Sunday, July 20, 2008

WEEKEND BATTLE AXE

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Though it will leave you feelin' giddy, make no mistake...
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...the White Pony is not child's play.
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4 comments:

ras said...

post some footage of you surfing that thing! is the volume equivalent to lis fish?

R.T. said...

i don't have a fish shaped by Lis himself, but the Lis "style" fish i do have is 5'4" x 2.3/8 (PU foam). White Pony #2 is 4'11" x 2.7/8 (EPS foam [Kenvin's is probably 3" thick]), so relative to my boards there is more volume, especially considering that an EPS board only has to be 2.1/8"-2.1/4" to be the same buoyancy as a 2.3/8" PU board.

the numbers aside, it feels more buoyant when riding which is part of what feels so good about it—like surfing on a hovercraft that does responsive, controlled turns.

i'll try and get some sort of documentation of riding it, would be interesting to see how the feelings of riding it translate visually— though it always seems, no matter what the board, the video never looks as good as the actual internal sensations of riding.

cheers.

borntoloser said...

Why the swallow? Why not go full on Casper? Also, is there a "hull" feel to it with s-rails and the whole bellied bottom? Looks fun. I'd think it would be a riot at a chest high point break.

R.T. said...

i don't know why kenvin wanted a swallow when he had the first White Pony made. but as for myself, i was attracted to the swallowtail because with my light 145ish Lbs i figured i could use the elimination of some foam from such a wide, thick tail— didn't want to feel like i was pushing against too much foam pushing back against my rear foot through turns.

in general, the Pony doesn't feel/ride like a Displacement Hull such as those by Greg Liddle, Klaus Jones, or Hilbers, etc. that don't have concave in the bottom. the Pony's belly is only in the nose/entry rocker and foils into a single concave through the center portion of the board that starts blending into a double concave above of the fins. you can put all your weight into the tail when turning, as opposed to weighting ahead of the tail as with a displacement hull. also the Pony planes higher above the water than a D.Hull which feels more like its generating speed from deeper in the water's surface. two different ways of surfing, i love them both. always a Displacement Hull + Planing Hull in the back of my car.

haven't had the Pony at a point yet, sure it would be epic. it was a blast in overhead, S.swell, high tide, beach break yesterday.