Hello, my name is Ruben and I'm from tahiti.
I've started paddle surfing about a month ago, I weigh 140 lbs and I have a C4 9'0 batwing and it's ok but I think I'm going to need something that floats a little more.
I only surf fast reefbreaks, it gets big sometimes, I'm hesitating between the Starboard Pro wave 9'1 and the Naish Hokua 9'0. I wanted to know your opinion on that.
Thank you very much!

Bonjour Ruben, after supping for a month you are doing well to be on such a board. My immediate suggestion is to persist with what you have. You will learn to ride this board. The issue is not float but more width for better stability. You are looking at boards that are all very similar and may need to consider something wider such as 30" or more.

Usually when we progress which has meant for me going down in size that each step involves sometime getting to know the new beast. I find after a couple of months when I step back on the old board that I find that I prefer the new board.

Bon chance mon ami.

That is a pretty small board even if you weigh 140 pounds:

Height: 9'0"
Nose: 18 5/16 "
Width: 26 3/4"
Tail: 16 1/4"
Thickness: 3 7/8"
Weight: 18 lbs
Volume: 105.6 liters

Sure would be easier with a bit more float like the Naish or Starboard.

Hi,
Thank you for the replies, actually now after talking with people aound me, I think that I'm gonna go for the PSH 9,3 ripper but I am also looking at the surftech Gerry Lopez 8'11 little darling. I don't know yet!... Quite a dilemna... Any advise on that?
In the meantime I'll stick with the C4, it's a good training.

Thanks!

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Rubs said...

Hi,
Thank you for the replies, actually now after talking with people aound me, I think that I'm gonna go for the PSH 9,3 ripper but I am also looking at the surftech Gerry Lopez 8'11 little darling. I don't know yet!... Quite a dilemna... Any advise on that?
In the meantime I'll stick with the C4, it's a good training.

Thanks!

My wife surfed the 9'0 C4. I surfed it a few times too and I was 195 lbs at the time. I've surfed the 9'3 PSH ripper too. You are too light to switch to such huge boards now. Width is what makes the C4 9'0 hard to surf. You can go wider and shorter, and be MORE stable and have a lot more fun. So look for something 8'6 x 28 and you'll be fine. The 8'5 Naish Hokua is what you should demo. It would be more stable and blow the others away and be easy at your weight. Even the 7'8 Naish Hokua is 10x more stable than the 9'0 C4 bat tail.

My wife surfs the 7'3 Hokua and I'm sure she would say its easier than her old 9'0 C4.

Yes but the waves I'm surfing are quite fast and hollow and I'm more interested in speed and barrels then in manoeuvres so I don't want to take a board that's too wide. So it looks like I'm going to get the Gerry Lopez 8'10 sweetie pie (not 8'11 little darling, my mistake) I was also looking at the Candice Appleby 8'10 but I'm affraid that the flex material might be too fragile.

LENGTH: 8'10″ 269.24 cm
NOSE: 16″ 40.64 cm
WIDTH: 28.5″ 72.39 cm
TAIL: 17.5″ 44.45 cm
THICK: 4″ 10.16 cm
VOLUME: 114.7L
FINS: Futures Quad
TECHNOLOGY: Tuflit

nice great choice!!!! but maybe also consider a jl mano 9'0 , in your neck of the woods ,this board would light up sssoooooooooooooo !!!!! much !!!! you might actually EXPLODE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
anyway just food for thought,

I dont have the sweetie pie, but the previous model, the little darling 8'10" (riviera carbon version)

It is a very good board, but with a bit of an allround shape & rocker, with especially thick and round rails, limiting its speed and its ability to keep speed when cranking a rail in hollow conditions (even with my 100kg) in my opinion. If I were you, I would check first the thinness of the rails on the seetie pie to see if they are really thin enough for your intended use.

In my opinion, for more stability & performance, better go wider and thinner than narrower and thicker, but definitely to each his own. The sweetie pie has a really nice outline however, and should not be too thick as its volume seem low enough, so it may be a very different board compared to the litle darling

Allright, thanks for the advise, regarding the little darling, a friend of mine saw in Hawaii some new surtech models and told me that the rails were really nice, thin. As for the width of the board, 28,5, that seems to be right I guess.
But I was told that the former surtech models did have really thick rails, the new ones are totally different.
Unfortunately since we don't have stock here in Tahiti, i cannot compare physically the boards, that's why I'm talking to people around me to see what would be best for me. I think that there is a lot of good boards now anyway, so whatever choice I make it shoudn't be too bad.

It's sounds funny but, there is a huge difference between the Little Darling and the Sweetie Pie.
LD is more old school and the SP looks and feels more like a surfboard. It has really thin rails and more of an overall foil to the board.
Too small for me.

Starboard 9'1 the pulled in rounded pin tail will suit your hollow reef waves a bit better, but the Naish is a good board also. but i would prefer the Tail on the Starboard

I ride a Big Darling 11"2, which suits my size (105kg). It is fast down the line, has pretty fine rails (the finest I have seen on a board my size) that and takes off late and heading down the line really well. It has low volume for its length at around 170L. If the smaller Lopez boards are similar they will probably be great for fast reef breaks.

Hi Rubs, the SP looks the goods, just hope it can handle big sucky waves. If you buy can you please post a review. Personally I think you would be better with a psh gun if you are chasing after big barrels.

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Rubs said...

Hello, my name is Ruben and I'm from tahiti.
I've started paddle surfing about a month ago, I weigh 140 lbs and I have a C4 9'0 batwing and it's ok but I think I'm going to need something that floats a little more.
I only surf fast reefbreaks, it gets big sometimes, I'm hesitating between the Starboard Pro wave 9'1 and the Naish Hokua 9'0. I wanted to know your opinion on that.
Thank you very much!

There is only one person to ask for board advise for Tahiti and that is the man RAIMANA!

Lol, there are a lot of good riders now in Tahiti, a couple on the pro tour. I did ask one of them and he told me that the PSH and the SP were both good boards, he even owned a PSH 9'3 but told me that I'd probably have more fun with the SP.
So anyway, it's ordered and I should have it next week.
I'll let you know how that goes.
Thanks!