren blitzed the field in 47.45 for the 10km course on the 14 Coreban Dart with Andrew and Dylan coming in 50.05 and 50.25 on two SB 14's followed by two Naish 14's in 50.29 and 50.48. Chris Bertish was next on 12'6 Jav in 51.05.
Chris said he had a shocker and times were slowish (except for Ivans time) for most the top guys while the rest all set Personal bests. Full report on SUPHQ.com tomorrow - but seems like the 12'6 is going to be battling to win a race when you have strong guys like Ivan on 14'.....

I think the SB's are Open Ocean - will try and get a pic of Dart, I think it's still a prototype or pre-production. Ivan is flying on that thing when windy and is there or there abouts when not so windy (sub-30knots).

sure does get windy here - here is my log for last 4 weeks of downwinding, 18 days of which 12 were over 30knot max wind speed and two were over 40knots! I had a few more but forgot my GPS on those....

Date - Max wind - Time
02.02.12 – 35kn - 50.51min
01.02.12 – 32kn- 50.51 min
28.01.12 – 29 kn- 50.56 min
28.01.12 – 0-5 kn- 1.11.57 min
27.01.12 – 33 kn- 48.04 min
26.01.12 – 38 kn- 45.01 min
25.01.12 – 26 kn- 49.39 min
24.01.12 – 38 kn- 47.52 min
23.01.12 – 26 kn- 54.05 min
17.01.12 – 33 kn- 50.30 min
15.01.12 – 29 kn- 51.53 min
10.01.12 – 29 kn- 50.57 min
09.01.12 – 44 kn- 45.20 min
08.01.12 – 32 kn- 49.30 min
07.01.12 – 41 kn- 47.39 min
30.12.11 – 30 kn- 53.21 min
28.12.11 – 32 kn- 49.04 min
27.12.11 – 32 kn- 50.21 min