LP92 Board Review by Jason Weeks

Totally loving my Pro Model Longboard (LP92)

I have just won back-to-back Western Australian State Over 35 Longboard titles, and I reckon the board played a big part in this year's win. It is definitely the best all round longboard I have ridden, being totally happy to perform like a short board, while still providing legitimate "noserideability". I have been working on my nose riding this year, and the stability of the Pro Longboard has really helped in this regard. While not quite to the extent as the Hangman, I am constantly pleasantly surprised by the Pro's ability to carry speed while on the nose, without tracking or sliding. Now that my confidence has increased, I find myself on the nose quite a lot. I am looking forward to this year's National Titles in Port Macquarie, to try to improve on my 4th place last year.

Maneuvers:
Great for short board style turns, reos, big roundhouses, awesome fast long floaters, tail drops, I've even started doing bunny hop airs that don't look too good but feel really fun. This board has been my only mal for the whole year, and performed extremely well at Denmark (2-4 ft beach breaks, lots of down the line), Yallingup (from 2-8 ft, real wide range of conditions), Mandurah (small, fast, shifty) and even Jake's Point at Kalbarri, although I switched to my Turbo pretty quick!). This is in addition to my day to day reality of predominantly short, fast beachies at my local (Scarborough WA 6019 represent!). As mentioned, I have been focusing on nose riding more than previously, and have had really fast, small, barrelly waves at Trigg Point, on the nose from take off to keyhole.

Tech: On the rare good days, I have no problem taking pretty much any wave I want, with the epoxy/styrene combo providing excellent volume/buoyancy ratio. The additional flex takes some getting used to, but once you get it right, the "twang" factor means you can bottom turn later, traverse flat spots, climb up over and across foam sections and really lay into reos and cutbacks. One unexpected bonus I have discovered is tube riding on my backhand. Take off late, feet right on the tail, bottom turn square and stall into trim. All straight forward so far.. Now for the fun part.. Half step forward, grab outside rail with back hand and - PUMP! You can grab the rail, actually flex the board and feel it absorb, then unload the combined force of your body weight transfer/wave feedback effect, and you just squirt off down the line! Actually discovered this effect by accident, going right at Yallingup on a big day. As the wave approached the lagoon section, I grabbed rail as I was about to bail under the closeout, then realised I was about to arrive on a dry lump of rock, so held on longer than otherwise would have, and then got spat around the foam ball, onto the open face and had time to jump off the back of the wave before the final closeout onto the reef! Have been playing with it since, and it helps on fat days to generate drive, fast sections, but especially pigdog barrels. Give it a go!

Fins: I started with the supplied fins, with PG5 centre being slightly smaller than side fins. This is probably going to be the best setup for the majority of non competitive Longboarders, as you get a nice balance between hold, drive and turning circle. The rail outline of this board holds very well without tracking, so fins don't need to be large for nose riding. I found with this setup that I could force the board into a slide if I really tried, but only if my back foot was over the fins, but turns could be achieved from the middle of the board for top to bottom down the line. I then switched to a thruster setup, using PG7s that I also use in my 6'6" Pro Shortboard (SP66). Because I ride shortboards as much as longboards, this felt more normal to me, particularly when riding off the tail to perform aggressive turns, as we need to do in competitive Longboarding. This has been my normal setup for the last 8 months, and I would recommend to surfers who are looking to perform short board style maneuvers from the tail. Just recently, I had the opportunity to try a 3D centre fin, with the small hydrofoil/winged keel side tabs.  This is designed, in a Shortboard, to generate lift when weight is put on the back foot. For example, when you drive off the bottom of a takeoff and then point your nose towards the lip, the water's angle of attack will create lift, driving your board upward in two planes. This also turned out to be really noticeable on committed cutbacks, bottom turns and forehand tuberiding/section racing. But I wanted to try it for another reason.
My theory was that the tabs would be naturally inclined to avoid a change in angle of attack. ie the fin would want to stay horizontal in side profile, trimming at its' preset angle of attack. In effect, each board's resultant angle of attack would be different, given the exit rocker and FCS mounting variations. With a Longboard, particularly new school three rocker designs, there is more than one "sweet spot", depending on the type of wave. When on the nose, the tail is essentially trying to lift out of the water, so sweet little crumbly lips are great to hold the tail down, and by default, you up. What I proposed was that when your weight starts to bury the nose, this will increase the angle of attack of the winged keel, increasing the down force generated by the side tabs. And get this.. it seems to work! I haven't taken the 3D fin out, and plan to keep it in the board. It tries to throw you over the handle bars if you don't work it properly, as lift results in drag, so on small sucky waves you really need to be over the tail or risk being flipped over the high side as the planar surfaces of the fin try to remain perpendicular to the laminar flow. But really good in all other conditions so far.. also good for stabilising floaters. Recommended for 80kg plus, power type surfer.

Longevity: Have surfed this board at least three times a week all year, starting to get back to twice a week now with my office job. Have stood on it, bounced on it, travelled in planes and cars, surfed double overhead down to waist high sand drainers, that used to make me fear snappage every time I took out a mal. My Sunova Pro Longboard is almost 100% unscathed, one small mark near the nose. (I was showing off, standing on the board in the car park, didn't know there was a little rock underneath!) Anyway didn't even penetrate surface glass, put some epoxy Sola Res on it just to be safe. Basically, if you scrape the wax off, it looks like new.

Two thumbs up, I'll let you know how I go at the Nationals!

Western Australian State Over 35 Longboard Champion

Jason Weeks