Windsurf.me.uk

Deck Designs by Geoff Hautman

My beauties!

 

I thought it was about time I did a little Moo Review and wrote something about my waveboards and how they came about, having now sailed them for well over a year..

Board number 1.

First up I wanted a light wind waveboard. Something that would 'get up and go' super early, but still rip and go vert, and still compact enough to be throw about. A lot of surfboards have 'hips' to bring the tail in narrower (to allow to go more verticle), and a famous board for doing this in the surfing world is the Channel Islands MTF 

I always loved the look of this one, and it made sense for what I wanted.

I'm 5'10 and 78kg. Jon made the board 80Ltr, 225 long by 57.5 wide. 36cm OFOT and 40.5 OFON. Double concave to bonkers tail, rocker number 3 and 5.75Kg!

It performed how we'd hoped! It planes super early and flies about, especially if you take your foot out the back strap and place it on the 'hip' and use the flat wide part of the board, it trucks upwind too this way in a gnats fart. Then if you want to crack a decent turn, it'll do that too. Genius! We perhaps under did it on the volume though, as I've actually found it a little sinky for slogging out in big waves and walls of white water.

Board number 2 was pretty straight forward..  a full on ripping machine for epic wind and wave conditions. I went for a super fast and loose twin fin, knowing that the k4s give the grip needed.

Jon made this one 78ltr, 228 long by 54.5 wide, OFOT 34.5cm, OFON 40cm, rocker number 4 and 5.3kg!

I should maybe have gone for a quad afterall, this board turned out rediculously loose! So much so that I've found bigger stiffer Stubbie or Rocket fins are needed to calm it down! It's an awesome bit of kit when the conditions are right -it turns on a dime and is super light and compact for jumping.

Board number 3. I'd noticed a lot of top sailors were using big boards to good effect in big surf, and a lot of times I was landing aerials infront of the wave but getting swallowed up by the white water. So I wanted a bigger volume 'full on ripping machine' for big waves and wobble n ride.

Jon made this one 88ltr, 229 long by 59 wide, OFOT 36cm, OFON 42.5cm, 5 box, S-glass/Kevlar, rocker number 4 and 5.9kg! A scaled up board number 2.

This board feels much smaller when turning than it is and as it's so versatile and easy to sail, it's the board I sail most. The 80ltr comes out the bag for slightly windier and more onshore conditions. Then the 78 for when it's proper windy. Notice I use a different number of fins in each board.. it's just what I've found works best for each after lots of playing around. (16.5 rocket twins in the 78, 10 Ezzy + 17 Flex in the 88, and 8 Ezzy + 15 Stubby in the 80 though I'd happily use any in 2,3 or 4 fin mode)

88 in the shed

Check out the Rockers..

78, 80, 88.

The boards in action...

I've got to add that I've been hammering these boards in the gnarliest conditions the UK and Ireland can serve up and they've done me proud. The only board that has sustained any damage is the 80 which got dragged over dry reef at Sandside and then had a fin clouted hard enough to damage the box. Sensibly I have a small supply of resin (and cloth which I've never needed) to do my own repairs, so after thoroughly drying the board out I can do a good repair and not cause any lasting problems.

I asked Jon the Moo man Kennett for some words from his side of the shed, and here's what he had to say..

"When a high profile talent wants a set of your boards initially it's a worry but the reality is unless they're a Prime Donne it can be easier than a regular customer not that such a thing really exists!

Having worked with Steve on speed boards I kinda knew it would be ok as the speed board brief was pretty cool" build me the fastest you can, I can sail anything!" Job done!

The move to Moo wave boards was unexpected but change of sponsor etc and here we are, pretty flattering for me as Steve chose to actually get his wallet out to buy a quiver of Moo 's as opposed to some loan production kit.

After various conversations about board type it all came back to " well I only really sail decent waves as living in Leicester I'm not going to drive to sail crap conditions" fair enough, the first board took ages to build due to work load in the Dairy and was a bit of an experiment with quite a radical tail, with hindsight the whole board size should have been increased to allow for the lack of tail size but it was an experiment with a team rider and still works really well. 

The second board was a full on 78l twin fin, full fat rocker and again super light. 

It's relatively easy to build a full on wave board for a decent sailor in decent conditions compared to a bigger board for more around conditions, I have spent a lot of time perfecting the later making " freewave" (to coin a horrible phrase) boards that are actually nice to use, not patronising stiff planning pigs!! Although Steve puts on an impressive display from his aerial arsenal he's not a heavy footed buffoon and the reality is his boards are more likely to get damaged by Izzy jumping them not Steve, consequently the shape can be more full on but still perform due to the great weight. Board number three is a scaled version of the 78l to 88l but with five fin boxes. I'm not a huge fan of the five fin box board but if you run a successful fin company it's kind of ok I reckon ;)

Mr Geoff came up with the Holy Cow and Flying Friesian designs, and the black look is a development from the original naked carbon speed board but this time a vacuum laminated black tint/lacquer on S Glass which is a new development and looks great.

Sent from my Moopad"