Pictures by Coreban, Naish, Starboard and Southpoint

Clint's Background

I have been surfing since an early age. Body-boaring in primary school, moved onto knee-boarding for a while and then eventually progressed to surfing after leaving school (still wish I had done the move earlier !)  So I have pretty much grown up in the Ocean but had a 10 year "sabbatical" due to playing competitive Rugby and then living in London.

I returned back to SA in 2003 and got into the Surf Ski scene for a few years. Eventually went to a 15 year school reunion (God I am old) and all my old surfing mates from school were on my case about not surfing so I thought I would give it a go. I dug out an old long-board and went for a session in Hermanus about 3 years ago and the bug bit HARD again... with 3 trips to Bali and about 20 to J-Bay a surf has become part of the daily routine again.

SUP Background

I started SUP'ing about a year ago now and have truly been HOOKED !! I am not to sure if former surfers have had the similar experience but I did/still do get allot of grief from my surfing buddies about riding a SUP ;-). I just smile knowingly and asked them if they enjoyed there 4 waves that they scratched for during a session when I have more that 20 under the belt... 

For me being a Dad of 2 young kids and running my own businesses time is of the essence and this is the beauty of the SUP. In a one hour session you get at least 10-15 waves and spend most of the time riding compared to allot of "dead time" that is spent waiting for waves on conventional boards. 

Is started off on a Naish 11"6 that I got from Brendon of SUPHQ fame. I road that for about a month and felt it was time to move to a shorter board. I bumped in Brendon one Friday at Muizenburg and he was on the Naish 10"6. We decided to swap at the waters edge.... we are both VERY impulsive. 

I struggled a bit with the 10"6... I think the board was too narrow for me at 28". One thing about that board though was that it surfed like a DREAM ! 

Like I said above... I am impulsive and I had a cunning plan. I was going to sell the 10"6 ... get another 11"6 Naish and then get the Coreban 9"6. 

And this is what I did. 

I REALLY struggled on the Coreban 9"6 and put it down to the fact that I was too heavy for the board. I was also not ecstatic the way the board surfed. ** Please note this is NOT a dig at Coreban as I know plenty of people who rave about there boards but just my personal opinion. Both Barend and Ivan from Coreban are extremely helpful and knowledgeable guys **

I surfed the 9"6 at J-Bay, the Point,  on one of my trips and was not happy with how things went so sold it - did I mention that I was impulsive ? 

In hindsight this was probably due to the fact that I had only been SUP'ing for 2 months and was matching the turning of the 6"6 I was riding Supers with to a SUP - not a fair comparison.

Purchase Decision

After riding the Naish 11"6 for a while I knew it was time to look into riding a shorter board again as I really wanted to start SUP'ing the beach breaks that are close to me, I live in Noordhoek. 

And so the purchase decision began. This time I took my time and demo'd a few boards and did allot of reading up on the Net so I thought that I would post my findings as it may aid others in a similar position.

Bio

I am 34 years old and weigh about 92kg's. Put is this way.... in the early hunter gatherer days I was the guy and put in the big burst of speed... put in a HUGE hit on the Gazelle .... put in the killer blow with some sharp object and then the skinny guys run the buck down for a few days. 

Weight is obviously a big decision when buying a SUP as this affects the choice of board and for me to find a board that I was still comfortable and can float me was of vital importance.

Coreban 10'6" 

This was the first board I test drove. Thanks to Gigs at Surf Zone in Blouberg for letting me demo it. I road this board at Kamers, on the RHS of Big Bay, in good over-head conditions. There was a decent swell running which created quite a side chop off the rocks. All in all the board was OK. Did not surf as well as I would have hoped and the stability was good.

I think at this stage I realized that my SUPing ability had advanced since my 9"6 balls up for a few months before and I was now after a more maneuverable and smaller board.

Starboard Whopper 10' X 34

After trolling the net for "bigger guys" boards I came across the Whopper. It is 10" X 34" and it is extremely wide ! Miles from Sport n Surf from town helped me out and was very helpful. They had a demo board which I took away with me for +- 10 days. 

I know SUP's are expensive but it REALLY was nice to be able to take a demo board away with you and try it out in various conditions ... just thought I should add that in for Importers out there.

The whopper was definitely the surprise package out of all the boards I tested. At 34" wide it is RIDICULOUSLY stable and surfs pretty well as well ! I think if you are a heavier guy looking to get into the wave riding aspect of SUP'ing then this is the board to look into ! 

I surfed this board at Witsands, Long Beach and Muizenburg and found it to be great fun but did not turn as sharply as I would have liked. 

I dropped the demo back off and continued on my search ! 

