So If the Baracudas are designed for prone downwinding, are they fulfilling their purpose of making it accessible to Average joes being able to down wind? Are people successfully achieving prone chip ins out in the ocean? Or just easier to pop up for those with sup downwinding skill?
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New boards are a game changer flat water, they have decreased the wing size we need from 1100-1300 to 750-850.
As an example for the average rider, I have seen people get up with around equal effort on a kalama e3/GT2200 and barracuda/PNL185 (1300cm2)
It seems like beginners on barracudas struggle more with reading bumps than getting on foil. Most of them are learning on 13-1500cm2 foils.
Most fast learners are reasonably fit, can do some pumping (2-3 for one), and have some experience paddling a normal SUP.
The biggest factor in most average riders learning is productive time on the water. If they aren’t making progress downwind they come to flat water and brush up on technique or take their DW rig out for a prone foil.
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Funny how Kai Lenny was right at the beginning with his chopped 12’6 sup race.
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Kalama’s design have me wanting to jump into the DW Sup game. Like KDW said, 1/4’ing the suffering is a huge benefit.
My old learner wing/sup board at 105L and 28” x 5’11” was so sticky on takeoff. Could almost flat water start, but that last 10% was just not attainable for me (average sup technique). I wouldn’t have ever tried DW SUP on that design.
That being said…any East Coast Shapers making a batch? I’d like to get on the queue.
A friend of mine is having a DW board built by McDermott Shapes in Scarborough, Maine; https://www.mcdermottshapes.com/ . It’s a custom but no doubt they would be happy to build more. I’m anxious to see the finished product. In the meantime I’m trying to improve my bump reading skills while winging.
I will probably make mine. I shaped boards for many years. I might actually just have in cnc cut then do all my own glassing. I think the thing to figure out is glass schedule and how they are reinforcing and stiffing the boxes. I am thinking of two stingers from front foot to rear box.
One thing for sure is you need a light weight board because the longer board even skinny will harder to pump and to stay up than a shorter one if it is too heavy.
So a few guys got a Kalama barracuda here to try. They all said its way easier and doesn’t feel much bigger. I guess I will shape one and see how it goes.
I have a 5’7 x 22.5 and 6’0 x 21.5 and i can tell the difference. 6’0 easier to get up especially with a smaller foil but not as good flying in super light condition. Both boards ultra light.
When i say super light conditions I’m talking 10nd no energy.
For exemple in this video during a race, it was really weak for the first 3km, I really think a longer board would have been hard to keep up.
I think we need a quiver, shorter board, longer depends on the conditions.
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KDW had an Instagram post this morning on a 7’ x 14”(!) board. At least that’s what the caption read. Unless I was dreaming because I can’t find it now.
I saw it too, impressive.
Yes I saw that, maybe only for prone ??
14 is no joke, and I believe it as it was noticeably narrower than my Cuba which is super narrow. Would be tough in decent chop tho.
I think it is just for prone but could be wrong on that.
Low volume so prone only. It’s also too skinny to get my stance right (I need 16”)
Low volume and 14” wide means my body is touching the water while paddling, causing additional drag.
The rail clearance of 14” wide is really nice.
Trying to get someone smaller on it downwind. Maybe Finn or Annie are small and skilled enough to SUP it.
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I had a custom DW SUP board made in New Jersey and have been on it for about a month and a half now. It is 7’6 x 20.5" x 6". I don’t know the liters. I weigh 210 pounds and it has been a struggle for sure. I ride GoFoil and jumped to my NL190(about 1400cm2) too early instead of sticking with the GL240 (1800cm2) and have been having a tough time. Recently started spending some more time flat water starting it, only with the GL240 so far successfully and just switched back to the 240 for a DWer tonight and scored some leftover wind swell in 10g14(it had been blowing 12-25 for a while before. I have limited SUP foil experience but found the learning curve to not be too steep with this board at my weight.
On another note, this is now my go to light wind wing setup… I typically kitefoil if it is super light anyway but I’ve had 4-5 wing sessions on this board and it makes the pop up extremely easy. Matched with the PNL 185 and 20" FTL it got going in 8 knots pretty easily the other day.
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This is the feedback I have been looking on these narrow dw shapes. If only I could just order a barracuda I would. Anyone know what the current wait time is for a kalama board? Would love to reward Dave for pioneering this shape.
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Dimensions in this thread.
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