Hey guys. I'm looking to buy a board to mostly use in small surf but also in larger fat surf. I'd love to get one that is great for roundhouse cutbacks in tight places if possible.

Im looking at getting a Naish Raptor. Is this the best board to use for this type of surfing? I seen a bloke on a slate a few months back out Cabba headland and he was dominating the roundhouse cutbacks on it, in about 3 foot surf. Would the raptor be capable of doing this?

Yes, Raptor should do good roundhouse like other board with a large squash tail and bottom tail curves as any other board of that kind.

Two key ingredients to roundhouse cutbacks are:
- the speed to be able to get far away from the curl and keep the board on the rail in the carve, so you need a fast design...
- be able to control the curve, "pilot" it, to adapt to the wave and tighten the curve at the end, so something that do not need to be forced to turn, (avoid traditional longboards that need to be pivot-turned), and prefer swept back fins that allow control in curves.

I guess the raptor could be good in weak waves, with the wide tail to provide the speed and no bog down mid-turn, plus the short length for looseness.

Note that can be many compromises: a flat rocker for speed + curved outline for carving, like the Hypto Krypto stabmag.com/hardware/the-stab-caddy-craig-andersons-hypto-krypto/
Or a rectangular, "tomo"-like outline for speed + heavy rocker, like I guess the raptors & others "minions", or Simmons.

What would not work would be world cup shapes on everyday waves (not enough speed) or pure noseriders (no carve)

The SPEEEEEEED!

Agreeeeed!

The best part?
How controllable the tail was, riding down a large wall of whitewater at the end.

YESS, Supthecreek, full speeeeed

What??? Boards are built to do roundhouse cutbacks, where do I get one -_-.

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supthecreek said..
Agreeeeed!

The best part?
How controllable the tail was, riding down a large wall of whitewater at the end.

Finally!!! A man that can bury the rail! That's a turn, not that dishpan twaddle.

this is not the board , every thing is in hair

That's a mean cutback mate. It''s pretty cool your 67 and surfing with power like that.
What do you think for these two boards? Im trying to match one to suit the conditions I will be surfing in mostly.
I'm only gonna be surfing 1-3 foot fat point break surf and just wanna do drawn out turns and carves, no snappy stuff. I'm looking at jp surf wide 8'2 and a naish le'carbon 8'10 and 27 wide. Which board do you think could best meet these needs?

Oops

I had the jp 32 before picking up a slate the 32 will be a mile more stable and way better in fuller waves the 27" would be better when its over 4 ft and steeper. Loved cutbacks on the jp so easy to carve the shorter board around. If your under 80kg the 8'2 might be a bit big id look at the shorter one. The 2016 model looks sick with thruster option and narrower tail looks like it would go even better.

Heres the 8'2 x 32 in some mushy surf.

got the 8'2 today. i'll write up a review in 18months or earlier when my back is healed enough to try it out. I took it flat water fishing for about 2 hours today, trawling for flathead. No luck. Turns round a lot faster than the Sideways paddle board. I feel somewhat disheartened not to be part of the Sideways Paddle Division anymore. (its written on the boards).

Goldy... that was a very cool video.
Great surfing, and the cam gives a good look regardless of position!

It's a big commitment to shoot vid like this, it really gives a excellent look at the board.... something that is hard to come by.
Thanks!

Great vid. Watched it twice. Nearly as good as being there.

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Kami said..
this is not the board , every thing is in hair

Great one Kami. Loved Larry Bertleman and Mike Purpus. The board won't do it, the surfer will. Anything with thin rails that moves quick should do the trick. Check out the link below. (I think STC is secretly Mike Purpus )

http://encyclopediaofsurfing.com/entries/cutback

The SPEEED. Hands down!!!

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Leroy13 said..

Kami said..
this is not the board , every thing is in hair

Great one Kami. Loved Larry Bertleman and Mike Purpus. The board won't do it, the surfer will. Anything with thin rails that moves quick should do the trick. Check out the link below. (I think STC is secretly Mike Purpus )

http://encyclopediaofsurfing.com/entries/cutback

The cutback has a number of variations, the most basic being the "roundhouse"—a long, smooth, arcing turn that usually finishes with the surfer rebounding off the oncoming white water. A '90s- developed variation is the cutback 360, where the surfer either extends the cutback into a full circle or uses the whitewater rebound as the starting point for a sliding 360. Other variations include the layback cutback, the double-pump cutback, the tail-slide cutback, and, for longboarders, the drop-knee cutback.
I paste those good descriptions of makable type of cutback maneuvers as read on the link you give. But out of the Bert's afro, parallel rails make the cutback move more easy, especially before and during the rebound stance. Speed hold all along the maneuver by some extra tail width is a major parameter too as Johnnymaya said

Hey Matt, what conditions do you find the slate works best in?

The slate goes good in pretty much everything. Ideal conditions would be 2 to 4 ft. Handles the chop pretty good is way more stable than the jp 8'6 surf. Have riden it up to 6ft handled it easy on the wave. Its just a pain to get around the line up quickly and not wear the clean up sets on the head, bit of a slug to paddle but will pick up a wave fairly easy. Great fun when its small and full gets up on plane really early and just skates from section to section at crazy speed. Similar feel to the jp 8'2 widebody just a lot faster, squirts out of turns more and has a lot more bite in the tail. Both carve a really nice round turn. The wb is more stable and paddles a bit faster.

thanks

you ever try it on the tweed bar?