Ooh Ah! This is one fun board!

With all the hype around last week and only being able to paddle Lairds boards on flat water I was itching to see how the boards felt on a wave.

I took the 9'6 x 28 7/8" for a spin this morning in 2-3' beachies to see if it lived up to the hype.

There is a lot going on under the bonnet of this board with its 'fine' pin tail, quads that clustered like they want to morph into each other and a massive single concave up front, under a rather large, potato-crisp-thin nose.

I will write a review after a few surfs but in a word or two - Fun, fast and very stable. This board was a real surprise!

Hopefully we will also have the 10' and 10'6 to demo next week

What do reckon Andrew
The perfect longboard nose rider for me ? Thinking of downsizing from my 10fter

Yeah I think so Towny. There is a bit of magic going on with this board. It is amazing how different shapers interpret, resolve and balance out the different performance characteristics of a board. You can really tell when a shaper knows what they are doing. I didn't nose ride this board I was having to much fun slapping the lip, but hey, that nose is begging for two people up front!

Hey had the 9.6 in red for a week now !!!!!!
wow what a dream board !!!
have been riding it in some fun waves on the central coast, what a fantastic board, turns so easily, glides amazing, ride the nose if you like !!
the only thing that is a bit disappointing, is the fact that the deck compresses where you place your feet, even after one surf !!!
small factor and doesnt hinder performance at all
it is my magic borad at present !!!!
cheers mark.

I have a custom 10' version of this, shaped by Bob Pearson in California.He shipped it to Hawaii where I picked it up. It is without a doubt the best longboard sup I have ridden.Perfect noserider. Blair you're welcome to have a ride on it next time I'm up your way. I'm hoping Ross has some demos for me soon.

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graffitisup said...
I have a custom 10' version of this, shaped by Bob Pearson in California.He shipped it to Hawaii where I picked it up. It is without a doubt the best longboard sup I have ridden.Perfect noserider. Blair you're welcome to have a ride on it next time I'm up your way. I'm hoping Ross has some demos for me soon.

PM sent
Cheers Phil

Are they the same as the Surftech Laird Pearson Arrow shapes or have they been tweaked a bit?

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webbo100 said...
Hey had the 9.6 in red for a week now !!!!!!
wow what a dream board !!!
have been riding it in some fun waves on the central coast, what a fantastic board, turns so easily, glides amazing, ride the nose if you like !!
the only thing that is a bit disappointing, is the fact that the deck compresses where you place your feet, even after one surf !!!
small factor and doesnt hinder performance at all
it is my magic borad at present !!!!
cheers mark.

Yep that's the only problem, heal dents on all the demo's I've seen.
I heard they are Looking at moving to Cobra Thailand.

Sweet looking board... I had bailed on my longboard search, because I realized I didn't want to ride big boards anymore.... SUP's are all sort of big boards to begin with.... but that looks pretty tasty

I love the crispy thin nose and the concave..... and the quads look right.... My last prone longboard had close knit quads... worked great..... in the tail shot with the board leaning left.... you can visualize it carving a sweet turn.

How's the weight on it?

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HumanCartoon said...
Are they the same as the Surftech Laird Pearson Arrow shapes or have they been tweaked a bit?

HC I met the distributor a few weeks ago and asked the same question. He said that yes the bigger sizes are the same shape(10'6", 11' & I think there is a 12'???) They have just added a few shorter models to the line up.

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supthecreek said...
Sweet looking board... I had bailed on my longboard search, because I realized I didn't want to ride big boards anymore.... SUP's are all sort of big boards to begin with.... but that looks pretty tasty

I love the crispy thin nose and the concave..... and the quads look right.... My last prone longboard had close knit quads... worked great..... in the tail shot with the board leaning left.... you can visualize it carving a sweet turn.

How's the weight on it?

http://lairdhamilton.com/products/surfer

All the spec's including weight is on this link.
I agree they look unreal.

Looks nice AA. A proper surfing shape. How long have you got the demo for?
Don't leave it at home as it might go missing when I next visit Crescent.

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AA said...

Ooh Ah! This is one fun board!

With all the hype around last week and only being able to paddle Lairds boards on flat water I was itching to see how the boards felt on a wave.

I took the 9'6 x 28 7/8" for a spin this morning in 2-3' beachies to see if it lived up to the hype.

There is a lot going on under the bonnet of this board with its 'fine' pin tail, quads that clustered like they want to morph into each other and a massive single concave up front, under a rather large, potato-crisp-thin nose.

I will write a review after a few surfs but in a word or two - Fun, fast and very stable. This board was a real surprise!

Hopefully we will also have the 10' and 10'6 to demo next week

































Andrew,thanks for so many images,you know you'd swear those shots should be on the longboard forum.
The nose and tail thinness remind me of the early hand made PSH sups.












