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Today was Mother Nature's April Fool's day. Forecast for 20-25, gusts to 35. And early in the day it looked like that... before & after church, then we took one of the kids for a picnic, just him and his parents for some one-on-one, and we about blew away with our picnic.
About 2pm, normally Final Build time, I headed to Oleander and when I turned onto Ocean Drive the view of the sparse whitecaps was not welcome. About ten people were coming off the water and I remembered the forecast was for south and I was planning to go to Bird Island! Doh! The windline was a bit to get to, and it was reportedly dying. Phillipe said iWindsurf had it pegged.
After BSing for a bit, Thomas asked to see my new board, the Aero 127 and I pulled it out. Since it was out... I decided to rig my 6.6 and see how it did on the bay. I liked it the one time I had it worked before, but that was at Bird. The only complaint I had was the inboard footstraps didn't offer enough leverage over the fin for going very fast, or staying in control during gusts or going upwind. I left them, though, to see how the bigger chop would affect it.
Same complaint.
I had some good rides, but couldn't test the jumping ability (the board is really light, short and wide, and I think it'll do okay, especially since it will itself provide for some lift -- it's 74 cm wide!). I couldn't get going really fast either direction, and on port, coming in, I had trouble getting any leverage at all. It was bad. My conclusion, unless someone can give me a pointer on how to get more leverage with the inboard straps, is that this board is unuseable as a board with inboard straps. I moved the single strap and put another on. Now the back straps are essentially a double-wide setup, and I think it will work. When I'm in the waves, which I plan to do soon, I think it will just make the windward incoming strap really, really big, so my foot will slide across the centerline. When I'm in the Bay or at Bird, I will make it normal sized. I don't plan to immediately move the front straps, but they may need to come out to the edge a little more, too. There are enough holes to let me play around a little.
I do like the board. It's short, almost oval, but rides fine. It's been fun in the choppy bay (admittedly, a pretty flat day, but bear in mind my 6.6 is other people's 5.5), and at the flatter Bird Island. I worry now about how hard it will be to turn in the waves -- it has a very wide tail. But I find nothing difficult about the board other than just needing to tweak it to find it's sweet spot. It's easy to jibe, I can fast tack even without the benefit of planing fast enough to carve upwind and uphauling won't be a problem. I give it a thumbs up, and the only way I'd retract that is if moving the straps doesn't help the leverage, which will mean more speed, better jumps and better upwind performance.
A sidenote: the straps are ALL the way in front of the Tuttle fin box, which is really odd. I've never seen a board like that (maybe a longboard, I guess). I think that has something to do with the leverage. I was also using a Wardog Weed/Wave (12") which is the fin I use everywhere. It's swept like a weed fin, but is more forward than most weed fins. All this could have an effect. Normally the fins I've received with Starboards (this is my third) have been best suited for dumpster tossing practice, the two fins that arrived with the Aero at least look like fins, and not toys, so maybe I'll try them out. One is a wave fin, one is a freeride style fin. Both are more forward, and are even specially cut to have the leading edge about an inch in front of the Tuttle box. All said, that might do the trick for more leverage.
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