New Board Report to Dave Vernor from Jack Murphy

Dave – Here’s my report on the new board you just made for me. Since I’m posting it on the blog where others will see it I’ll list here that my board is:

Length - 6’8”
Tail - Round Pin
With Suspension
Material - Poly (not EPS)
Fin Setup – Quad
Thickness - 2 7/16"


First I want say that I just had (on Saturday Jan. 10th) one of the best surf sessions I've ever had ...ever!!! Before I talk about my turns, drops and cutbacks, I should mention the conditions were also some of my favorite: 5-8 foot waves on a wide open west-facing beach break working on the outer bars. Generally glassy with light puffs of offshores and the peak we were working was fairly broad, although serving up plenty of workable shoulders and also long walls along the beginning section (peak) that you could race along with a good chance of making it. Not really breaking top-to-bottom, but more rampy. So you get the picture. It was my second session on the board and we surfed for about 2.5 hours. Just for the record I was with Jon Day and his friend Heather from Carpenteria.

Top Turns
My turns at (or near) the lip were pretty frequent and what I remember about them was how controlled they felt. By controlled I mean that I really felt locked in during my turns and it really seemed that once committing to my turn it actually unfolded along this broad radius. This is SOOOO different than what I've been experiencing on my 5'8" quad fish, which is more like skating to the coping in a pool by rising to the top then snapping around and coming straight back down. Don't know if this really captures the experience but the short statement is I was really able to carve turns. Which brings me to the next point...

Cutbacks
Every time I got in the middle of my turns (and that controlled radius) I just felt so psyched to just gouge in deep and complete the circle with a gratifying cutback. Now mind you, I'm not trying to say that I am good enough to do this amazing 540 degree Tom Curran cutback, but I am saying they felt GOOD, ...really good. And I came out of them with speed and was able to do it all over again on the same wave. That's bordering on unprecedented for me and I was just so fired up after some of my rides. So happy. So fun.

Down the line speed
I really felt the speed of this board, and mostly in cases where I had to pump around a falling section. Also immediately after bottom turns. There was one particularly steep drop going backside where (with my limited skill) it was all I could do to make the drop, then hold steady on my rail to make the racing wall. It was fast, it was stable and extremely fun. And the fact the wave was a few feet overhead, it was also a pretty decent testament to the fact that this was also meant to be my stepup board.

Drops
I caught so many waves and made some pretty steep drops. So I'm happy I went with Poly instead of EPS.

Well that's it. I hope you appreciate the write-up because I REALLY appreciate what you've made. Amazing quality and it really hit the mark for me.

Feel free to cut and paste this for your site if you'd like or better yet you can link to this post which would be really cool too to see some connections over from your website. Take care and "Keep surfing. No matter what."

Jack