Monday, June 16, 2008

Equipment Tweaking




Fins
Paddle
Stickers

It's been an incredibly busy summer and I have not been able to work the blog as originally intended. That being said; let's play catch-up now.

Fins: If you look at the picture above of all the fins together you get an idea of what I started with and where I ended up, from a stocl JL fin to the race specific Seeker. The JL comes in with "Great White" type proportions at a whopping 14 inches tall and a lot of surface area. That seems like just too much fin for a downwind racing SUP. We paddle outrigger canoes and a 21 foot single-person outrigger has a dagger like 9 inch blade for a rudder. I spoke with the guys at Freedom Surf and they contacted RFC to have some prototypes made up. RFC sent a 9", 10" and a 13" dagger. For 95% of the East Coast conditions I think the 9 inch is more than enough fin. The other fins in the photo were surrogates I ran until the Seeker came in. Normally I would run some side-by-side time trials using my GPS to determine if there was a measurable advantage between fins. In an effort to seperate my geeky outrigger tendencies from the laid back surf aspect of SUP I used the tried and true "seat of the pants" method quantifying performance. I invited some paddlers over, stocked the Tiki Bar with rehydration materials and we did some short idtance runs up and down the canal behind the house. While insuring we stayed properly hydrated we all agreed that the Seeker "felt" faster. Good enough.

Paddle: The Kialoa Shaka Pu'u is light. Anti-gravity light. Everything about this paddle is right for me. The shape of the main tube (I have some issues saying "shaft" and perect in the same sentence.), the size and shape of the handle and the blade design are all perfect. I have ordered this same blade, from Kialoa, with a wood shaft for my outrigger paddling.

Stickers: Whatever...I am a geek. Mahalos to Freedom Surf, Kialoa Paddles, O'Neill and Revision Eyewear!

I am going to work extra hard to keep the site up to date...stay tuned we are going to be racing next weekend.
A Hui Ho,
Dukey

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