9'8 or 11'2 How big is the difference?

[windy miller]

tried the board again, this time with the FCS thrusters in....WHAT a difference it made for stright line paddling....

{imo it was paddling straighter than my mates ultimate 11'2 with the single fin}.....

so now it was possible to sit a bit further back in the line up....MUCH easier to get waves now ...........the disadvantage though is that the thrusters didn't do the board any favours once you got on the wave...stiffened it up....maybe I should have used some smaller thrusters.

I'm no expert but i think SB need to go a bit shoter in width; on their wave orientated boards...30 is too wide.

love to hear about whats in the pipeline for next yrs fashion....

[John Hibbard]

Hi Windy,

What size thrusters were you using? The best for the 9'8" are either GL or GX. This way you get the advantage of the side fins but they won't stiffen the board up. They will allow you better drive along the wave and out of turns.

As for what is planned for the future I think it will be an evolutionary case where things get upgraded as and when real improvements can be made. There are pictures of Scott riding some protos elsewhere on this site, but I wouldn't read too much into this as the team is always experimenting and trying thigs out. Sometimes it's hard to better a design, but it's always fun to try. Making boards narrower can make for more surf orientated shapes but the 9' and 9'8" boards seem to work good at 30'. We have tried many different widiths and it is a fine balance between stability and perfomance.