The sup looks very refined,I'm looking forward to your up coming review.
Cheers,
Rocket.

I'm currently running mine with a big single fin. Noserides a dream.

Can't wait to have a go of the 9'6" or so. Admittedly, I would go back to a tri fin setup, which would be the better option for noseriding? It would be so sweet to ride a board that you could consistently hang five or even ten on.

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graffitisup said...
I'm currently running mine with a big single fin. Noserides a dream.

Yes, this is more like I was thinking about for traditional surfing, though. I would be tempted to retain the side fins for a bit more carve.

Where do I see these?

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beerdead said...
Where do I see these?

Beerdead, we should have demo boards in store at Balmoral Paddlesurf later next week.

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rodriguez said...

Andrew,thanks for so many images,you know you'd swear those shots should be on the longboard forum.
The nose and tail thinness remind me of the early hand made PSH sups.




The sup looks very refined, I'm looking forward to your up coming review.
Cheers,
Rocket.

Funny you should mention it Rocket, the same thought had crossed my mind. It is so good to see some performance coming back into shorter all-rounder, Mal style boards.
Remember this classic clip from back in 2009


Nothing beats the versatility of this style of board

Looks like the new Laird Surfers dimension have changed across all sizes with the addition of the smaller boards, 10'6 x 32" and 11'6.

Specs for the 9'
Length 9’
Width 28.75”
Height 4”
Volume (LT) 120
Weight (HP) 18.5lbs
Weight (Composite) 21lbs

Specs for the 9'6
Length 9’6
Width 28.75”
Height 4”
Volume (LT) 125
Weight (HP) 19 lbs
Weight (Composite) 22lbs

Specs for the 10'
Length 10'
Width 29"
Height 4?"
Volume (Lt) 130
Weight HP 20 lbs
Weight Composite 23 lbs

Specs for the 10'6
Length 10'6''
Width 30"
Height 4?"
Volume (Lt) 140
Weight HP 20.5 lbs
Weight Composite 23.5 lbs

Specs for the 10'6 x 32
Length 10'6''
Width 32"
Height 4?"
Volume (Lt) 150
Weight HP 21 lbs
Weight Composite 24 lbs

Specs for the 11'
Length 11'
Width 30½"
Height 4¼"
Volume (Lt) 150
Weight HP 21 lbs
Weight Composite 24 lbs
[i]Specs for the 11'6
[/i]Length 11'6''
Width 31"
Height 4¼"
Volume (Lt) 160
Weight HP 22 lbs
Weight Composite 25.5 lbs

Specs for the 12'
Length 12'
Width 32"
Height 4¼"
Volume (Lt) 175
Weight HP 23 lbs
Weight Composite 26.5 lbs

AA I surfed the 11' yesterday and it was the most stable 30" wide board I have ever been on

Paddles well, the waves were little A frames (totally the wrong board for it (well with me on it )) and I actually managed to hang some face (briefly)........keen to try it with a big single fin Graffitsup has it right I reckon

Would be keen to demo the 10'6 when you get one in stock

Greg

Any demos on the Sunshine Coast , who is distributor ? Are boards made like epoxy GSI ? 9'0 looks sweet for 70kgs

I was under the impression that Laird had parted company with Surftech and that these new boards are made by swiss company Nidecker, you can see their logo on the pad & underside of the nose, which explains why the dims are slightly different (further refined) from the previous Surftech dims.

I had the 10'6 & 10' Surftech versions, the 10'6 was great, but for the beach breaks I surf I found it too long and ended up preferring my Allwave 8'10 & 8'6.

The 10' was faster than the 10'6 but didn't turn so well I found, I preferred the 10'6 - great for long noserides!

Here's a couple of clips of welshman 'Guts' Griffiths on the 10'6 in case you haven't seen them :


I love the look of the new 9 footer, I think that would be perfect for me. (I'm 52 yrs old & 75kg)

damn, that's a nice board. i'd be all over it, if i didn't have this in the mail to me, a one-off first-ever-of-its-kind board and maybe the last, hopefully not, but i should know in a few days.

There has been a bit of swell around Sydney this last week so it wasn't hard to get out try some boards!
I have been lucky enough to score 3 memorable sessions on the Laird 9'6 HP EPS Surfer.

BEACHIES
First chance to try this board was in 3-4' beachie's last week.
Peaky waves, bumpy conditions, light winds. It was your typical mid-tide beachie, fat out back, sucking inside.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Wow, this board is fun! I like a board that you can just hop on and not have to second guess. This board is refined and well balanced. I was pumped after this surf (which is why I started the thread).
Smack, smack, smack this board loves coming hard off the bottom and hitting the top.... even managed a rare floater. Woohoo

THE PEAK.
A few days later the swell was up a bit from the south and I turned up at our local break with the northern peak feathering 4-6' out back between 3' lulls. I had only packed my Naish 8'2 X32 hoping for some sucky walls but when I saw the peak wanting to break I realised that maybe I should have put the Laird on the roof! What I needed was a bit of length and glide to pick up the sets further out. Yep, the decision was made to drive away and get the LAIRD. Something I didn't regret.

