| DC 8'10" // Review 25 April 2009 By: Andrew Cassidy Location: Collaroy Conditions: Strong off-cross shore wind. Head high (plus) waves. Man, I love the look of this board. You can just tell by looking at it that it'll go unreal in the surf. Dale bought it down from Queensland for me to try out at the WindSurfnSnow demo day, so I met him the night before and checked it out. When he slid it out of the cover I just thought ... SWEET! He has done a great job on it. I drew up a planshape and gave him all the dimensions only a week before and when I first laid eyes on it I couldn't believe it - it was just like I had envisaged in my head. It reminded me of when I was twelve and my new 5'4" came back from the shaper exactly like the picture I has drawn on a little bit of paper and coloured in with my coloured pencils. One Word: Rocket The board is: 8'10" x 29" x 4".  The quality of this board is second to none. That guy sure knows how to build a surfboard. The shortboard-esk planshape, nice amount if nose lift, low, performance oriented rails, double concave through the tail, slightly rolled deck and refined thinness through the nose and tail - I couldn't wait to get it in the water.  Dale hadn't gripped it up so I offered to take it home overnight and whack some grip on it (secretly I just wanted longer to admire it). The grip turned out really well with nice flat, smooth-ish bits on the side where you stand while paddling and a more raised (thicker grip) down the centre to support your arch and provide ultimate traction while in surf stance. The next morning arrived and I was super eager to get out there and give of a try. The conditions were far from ideal but definitely surfable. A strong off-cross shore wind with some three to four foot sets coming through. Massively packed with a whole heap of longboarders (ANZAC day crowds) but after a fairly slow start I managed to find a niche section of the break where I could grab a few. I probably caught 20 waves in the 2.5 hours that I was out there. The first one was a good one but some longboarder who had been waiting longer than me wanted it too. I begrudgingly let him have the right and went the lame left instead. Just a little bottom turn and tiny top turn before it filled up and fizzed out into the channel. Twenty minutes pass before I'm on my next one - but it was worth it. I wanted a good one so I was sitting out the back and wide of the pack where I know you can get the rare smoker which nobody else can get. It eventually came, and I was in perfect position. A solid four footer and I paddled into it cleanly and at speed, take the drop (which seemed to last forever) and lean right over into a cranking bottom turn, fully leaning on my paddle. It was just like what I do on my shortboard on a good wave - leaning right into it with my hand skimming the face of the wave. Now I've got a big wall to work with. A few speed pumps to get further away from the whitewater, swap hands with the paddle and drive it around for a big, drawn out, drop-knee cutback around the planted paddle. This board is unreal. Feeling like I can ride this board like my 6'4", I proceed to hit the whitewater to complete the roundhouse cutty. Well, it's not 6'4", it's still 8'10" and I almost lose it. You still need to adjust your back foot across the board to find the sweet spot for critical turns (unlike a standard shortboard). I recovered, just, and surfed out of the turn with a new section rearing up. A few more speed pumps and I snap the DC off a little crumbling bit at the top of the wave, the fins release a bit and the tail slides about 90 degrees and carves the other 90 degrees to position me, laying back, sideways across the face of the wave. I stand up and swing of back around onto another little bottom turn while staying pretty much in control. Wow, that felt really nice. I love it when the fins release but I stay in control (doesn't happen very often though). I gather a bit more speed (very easy to do on this little rocket) and then pull off the back of the wave before I get cleaned up on the sucky closeout. That was a sick wave and I got a few more similar ones. Stoked. There was one where I decided to take on the closeout at the end and wound up some speed through the bottom turn, headed straight up the face carved a big arc across the lip into the oncoming whitewater and back down into the foam - all in one smooth, flowing motion with heaps of speed. Again, another true shortboard move but pretty easy to do on the little DC. There were one, or maybe two, instances where I didn't get my back foot into the sweet spot during a rail to rail transition and ended up face planting. The tail's pretty wide and you need to be conscious of that or the inevitable will happen - splat.  I was a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to paddle (or even stand on) this board when I first saw it. I needn't have worried. It is fine. The thin rails and rolled deck take a little to get used to but I felt very comfortable standing on it before I had even got my first wave. The raised nose lift and pulled in front end make pushing through (or should I say, popping over) white water, really easy. This board had a top of the range Gortex vent plug up near the nose. Just another feature of Dale's high quality construction and attention to detail. Overall, this board is super fast with true shortboard performance qualities. It'd be an awesome competition board. Highs: - Light weight. - High quality construction. - Super fast. - Carves really well. - Snaps really well. - Surprisingly good stability. - Hard to nose dive. - A real head turner. - Fully Australian made. Lows: - No carry handle. - It's not in my garage. | |
