◄ Go Back to All Boardworks ModelsDesigned For:Beginners to 150 lbs in Calm Conditions or Expert Level Paddler/Surfers to 215 lbs. Intended Use:This board is intended for both leisure paddling or ultra high performance surfing. Designed to tear waves apart or ride in the barrel. This is THE ultimate ripper board ridden in challenging waves by guys like Ikaika Kalama, Jaime Sterling, Mark Healy, Stewart Ferriman etc. The cool thing about this board is surfers @ 150 lbs love it equally as much as surfers at 200 lbs. If you want to expand your surfing to pull off the radical moves you only dream of on other boards especially in hollow waves, the 9-3 Ripper is the board you need. Construction:Molded PVC Epoxy Durability is very high. Learn More Testimonial by Gerry Lopez:"I haven’t been doing SUP surfing for very long but like many surfers, once I caught my first good wave, I was hooked. Years ago I built Laird one of his first SUP boards. It was 12’ big and a major ordeal to shape and glass. Laird was very stoked when he picked it up and asked if I could make him a dozen more just like it right away. That’s when I picked up the phone and called Ron House. Since then Ron made a lot of boards for Laird as well as others. It wasn’t until several years after he started making SUP boards that Ron tried one out in the surf. He told me how much fun he was having but I still lagged. Finally I visited him one day, we went out to San Onofre and the SUP surfing bug bit me hard. Later Ron built me a beautiful 10’-0" and my SUP career was launched. The past few years, a burning desire has kindled within me to go SUP surfing at any and every opportunity. I live in Central Oregon almost 200 miles from the ocean but the slightest hint of waves will find me making the long drive to the coast. I’m totally stoked. I joined Darrick Doerner in NYC last August for a paddle around Manhattan Island in an effort to raise public awareness about autism. It was a 28 mile paddle but Darrick provided two slick Blane Chambers 11’-0" boards that made the long distance run much less effort than I anticipated. I was in Hawaii last winter to watch the Pipe Masters event and while there had a chance to do some SUP surfing. Darrick met me one morning at Sunset Point and was riding an impressive Blane board. Right away I was intrigued by the progressive shape which, on first glance, appeared sleek and racy compared to most other SUP boards. I got to ride it but the waves were small to the point of barely breaking. It was impossible to really get a feel for the board. A few weeks ago, Ron and I with several friends took a SUP surf trip to Cabo. We didn’t even bring any regular surfboards. It was a blast. Every day the waves were waist high to occasional overhead sets with surface conditions varying between dead glass and rough onshore winds. Our crew were riding Ron’s boards in different lengths and shapes but all "custom" built [epoxy hand laminated, EPS shaped blanks]. Another friend from California , Rick Thomas, paddled out on a nifty looking Blane board that he said was a molded construction. My experience with molded boards is they lack some of the handling qualities or "manners" of a custom board. I was, however, inspired by the shape and asked if I could try it. Rick gladly agreed and we switched boards. Three hours later, I finally felt guilty enough to return his board. Rick had been a perfect gentleman the entire time when I kept telling him, "just one more wave." I loved how the board rode and really didn’t want to give it back. It was a 9’-3" diamond tail and it ripped. Had the waves been bigger, faster, juicier or hollower, I’m sure the board would have ripped harder. Afterwards when I thought about it, I realized it had not behaved like other molded boards. I’ve always felt the difference in the weight distribution of the molded construction with its super light core and most of the weight in the skin was the reason for, in my opinion, their peculiar handling. With a custom board, the weight is more evenly distributed throughout the core and skin. In my limited personal experience, molded boards had a tendency to float instead of carve through a bottom turn and to be unstable in and around the whitewater. Blane’s 9’-3" exhibited none of those traits. I’m sure it has more to do with shape than with construction. A surfer can get used to just about any type of handling in his board with enough practice. I know one thing, if the waves are good and juicy; Blane Chambers has a good board for it." Keep paddling………Gerry Lopez
|
|
