Freezing wind, lashing rain storms - but this board still blows my mind

This morning's surf was cold. It was 7 degrees outside, but with the wind chill it felt like -5...

It rained and hailed horizontally. The normally very cold water felt warm compared to the open air. The swell was a long range winter swell pulsing in from the South West.

I found a nice left left bank that not surpirsingly was deserted in the early dawn grey. Paddling out with the rain stinging the back of my neck and an icecream headache after duck diving every wave, I questioned whether this was such a good idea.

Three waves later I was blissfully unaware of the cold freezing wind, or the horrizontal hail lost completely in the unique euphoria that only a good surf can bring.

My intention was to test the Flounder in some decent waves, well I achieved that, the set waves were overhead and were wrapping perfectly around and unloading on the shallow bank. The Flounder performed exceptionally well. By far the best board I have shaped to date. Its speed is fantastic, I am yet to discover the limitations of its hold in hollow waves and its control through turns is good. I love this shape.

I'm planning to do another batch of boards at the end of this month. If you are interested shoot me an email.

Cheers
James

Ride Report for the Flounder

Disclaimer: It had been over a week since my last surf – so I was stoked just to be in the water. It was a perfect day for alaias – head high, glassy, hollow and fast peeling waves. I have been dreaming about this board and how it would work for months and I had visualised every line I could ever hope to draw on a wave long before I ever paddled it out.

     

But seriously it was SUPER fun! I didn’t really have too many opportunities to test it on my backhand (I struggle on my backhand with alaias, in fact I normally choose to ride rights on my knees), but for the couple of rights that I did get, I was happy to be able to take off and hold a line and even pull a little floater.

On my forehand it was crazy good. The Flounder held its line so well, had heaps of speed and glide and doing the LaLa (a kinda vertical climb and slide in the pocket of the wave) was a lot easier to control.

All my freshly oiled boards tend to feel fast at first and this was no exception, but this board also felt different, the hold and control through the bottom turn as I set my line was not something I had felt before.

On my third wave despite my best efforts to paddle wide, when I took off I was still about 12 ft behind the peak, but it was a small day with long waits between sets so I thought I’d have a go. I took off fairly early and immediately pulled the Flounder into trim setting a fairly high line angling down just a touch. The lip hadn’t quite folded over as I approached the peak. Just as the Flounder reached the bottom of the wave and I straightened up, the lip folder over my head and for the next few moments I was locked into a perfect little barrel travelling really fast and really smooth across the glassy wave. These moments are rare in my surfing life, and tragically I often slip out at this point on the traditional alaias, but not with the Flounder, this time the Flounder held its line perfectly and even seemed to accelerate as I tried to pull up the wave a little. It was all over in another second or two as the close out section approached I tried to squeeze out at the last minute as the wave crunched shut. I lost it at the last moment getting clipped, but I had all that I needed. This strange looking board worked even better than I had expected.  

If anyone is interested in testing or ordering a board – shoot me an email. Costs vary on what you are looking for:

Standard alaia starts at $325 AUD

A hybrid alaia with mini keels starts at $375 AUD

A hollow fish or funboard can be estimated upon requested.

Kiri Surfcraft Introduction

Flounder - New asymmetric alaia hybrid almost ready to ride...

New design taking shape. Called the Flounder this is one strange fish. Should be a blast to ride though.

The Flounder is inspired by Tom and John Wegener. It is a combination of my parabolic alaia, my traditional alaia and mini simmons hybrid. Here is the Flounder and its cousin the Alaia Hybrid. Both about to be branded and oiled.

Love to hear your feedback on this one. I'll update with a ride report soon.

Cheers
James

Upcycled Board a Success!

Finally got to test my new old upcycled board today.

 Totally stoked!

 Its so fast. The paddle out was a bit harder than normal, but it catches waves early and absolutely flies down the line and loves hard carving turns, snaps are tricky as the board sticks right until the very last moment, but pretty sure I’ll get used to that soon enough.

 

So if you have an old thruster lying around be brave and cut it down. This cost me three bits of off cuts from my last alaia and some glue… totally worth it!

Up-Cycled Surfboard

What do you do with old thrusters that have seen better days?

This was a 6'3 NEV gifted to me by a good friend when I had snapped my last board and couldn't afford a new one. Probably a great board in its time, but after more than a decade of heavy use the tail had collapsed and the insanely curvy nose had sustained a few nicks and dings over the years.

I had a spare hour or two while waiting for the next load of timber to arrive so armed with some offcuts, resin, saw and sand paper I went to work to reinvigorate this old board and maybe give it a new lease on life.

Stay tuned for a ride report!

Fresh Ideas - Asymetrical alaia/simmons/fish? Maybe

So Kiri Surfcraft is getting a bit funky, a bit left of centre, a bit out there.

I have tried traditional, parabolic, hybrids and hollow alaias. They all have their place and work really well in certain waves, but this is where the frustration comes in, all I really want to surf day in day out is my alaia, but the surf down our way is normally big and heavy and not really suited to our regular alaias. The two biggest problems for me are hold on bigger hollow waves and nose diving on the hollow days. The former was overcome to some extent with the parabolic tails and mini keels, but they in turn exacerbated the nose diving.

So after some research and collaboration with a few other alaia shapers and surfers I've come up with an idea that might just work... I've called it the Flounder because it looks weird. There is a rough sketch below and photos to come once she is built and tested.