** NOTE ** As it turns out the main importer for Starboard is up in JHB and they have not yet got the 2010 stock in 

Naish Mana 9"5

Naish were kind enough to host a Demo day about 2 weeks back and it was great to try out all the 2010 products. For all those looking at buying Naish products you are in good hands here in Cape Town by getting looked after by Rob and Peter.

This board really was great fun. At 9"5 X 31" with 190 L of volume it is a great board choice for the heavier guy looking into moving onto a shorter board. Naish boards surf really well and this board was no exception. 

From a stability point of view it was great and really comfortable. After the demo day I knew that this was probably going to be the board that I was going to go for... but then the good ol brain started working.  

The problem with this board, as weird as it sounds, was that it was toooooo comfortable. It felt that I was not pushing myself at all by making the progression onto this board and thought that I needed to look at a board with less volume and width so that I would struggle initially "finding my feet" but will then benefit from the wave riding ability later.

I also love nose riding so the rounder shape of this board suited me well.

Naish Hokua 9'6" 

Brendon, yes the one from SUPHQ fame, has recently bought this board and was convinced that this would be the board for me ! I also road this board at the Naish Demo day... 

To summarize ... I STRUGGLED on this board. I had flash backs to when I was on the Coreban 9"6 some 10 months ago when I spent most of my time wobbling and trying to find my feet.

I had about 6 waves on the board and one thing is for sure if that it surfs great ! 

When I went through my surf ski stage I kept on getting faster skis which meant they were getting less stable each time. At the end I was on the fastest ski you could get but spent most of my time focussing on staying up-right rather than paddling and my paddling ended up suffering.

I know there is no real correlation between SUP'ing and surf ski paddling but the main focus on me being on the water is to have FUN !

Let's be honest here... I am not going to win any world titles but I am more than happy to put in some carving turns, spend some quality time on the nose of my board and have FUN !  And to me the stability is a vital aspect.

I know all who have got used to this board love it but for me it was a bit too much to bite off this time around... 

Southpoint Bonga Parkins 10' X 27

The only reason I tried this board out was that a mate of mine had it. At 27" wide it is a VERY narrow SUP. Take make this worse... the board "drops off" on the deck making the standing area even narrower. I think I read some-wher that it is only 21" wide.

This board was as wobbly as all hell for me. I rode it in good over-head  Witsands and struggled !!! It was by far the tippiest SUP I have ever been on... it actually reminded me of the VERY first time I got on a SUP. Having said that... I found my feet a little bit and found that it surfed really really well !!! 

Starboard Element 9'8" X 30 

Yet again following the advice of Brendon ... he mentioned that I should check this board out. I tried to demo it one day, Bay Sports in Table View have a rental, but on the way there I phoned to make sure the board was in but they had rented it out for the day. 

The 2009 model has 145L volume and with a nice tight pin tail I thought that this board could be the answer but never got to ride it. 

The Decision

As I am sure you picked up above I am "slightly" impulsive ! 

So what I did was buy the one and only board that I did not Demo... the Starboard Element ! 

I really like the way the Naish's surf but I felt I was sitting perfectly in-between the two boards I tried and needed a shorter board that came in around the 150L mark in terms of volume and hence had to look somewhere else.

So after ALL the agonizing and trolling the net I ended up being my impulsive self and buying something that I had not tried.

Starboard Element 9'8" X 30 - First Impression

After dropping a monster 10K on a board I was dead keen to try it out... I think I paid that for my first car back in 92 ?? 

Yesterday evening I had my first session at Witsands. As you can imagine the nerves were buzzing and all the way to the beach I was thinking... you are a dick ... what you have done. 

I parked on the Crayfish Factory side and eased out the slip into a glassy ocean to ease the nerves. The board automatically felt right. The board I got has the "Star Trac" on it with is a semi rough surface that has been applied on the board which becomes sticky when wet. I was very cynical about this but the system really does work well.. I just hope it lasts ! 

It did not take long before I found the sweet spot on the board and had some good fun in head high witsands. The board did spin out on a big bottom turn which was not a good sign but after the surf I realized that one of the outer fins were not put in properly and was hanging out which put my mind at ease.

This morning I took the board out in 1-2 Muizenburg. The board paddled nicely through the foamies and very NB paddled into almost every-thing. I was a bit worried about a shorter board at the Burg as it is often very flat in weak but this board paddles into every-thing.

I also started to find my feet on the board and did some nice carving turns and spent a bit of QT on the nose. 

So.. all in all VERY happy with my purchase even after taking a gamble with it !

I will post a more detailed review in a few months time and am heading off to Bali for 2 weeks in May and the way things stand right now I am leaving the short boards at home and only taking the SUP.