Jonathan launched his new Starboard Open Ocean 14' this morning. I took a few snaps with it alongside it's predecessor, the 2010 14'. Seems to me the evil genius' at Starboard HQ have taken all the ideas that worked on the New, the 12'6 Surf Race and the old 14' and melded them together to create this beast.

What is the deal with the blunt nose? Wouldnt that push water?

I don't know who's going to break the news to Jonathan......... but I think Warwick sold him a kayak!

Well what a difference a few relatively subtle changes make. For a start the thing is absurdly stable, you are basically standing millimeters above the water line but the 4 drain holes and the shaped standing area keep it very dry, you do feel like you are stepping up a little when you go into surfing stance but after a couple of hours paddling I didn't even notice anymore.

The big difference is in the way the nose reacts, the old one had a lot of volume in the nose, maybe I pearled it once but not really - instead if you didn't step back it would just 'boof' into the wave in front and slow down. You could keep the nose clear but it was much more subtle , having to move back just enough to keep the nose clear but not too much so that you dropped off the wave. The new one has a much smoother entry, to the extent that today you hardly noticed getting on to the wave, just realized that you were (tiny waves!) but then the nose shape, rocker whatever just let's it keep going so effortlessly. So what that means is that it's much easier to keep the momentum up.

One of the other big changes is how far tucked under the rails are, looking side by side for most of the length that the rails are sharp the rail on the new one is probably an inch further under the board. In some ways it's almost a curved displacement rail, but it does have the sharp transition to the relatively flat bottom.

Doggie, the nose is basically a curved displacement shape, you don't really get the slap slap thing when you paddle upwind in chop to anything like the extent you do on a surfing type board, and even though it's a funny little blunt nose it does actually pierce quite effectively.

I paddled upwind about 10k and the wind got progressively weaker, when I turned around I'm sure it was less than 10 knots and the water was just crappy little bay chop but it was totally catchable and the length of the glides was the thing that really amazed me. The nice bonus was that it was so surfy when you got on the wave too.

Look I'm totally biased, sponsored by Starboard, but in the crappy little waves we had today this board just blew me away. Just feels like a whole new level of refinement. STOKED!! and 30 knots on Saturday.....

it's interesting that fanatic and now starboard are running edges a fair lenght up the board from the tail- like to half way and a bit more.

jonathan, will the 12'6s get that new displacement nose. i think it would be a plus for the boards from mpov after trying a 'surf' last year -the water just looked untidy up there, but the photos show some refinement in that area
cheers

PTWoody said...

Seem to be pearling the nose ever so slightly in this shot.

Looks like it attracts Sharks

Surfrod66 said...

Whats the width? looks pretty wide?

It's labelled as 28" wide, haven't actually measured it though.

When I saw that shadow, I was wondering if you had done some Photoshopping. Obviously not .... bit of a worry

It's good to see Starboard changed their fin on this board.. But with a 23" race fin coming stock on it there'll be no paddling in shallow water.. .. kidding.

DJ

Hey Jonathan, in that last shot, either you make that board look huge or it makes you look tiny

akhawk said...

Hey Jonathan, in that last shot, either you make that board look huge or it makes you look tiny

That's funny Hawkie, my old girlfriend used to say something like that, never understood what she was on about...

DavidJohn said...

Most unfortunate paddle technique in that last photo.

Hey Jonathan can you comfortably carry the board with those handles? Is it well balanced?

bigmc said...

When I saw that shadow, I was wondering if you had done some Photoshopping. Obviously not .... bit of a worry

I'm guessing photoshop