Hi guys,
Most of you know I have one of Bob McTavish's hand shaped pin tails. He shaped about a half dozen of them earlier this year. He gets a bigger commission on his hand shapes too!
Here's a photo;
It has a 10 inch Single Fin (Blue) on the otherside!
I was originally interested in the smaller 9'1, but when it came to the crunch and my 9'6 was one of the only ones left, I decided to take up the offer... especially since it was also a reduced price.
The 9'6 (x22"1/2 x 3"1/4) is a great paddler. It has a very mild Vee through the entire board. Modern hard rails up in the tail... and elsewhere the rails are mostly softened up modern rails, rather than old school log rails.
It's the only board I have ridden since I received it (except for riding the EvoII in The Maldives for 10 days).
How does it go... - UNREAL! It goes really well in EVERYTHING. The 1 Board Quiver, with a slight old school influence.
Knee High to Thigh High Waves - paddles in like a dream, a real wave hog, keep your bottom turns smooth, and get ready to walk forward for trim time, and run back onto the tail for a great drawn out cutback... and repeat again...
Waist High to Shoulder High Waves - you can jam a nice hard bottom turn if you like, or you can draw it out. The only limitation I have found, is when you jam hard off the bottom, and then jam hard off the top, it sort of gets hung up, on the top turn, but that can be OK because the wave face can really steepen up and it makes for a challenging steep 2nd drop...
Head High to 1.5 overhead - still goes really well. You kind of miss the extra speed that you can generate from the side biters on other modern longboards. Plus the extra/faster maneuverability that modern multi-fins can deliver. But once you understand that you can very quickly adjust, and the pin tail handles the business, and the smooth long cut backs are amazing.
Overall, it probably feels shorter than a 9'6. Paddles fast like a 9'6, probably because it is meaty through the middle... But you could cut 1"1/2 off the nose and 2"1/2 off the tail, and you would have a 9'2...
Rating - 10 out of 10 - for a single fin volane board at 8.8kgs.
The Rails have that green volane tinge to them too!
Simondo
> 9 months ago, 16 Nov 2012