The stand out's in this session:
1. The board takes the bigger drops with ease. The refined, pulled in tail allows the board to comfortably hold a rail at speed.
2. At first the nose was daunting on the bigger take offs. I have been riding pulled in noses for the last 4 years and to get back on a full nose and take decent drops took a bit more commitment. Think Laird, I say - just charge it! It worked!
3. At 4" the board sits a lot lower in the water than my near 5", Naish X32. The thinner board does enhance stability except when there is a bit of water moving around, which there was this day. With the whole board sitting lower in the water the board is more prone to water movement.

The glide of this board was a stand out. When the rogue set appeared I had a frantic paddle to get out wide and into position. The reward was a screaming set all the way to the beach. Ooh yeah! Loving that bit of length to pick up the big ones and the confidence to lay down some high speed turns.

SCREAMING WALLS.
There is a special place north up north that only breaks every 6-8 weeks, if the tide, wind and precise swell direction come together.
Earlier this week it was on. I arrived to a mill pond, but paddled out to 4-5' sets between the lulls!

Once again this board just did its thing. It was easy to get into the long period swells and it loved coming off the top on my back-hand.
This was the perfect board for this break that will reward you with 300m rides if you have the board to carry your speed through the fat sections and race around the closeouts.
The board handled long walling fast sections with ease, and generate a real squirt off the bottom.
The only trade off for me this day was the wide nose. With a 12 knot off-shore wind coming up the face it made it extra hard to get into the smaller waves that didn't have a the push of the sets.
The nose came into its own though when getting around the fat sections, this board nose rides with ease. You can camp all day up there if you want!

SO IN A WORD - FUN!

In a few more words......

RELIABLE: Its just an easy reliable board that handles a range of conditions from small beachies to peaks and long walls. Beyond that the full nose would get caught up in steep sucky drops and hard cut backs.
Keen to try the 9'6 Hybrid in these conditions!

GLIDE: This boards paddles well. The straight outline where you stand and the big concave up front combine to make this a board that has good glide for its size.

FAST: The quad set up on the Laird is notably fast. It continued to surprise me, making sections that looked un-makeable.

VOLUME and STABILITY: This board is stable for its size. The nose stability is noticeable and plays a big part in overall stability. 125L is plenty for me at 90kg, but I reckon the 9' at 120L could be a handful in bumpy conditions for my weight.

PERFORMANCE: The 9'6 is just so lively- it rips like a high performance Mal and wants to squirt and turn as soon as you step back. As it is Mal styler board I would prefer the comfort and stability that 9'6 offers.

CONSTRUCTION: I tested the HP or high performance model. It is light and as mentioned came with 'custom' foot wells. The Wood Veneer composite board is a tad heavier and would offer more durability.
The word from the distributor is that his DEMO boards are from the first batch a few months ago that came in a bit soft. He has assured us that all HP EPS boards being shipped out now are a lot harder and more durable.

Balmoral Paddlesurf will have demo boards in later this week so we can see for ourselves!
- 9'6 Hybrid Demo
- 10' Wood Demo
- 10'6 x 30 Demo
- 10'6 x 32 Demo

For me the weight saving and classic look of the HP EPS boards is a winner

I like a board that I can just hop on and it goes. There is no second guessing this board. It is refined at every turn and to be honest is hard to fault. It wasn't easy but I reluctantly handed it back yesterday. I have caught some of the longest, sickest walls in a long time on this board so it is hard to not feel a warm glow of affection towards it.

Grab one and see for yourself! AA

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AA said...

beerdead said...
Where do I see these?

Beerdead, we should have demo boards in store at Balmoral Paddlesurf later next week.

Awesome. The surfer is the perfect board for the typical day at Manly. Next time I am anchored off Shelly, I am keen to drop in, grab a demo and see if I can show the hipsters how to noseride a SUP.

That 10-0 is sick

what a great review. i hope you do a similar one for the 10-6 x 32 when it comes in. would love to know how the width affects the ride.

AA, what size quads are on that 9'6"?

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firesurf said..

AA, what size quads are on that 9'6"?

firesurf they come with a 6.5" glass centre fin. F8 side bites and QD2 400 quad rears.

Thanks for the feedback on the review guys and all the enquiries. For those chasing, the Demo boards just landed today!



The wood laminate looks sweet and we can confirm that the HP EPS boards we received are significantly harder than the demo boards we tried last week.


10'6 x 32"

10' x 29 (and 10'6 x 30")

Bottom of Wood laminate board

Wood finish