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Board one: Dahlberg 6’2” X 18 1/4” X 2 1/4”
That was a magic board. It didn’t matter where I rode it: six foot waves, one foot waves, it was the magic carpet. I’ve had one other board that’s been close to that. This had that real nice Dahlberg rolled rail. The edge was hard and so was the tail, but it was softened up through the middle with glassed on DL fins. Rod lives at Angourie so his boards are designed for a point break, they have more drive, and not as much rocker so you can draw your turns out and get a bit more distance out of the turns.
The success I had on the board had a lot to do with the way I was surfing at the time. The key point was it had so much drive but it was easy to turn. I won J- Bay on it in ‘99 as an 18-year-old wildcard. I rode it for over 12 months in contests. I also won the World Junior championships and a few juniors on it. It made some serious coin, maybe 70 grand. - DHD (Shane, this is the one with the red spray): 6’2” X 18 1/4” X 2 1/4”
I took it to Bells in 2004 and Darren was actually staying with me at the time. I was getting ready for the last day of Bells and went for a free surf that afternoon. Darren picked it out of the boards I took down there and said, hey, this looks alright. I won that contest but it got buckled real badly in the semis at Margaret River not long after. I went home and got it fixed. But I don’t really trust riding boards I’ve creased in contests, anymore. But it still went really well, so I continued to use it as a reference point. I would get new boards, try ‘em out and then go back to the DHD and check them against it.
It has a round tail, glass-on fins, and a single-to-double concave. We used a vee-concave with that one. The concave was changed to give a little bit more drive off the bombs, and release off the top turns. Real sweet. - JS 6’2” X 18 1/4” X 2 1/4”
That’s where my signature board came from. I won 18 straight heats on it. I had the final with Mick in France in 2006, which was really cool. That was the other board in my life that just went like a magic carpet. It would go any size, any wave, and it would hold in, and survive anything. I haven’t ridden it in six months. If I’m having a bad run with boards, I’ll hop back on that board to figure it out. I still ride it.
It’s an easy board to ride. The rockers are nice, even and smooth, and the concaves are not shallow and not deep. You can get so radical on it but it seems so easy.
I used to feel so much faster on that board. It had maybe a millimetre of difference in the concave and a bit more rocker. You’d put your feet in the right place and you’d fly. - Wade Tokoro: 7’2
What are the dimensions? All I know is it’s a 7’2”. I won Sunset on that and got a 10 at Backdoor on it; one of the waves of my life. It looks like it would be a big, tight dog, but it turned on a five-cent piece. You get boards off guys in Hawaii and they haven t seen you in 12 months. You turn up and your’re like, ‘These are my dimensions and sizes,’ and they have no idea what your like or what you’re riding. It’s always a gamble. But Wade would always work with you to try and come up with something good. That board was almost too thin for me. I had a few that were too thin for me and some that were too thick. That happens in those waves. A board can often be a tiny bit too thin or thick. But that one fitted well, in everything. - The best of the pack
DHD (This is the one with weird ink): 6’2” X 18 1/4” X 2 1/4”
I won Trestles on it and I made the semi finals in France on it. (Not so, says Handley. “He won Snapper on it in 2002 but he did make the semi finals in France.”)
All these boards are what I’ve won contests on. I’m conscious of how much the tail is pulled in as well as the hip of the board. With something like this one, which is used in smaller performance waves, I like it to have a bit more hip so I can turn on a shorter radius. On longer more perfect waves, J-Bay, Snapper etc, I like boards without a hip because the turns can be more drawn out. All my boards tend to have lighter glass jobs, with more of a performance orientation. I’m lucky if I get an event or two events out of the one board.
Posts: 5
Reply #5 on : Sat October 31, 2009, 17:46:44