Summer Board Demo

I demo'd one of Bob Miller's boards in very small and very glassy beach break this morning. With summer coming, the NorCal "small wave" season is almost on us. After this next little pulse of swell that is coming later today and for the next few days, most the forecasters are predictging a major slowdown in the NPAC jetstream with the concomitant slowdown in northerly swell production. The plan is to take the SUP and the shortboard to the beach and paddle and/or surf as the muse moves me.

I perused Bob's website last week and checked out his boards after seeing one of his Fish shapes on Craig's list. His DT5 series (Diamond Tail five fin slots) has the plan shape, thickness and dims that looked just right for me and for what I want to do with the board so I headed over to the warehouse/shaping bay/sales room on Saturday for a better look. Bob wasn't there but had a good conversation with Nesh, who answered all my questions and set-up the demo.

I took the 6'8" DT5 after cogitating over it, or the 7'. At my age I just don't have the energy, strength or (most importantly) the flexibility to ride a shortboard that isn't more like a "big boy" shorty than a board that is more thinned out for younger folks. The cool thing about this board is that it has the dims that I think will work for me, and also the EPS core is a little more floaty than it's polyurethane kin. Also (and this is a big plus) it's got five, countem', 5 fin slots. I can play with more fin configurations than I'll ever remember and I love that kind of stuff!

As a matter of fact, Nesh gave me five fins to play with: a set of Future Quad vectors and a 5 1/2" in center fin, so I could surf it as a quad and as a thruster. I had my own Future Quad Scimitar 451's which I really liked on my (now sold) 6' Quad Fish (too small for me to surf well) so I used those for my maiden surf on the DT5.

I took it out in stunningly bad surf at Platty's. It was low tide and most waves were breaking almost right on the shore, but there is enough swell in the water that sporadic closeout sets came through with an occasional wave that actually had a shoulder. But it was good enough to find out what I needed to know.

How does it paddle? Incredibly well for a 6'8" board, no problem catching waves. Is it stable? Yes, a nice wide diamond tail (14') and 21 1/4" wide, quite sufficient. How does it float me? Perfect. The entire board is just barely underwater when I straddle it. How does it take off late? Beyond my expectations. I thought it would be squirrely but no, very stable, holds in well, and gets up to speed pretty quickly. How does it turn? Like a goose on Exlax...very, very loose...and again, very stable.

So we may have a winner and a very fun option for the small summer beach break that is almost upon us.
April 7, 2008 (M)
In: 0840
Out: 094515
AT= 45 - 51 degrees
WT= 51.1 degrees at the farshore buoy
Wx: Clear with a big fog sitting offshore
Tide: 0.8 Rising to 2 feet
Wind: Calm to light southeastly
Sea Surface: Glassy in a light rolling sea
Buoy: NWS
Sporadic buoy data
0900: 3.6 feet @ 10 seconds WNW
1000: 3.9 feet @ 9.1 seconds NW
1100: 4.3 feet @ 10.8 seconds NW
Bob Miller Devolution 6'8" DT5
Fin set-up: Future Quads: Scimitar 451's
Bathymetry: Sand bars
CDIP: 6.3 feet at 8 seconds from 320 degrees and 1.5 feet at 14 seconds from 190 degrees