Today I participated in the first of the Natal Longboard Trials, which will decide the team for SA Champs, to be held in It’s not all about heat scores and placings, we all want to make the team, don’t get me wrong. It’s an important place, if surfing is what you are passionate about.
I got the opportunity to check out some longboards and one of Hugh Thompson's Natural Curve boards caught my eye, a great looking all round board, that looks like it’s got the full bag of tricks, nose riding to tail blocking. Some of the guys took this board for a bang and all the reports were positive, Hugh himself rode it in his heat, which says a lot, a man with enough local and national surfing trophies in his cupboard to rival Kelly.
Hugh Thompson standing next to the much talked about board, and some other pics of the 9'0 x 22 1/2 x 2 1/2 (dimensions mentioned from memory) Natural Curve, it has a box fin with trailors.
I bought the new H1 FCS fins, they look great, and have the new Nexus technology (stiff bottom for drive and flexy tip for the vorsprung durch technik). They seem to going really well, they pretty big, although seem to have a lot of flex, I super keen to try them in big surf!
That being said, I also tried a mate's FCS H2 setup, the set up made the board surprisingly loose, i thought that due to the splay of the fins, it would have made the board stiff and tight. I prefer my set up, it allows me the heavier guy more control, and I have the extra beef to push the bigger fins around. But if you are lighter chappy, then the below setup may be for you.
and finally some other fin set up's that caught my eye: H2 Quad set up, and new the Ignition FCS single fin with FCS GX 0 trailors.
It was a great day!
Hey Slyde, please ask Hugh what the secret to his skinny frame is......my goal is to get as stick thin as possible, any tips? Tipping the scales at 76.8kgs as of yesterday.....Cheers NCN (the re-invented North Coast Nige)
ReplyDeletePS - took a couple on the head today up north, leash snapped and had an interesting swim back in - all good tho, keeps you honest
NCN, Hugh's technique other than genetics is just surfing, he doesnt even eat, he is a ninja, nothing stops him! Ha ha, getting worked, is part and parcel of the fun.
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