Saturday's Merimbula to Pambula Downwinder

Historically, the Merimbula Classic has been known to dish up some of the best downwinding conditions in Australia. Easy launch, easy exit, great open ocean swells to ride, excellent safety zone should something go wrong, strong tradewinds from the perfect angle, easy car shuffle setup and most of all, heaps of frothing punters to share it with. The 2010 Classic was no exception, with one cool addition - I had a new board to test out: the Deep Oceanboards 12'6".

One word: Woosh

The board is 12'6" x 27.5" x 5.something"

This puppy was only the second 12'6" to come out of the Deep Oceanboards shed. I didn't see the first one but they've got the design just right in this version - that's a very short R&D lifecycle.

I'd picked up the board from the Walk On Water guys a few weeks before but I'd only had the chance to paddle it in some flat and relatively flat water. I was super keen to test it out in some solid downwind conditions and the forecast for Merimbula was looking awesome for some point to point runs. Woo hoo.

Saturday arrived and the predicted nor-easter was starting to puff by late morning. It was my son's birthday so after a paddle was scheduled for a bit later in the day, I squeezed in a quick 18 holes of putt-putt golf with the family. By lunchtime, the wind hadn't got a lot stronger so I tried my luck with slotting in a McDonalds lunch as well. Just as the last fry was sliding down my oesophagus, I got the call. It was Dan. My board had already been loaded onto the trailer and people were starting to make their way to Bar Beach. We were away.

I dumped my car at Pambula and jumped in the last bus taking people to the start. What a rush - not in the adrenaline way, just in the hurried way. We got to Bar Beach and there was my board. Some nice soul had already taken it off the trailer, carried it down to the water's edge and even ... what? ... put a legrope on it? Why would somebody do that? At that moment, Brian, one of the Walk On Water guys came bumbling around from behind the bushes and asked what I was doing there - apparently nobody thought I was going to show up so he had helped himself to the Deep 12'6". Ahhhh. So now I was stuck at the start point with no board and my car at the end point. How is this going to work? Thankfully Jason had a spare 11'0" wide-nosed Hobie in his van and he let me use it. Even more thankfully, Brian said he would use the 11'0" Hobie and let me paddle the Deep. What a guy! We got the Hobie out and legropped up the boards. I headed back to the bus to get my paddle ... huh? Locked. Where is that Angie Pangie? Ummm, she is out on the water beginning the paddle out to the tip of the point. "Angie! Where are the keys?", I yelled out the top of my voice. She continued to paddle out to the tip of the point, oblivious to my drastic predicament. "Hey Jason, have you got a paddle to go with that Hobie you lent us?". He did.

Finally we are all on the water heading out past the pier. Andy and Dave decided to relive their youth and perform multiple rotation dives off the 30 foot high pier. Impressive stuff.

Once near the tip of the point, the girls, the novices and the crew on smaller boards headed off first. Dan and I kept our 12'6"s in the gates for about five minutes and then took chase. The "big" boys on their 14's and 17's left another five minutes after us. We were then all southbound and gradually exiting the calm waters in the lieu of the northern point of Merimbula Bay.

It didn't take long for the 15 knot nor-easter to expose itself enough to offer up a couple of little runners. Still protected from most of the swell, this section of the ride was great fun. Little runs on relatively flat water. So easy with little worry about getting knocked sideways from cross chop or random lumps of swell. The Deep 12'6" went great, picking up the micro whitecaps with the ease. It felt super stable but the real stability test was yet to come - mid run, in the deep, deep water of the bay.

Group one were keeping a shallow line. I was a little concerned that they would have to track crosswind towards the end to make it to the river mouth so I kept deep and headed out to sea. Dan, who I was secretly time-trialling against (similar paddlers on similar boards) didn't follow so that meant an extra variable that we would have to negotiate when concluding who had the fastest board.

Once out to sea in the full brunt of the wind and swell the Deep 12'6" came into its own. Big chunks of chop would double up on set waves of swell and the Deep would latch onto these with a few short sharp strokes. Powering along in surf stance, without needing to paddle, riding raw ocean swells is just so cool. The Deep 12'6" is agile enough to get back near the tail and carve bottom turns and cut backs on those mini mountains of ocean. It never missed a beat, never went weird, never bucked me sideways and did exactly what it was told. Mr Predicable - just what you need in extreme conditions, three kilometres from the nearest land.

The Deep 12'6" was connecting runners really well. A quick change of direction, a few sharp stokes of the paddle and I was then running on a new piece of chop. The board speed of the Deep is great with little resistance in the lulls between runs. Piercing into the back of the wave in front is inevitable on a relatively flat 12'6" in choppy conditions. This isn't a problem on the Deep. The domed deck up the front displaces washovers very quickly and the nose quickly pops back out and you are off and running again before you know it.

The river mouth at Pambula was getting closer. Dan and I had reached the first pack which is a good indication that our boards were performing well. The third pack had reached us, a good indication that those guys are very good paddlers. I could see that breaking waves on the outer bank were nowhere as big as my last run - where I got thoroughly smashed. Phew. I could see a smaller set approaching and paddled hard. The Deep picked it up and I ran to the stern to take the initial drop. Woo hoo. This time I didn't catastrophically nose dive and rode it through to the gutter where it filled up. A few hard jabs with the paddle and a shuffle forward got me through the fat section and onto the next wedging section. This process was reiterated a few more times before the wave finally died out completely next to the rocks at the point. The Deep 12'6" had carried me about 150 metres on the one wave. Sweet. Now I just had a short paddle to the sand to complete the journey.

I hit the beach first out of the entire, 20 strong, crew! You don't need to know that some of the gun paddlers on the big boards stopped at the river mouth to do a bit of surfing before they headed for the sand. I was still dry from not falling in once on Mr Stability.

What a trip (as in journey not LSD) and what a great board to do it on.

Highs:
- Very fast
- Super stable
- Gets on runners easily
- Recovers from nosedives well
- Surfs great (both runners and real waves)
- Great finish
- Bullet proof construction
- 100% Australian made

Lows:
- A tiny bit heavier than some

No idea, sorry.

I'll do some time trials with my GPS at a later date and let you know.


Totally.

Great story...super jealous and bummed that I missed it. Next year for sure

Hey Casso,
any pics of the new board?

This a shot of the 14'

version

Don't mean to hijack, but noticed there are a few Lahui Kai's in those photos. Are they the 12'6 or 14? Any reports on how they go?

Hmmmm. Looks like somebody doesn't appreciate a review hidden in a story! Maybe they just don't like me. Maybe they don't like a new brand of race board being on the market. Never mind, it's not going to slow me down.

Dont you love how predictable the red thumb thing is:

I reckon' the red thumbs must be coming from all those people that are jealous they missed out on the most fun comp of the year.
I got lots on the other Corona topic just for saying thanks to everyone for a great weekend - go figure???