Hey Guys,
Steve here from Melbourne! I was fortunate enough to try out the Stubby 88 in a Typical Northerly in the Bay!
So Northerly conditions in Melbourne are generally fairly flat with just your stock standard chop!! So even though this isn't what the board is designed for it was still good to see what this board could do.
As from all the photos its a fairly odd shape, and just by looking at the way its setup it's hard to tell how it would perform in real world conditions...
It was about 20 - 25kts and I was using a 4.8 FREEK, and I was comfortably powered up in the gusts at 76kg.
We have to remember this this board IS a WAVE BOARD, so I wasn't expecting early planing or a high top speed, and too be honest I wasn't impressed at first... When you are comfortably planing along and not really 'driving' the board, it's speed and acceleration are what is expected of a normal wave board... fairly slow and average! However, when a gust hit and you 'lock it down' and 'drive it', IT GOES!!
I was having some drag races with guys on the water, and in the gusts I was smoking them easy. This board LOVES being overpowered!!! Really comfortable at high speeds and just eats through the chop! I was concerned that having such a flat nose would see me nose diving, however since the planing zone has been moved so far back, (you are planing off the front foot strap) it wasn't a worry at all.
Northerly's in Melbourne aren't know for their waves (more like steep chop), so it was fairly hard to test its jumping... but on the odd ramp I tried to 'send it'.
Even though it was smallish, you can tell in the air how easy it is going to be to control. With it being so short you have so much control over it in the air!!! This is going to be a wicked jumping board!!
Now... not all was butterfly's and rainbows! If you are thinking you can throw some freestyle on this board, forget it! There is almost no pop! However this isn't a freestyle board.
I have approached the PWA with a great idea for a new discipline "FLAT WATER WAVE-RIDING". This board would excel... I can only imagine how good it would be on wave! The bottom turns feel like its on rails, you can push it as hard as you want without losing speed, and the 'top turns' were super slashing, it almost felt as if the board was 'drifting' through the top turn!
It's only a matter of time before I harden up and get this board out in the waves, and are able to give a review on what this board was designed for.
All in all, a really versatile board that isn't just designed to handle DTL wave conditions, but also the standard bump-and-jump conditions!!!
All you Victorian Heads drop on down to the ZU Boardsports in St.Kilda to give this board a demo!!!
GET INVOLVED!!
Steve