Which just went to show how important the fin placement and hip was to the overall package, as well as how I just completely jagged it on my first dart. Mark Richards was definitely onto it with the hip combining with the hip, which is I suppose why all the other brands utilized it as well.
I also tried the the Hipster as a thruster, but that didn’t really work either. The twin combo and the hip work seamlessly, whereas the board seemed to fall over on the hip as a thruster.
Then there was the process of trying it in different waves; forehand, backhand, small and large waves. We took it to an outer reef and tested against another board I’d designed with a reputation for speed and it made it feel like it had a handbrake on. And this was the first time someone else had ridden it, just to reassure me I wasn’t tripping.
The next step was to shrink and blow it up into different sizes which is where the aid of CAD just makes life so easy compared to days of old. The lil’ 7’8×28 had tested well, but when I let Dreu Beavis have a go he wouldn’t give it back. So now I was without a small demo board, but armed with the knowledge I was onto something.
I think the one that blew me away the most was the 8’6x 31.5. A pretty dang big board for me, but the sensations were the same, just on an oversized and undoubtedly over-achieving larger sized SUP.
