So a jc deep pro 8'4 happened to come my way at a Rather good price and couldn't say no following an Xmas blow out!
the dims are 8'4 x 28.5 x 4 1/8 @103l. Quite different to previous years when the rails were a bit thicker and around 110l.
I took it out this morn for a quick sesh at my local in some solid cleanish OH waves.

First off, this board is a sensitive little bugger at 103l. Actually feels potentially on par in stability with my new flash at 93l.
considering it has basically the same dims, rocker and concaves as my 8'4 109l lokahi, the boards perform soo differently!
Ive loved my lokahi but the slightly pulled down rails and slightly lower volume of the JC sounded like a good replacement after the lokahi felt like a barge after using the smaller flash.
I was worried that it might not have enough rocker for late and decent drops but it seems to have a heap of rocker hidden away in those last inches near the tip! I made a couple of re-entries off a foldout lip that were literally skimming on the nose of the board and thought i was doomed but stuck it! Really seems to have more rocker than it looks.

the rails are definitely low- very pulled down considering it's supposed to be a flat deck. Doesn't 'feel' like a flat deck.

The first wave I got was a pretty late drop, but my god it felt like a knife sliding through butter. The only thing that came to my mind was 'wow that felt like riding on silk' despite having a heavy folding low tide OH lip! Just felt so smooth and effortless.
very different to the flash which was a lot more loose and top to bottom, this felt like a barrelling machine with effortless down the line silky ness. Mind you the waves weren't really the kind to throw up much of a face to pull turns as opposed to close out, drop in, go down the line and get out waves.

It didnt feel like it was a board i immediately started ripping on but a different learning curve.
Strangely, my am1 fins which don't work that well on my lokahi felt a lot more at home on this board and much more reactive.
it feels like a board which I was only just scratching the surface on and can do so much more win , I just need to learn to its reactiveness and sensitivity.
At least it's alresdy proven itself on some solid swell and can only get better in smaller stuff. Will be really interesting to try it as a quad as well

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benjl said..
I was worried that it might not have enough rocker for late and decent drops but it seems to have a heap of rocker hidden away in those last inches near the tip! I made a couple of re-entries off a foldout lip that were literally skimming on the nose of the board and thought i was doomed but stuck it! Really seems to have more rocker than it looks.

Note that it may just be the low volume rails. The wave pushes less on thin tails so you are less launched/tilted forward by the lip, and need less rocker.

This is why riders seek very low volume boards in powerful / hollow waves, even with all their paddling drawbacks: the board tail can sink in the wave instead of making you feel like a fly on the windshield of a 18-wheeler :-)

Cheers Colas. Strangely I find the vice versa with the flash and dc pro, the flash is 10l less but I've nose pearled that a few times due to the narrow pin tail getting on very late whereas the dc pro was still sitting low in the water but seemed the squash tail and added nose kick kept it out of trouble?

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benjl said..
I've nose pearled that a few times due to the narrow pin tail getting on very late whereas the dc pro was still sitting low in the water but seemed the squash tail and added nose kick kept it out of trouble?

Interesting, I would I guessed the opposite... what makes a shape work is really quite complex!

We have hollow waves on Cape Cod. My personal experience has been a squash, diamond, or square tail will definitely get you in a little earlier and nose rocker is definitely a good thing.

In larger waves the rounded pin, or even a full pintail gives you more control. However, there is a trade-off on ease of entry.