Just came in from a 3 hour shoulder high surf at Currumbin , here's the pros and cons review of the VP 7-6 x 26 compared to a Gulliver 7-3 x 27...
Pros:- So good to finally get it in decent surf , it's pretty amazing and it's like riding a bike for the first time without training wheels. You can ride the boards two ways really heavy on the back foot and rail drive or keep it flat and it's like riding in a skate bowl. Re-entries and cutback backs just link up producing so much speed. The more I ride it the more stable it is so you do adjust to it. It was a real 4 seasons day will glassy water , wind , rising tide into choppy conditions , so a really good test. In the end I was behind the rock and was pretty comfortable with the swell rebound coming off the rocks and the cross shore breeze.
Cons:- The board did seem to struggle trying to make it's way through the fat section at the Alley and when I swapped with Porchey on his 7-3 it didn't have that problem. The VP wouldn't climb as well when you didn't have the speed behind you it would slow down and thats got me thinking the narrower tail is sinking or the water flow is not happening because of the over pulled in rails. So maybe I've gone too far and it backs up the theory of the straighter rails. In the smaller waves which walled up better it was fine but on the bigger open fat slower faces you could feel it stall. Another thing to look at is the 7-3 has a massive V all the way through and the VP is concaved with a tiny V (see pic below). This is also worth looking at. This is weird for some reason on re-entries I kept getting smacked in the nuts. Lucky it was bit cold and I had boardies on so they were safely tucked away. You really have to compress on the board through your turns so if you have dud knees these boards are not for you. My board had a really small sweet spot and you constantly need to shift your feet , the 7-3 had a really big sweet spot with little foot movement , again I saying it's my narrow tail but his rear fins where too small , when it let go you went flat on your back.
Summary:- Because the boards are so lively and easy to surf , you really do pull off and link together some amazing moves but it's pretty easy to over surf them and start going all over the shop. It's very rare at the Alley to get guys paddle over and ask about the board normally it
"Fark Off" , so I must have doing some things right. I know I can go smaller surfing the 7-3 it was just stable as my board with the wider tail. These are the changes I will make on the next one , 7-3 make the tail wider by 2 inches which will make it close to Simons boards at Deep , narrow the nose by and inch , it's wider than all the rest and drop it down to 25 wide.I'll add some foam to bring back the lost volume. Re the V schools still out on that one .I'll discuss that with the boys over a few beers.
and I going back to the straighter rail theory. My board had it's merits and would draw cleaner lines but overall I think the Gulliver 7-3 was the better board.
Here are some pics of the comparisons , and I threw in a shot of a older Simmons Hydro (not a Deep) 7-0 x 30 - 98 litre (massive concave) , my mates comment on this was it is really a front foot board , good side ways stability but really rocky fore and aft. Very twitchy and hard to find feet placement.
I'll shot a video over the weekend.
