hell mission

Surfscab's take

surfscab
posted 24 March 2008 15:24
Today a hell mission to a river bar dealt out some surprising observations
1) beano's car needs fixing
2) The Olo catches wind at 100 kmh
3) Scab when sore and tired from surfing the Olo will bite heads off fellow surfers!

(pic: scab crusing down the line)

4) On 1-2ft waves a 9'1" "traditional Malibu" will catch up despite being a good 50metres behind and in the broken part of the wave! (see pic to left)
5) the Olo is heaps heavier than beano expected .

Beano's take
Beano
posted 24 March 2008 18:57

I don't know if I'd call it a good mission, but I learned some things about the olo and finally got my feet wet on it. I agree with Scab's observations, and here are some of my own:

(above: the 1foot peelers that greeted us at the super secret un-namable spot, below left pushing the Olo out, right getting the paddle on)

The olo doesn't seem to like small, gutless waves. It was very easy to paddle, catch waves and get down the line, but I couldn't seem to find the gas peddle. It seemed really sluggish to me. I had to fight to keep it ahead of the curl even though the waves were really slow.

I tried moving up, moving back, riding higher on the face but nothing seemed to make any difference. I caught a lot of waves so I had a chance to try several different things, but to no avail.

After scab and I switched boards, we took off on the same wave with me on a 9'2 and him on the olo. I took off at least 15 meters behind him, had to fight my way around a section, got hung up in the whitewater for a while, and still caught up to him and passed him quite easily by the end of the wave. Maybe this just says that in gutless waves, a traditional mal is better suited than the olo, but it surprised me anyway since everyone has been saying how fast it is. The olo is a long board, but definitely doesn't surf like a longboard. I'm hoping it will do better in more powerful waves.

Other first impressions: it's beautiful, it's very unwieldy (both in the water and out), you have to plan way ahead, everyone gets out of your way, it blocks half of your windshield when it's strapped to the roof of your car, you feel special when you're riding it.

DISCLAIMER: This sounds like a negative review of the olo, but that really isn't my intention. I think my experience today had more to do with the waves than the board. Roy has always said that it is meant for powerful, hollow waves and I'll believe him until I see otherwise.

(comment from) RoyStewart
posted 24 March 2008 19:29

Yeah it can sulk if the waves are very small and gutless, in those conditions a mal does have an advantage, but it's a very small window of sulkiness so to speak, because even a little bit of power and it starts to light up, even in knee high surf if it has some curve in it. . . but not knee to waist high AND gutless.

Caitlins take on the 13 foot of Wood:

When I first saw it I thought it was effin big, but I still wanted to ride it.

Its pretty easy to balance on without a wave behind you lol
When you catch a wave it kind of makes you feel like you're gong to nose dive, or maybe thats my bad pop up skills.

Its hard to swerve out the way, and you don't really want to get hit by it.

(pic: scab dropping in on Caity, AGAIN not a rare occurance, as these two always hassle each other for waves, and no different on the Olo)

Its pretty easy to catch waves on, feels good when it starts going.

phoam's take
You may ask why the post is titled 'Hell mission', that is not so much the lack of powerful waves but the entertainment that scab and beano provided bitching about whether of not the spot was going to be working, the constant overheating of the car and the need to have the heater on FULL to alleviate the impending blowing up of the motor (on a hot day for a longish trip). The precarious manner in which the Olo was tied tandem to the car with softracks, and the constant need for scab to remind beano to slow down before his arm fell of trying to hold the board down out the window.

But by the end of the sesh they were mates again, sharing waves and smiling when they came in. (pic right)

I was gutted that I could ride the board too, with still nursing my injured knee, I couldn't even get closer to take pics, so most of the above were from a long distance and cropped in.

I'm stoked that Caity had a go on the board, and managed to get a few long rides. Its twice as long as her board and she's not experienced on a Mal.

We made it back all in one piece, and all sugared up with a trip for munchies at the shop on the way home, thanks beano.

Downsouth downsouth

A few images that downsouth captured while here in dunedin cruising for a wave with surfscab on sunday morning before he left for Christchurch. - phoam

downsouth
posted 23 March 2008 21:25

Thanks surfscab and phoam for an awesome weekend. Great fun exploring and getting some real good waves today with Scab and Beano.
My first impressions for the surfscab olo session was despite a couple of pummellings getting out, scab took to it like a duck and was scoring great rides from the get-go. I'm looking forward to seeing what the boys do with the board as there is a lot of excitement about it. Half the spectators at the comp this morning were admiring it and ooh'ing and aah'ing particularly at the fin!

Nice meeting T2 and Beano - hope see you guys again

Beano
posted 23 March 2008 21:51
It was great meeting you too downsouth. That was a fun session today. I'm glad you got some good waves while you were down here. Thanks for bringing the board down. She's a beauty.

It looks like a Patu

The Patu is a hand club, carved out of bone, wood or pounamu (greenstone). The patu is carried in the warrior's flax belt. The patu symbolises the facing and overcoming of life's challenges and difficulties.

First comments on brief viewing of the fin gathered the odd enlightening comment or two including observations that the fin closely resembled a Patu.

So the Olo finally got it's first big public outing in Dunedin at the South Island Surf Champs

Above big wave rider Shayne Baxter (Baccy) gave the board a good check over with a commentary on his thoughts of the boards capabilities under his direction.
Below: surfscab heads out at St Clair just at the end of the final of the champs.

The waves were pretty much the same as the ones at the spot the day before.
A few surfers shot strange looks but that could have just been at my 'comb over'
An impromptu offer of a ride to a surfer out in the water was firmly declined.

Above, Getting close to the nose,
i was playing around with different positions on the board to see affect on speed.
Below left: i experienced dramatic evidence that the inability to turn the board around efficiently may result in a trip over the falls.

I then palmed the board off to
Hard Core Charger Shayne Baxter




It was great to watch Shayne as he tested some limits including a sweet hang five and a sweet left.


With some grommets commenting as he cut a neat path between them
"i wouldn't want to get hit by that thing it's like a cruise liner"

Time will tell if Baccy is still keen to charge 'the island' or 'pappa's'

Stretching the lungs

surfscab - So First impressions;
(not judgments just early observations)
Surf tubes make damn fine board bags!
It really is Bigger than i imagined !

Surprisingly it was easy to wrap an arm around and carry.

Throwing the board onto the water and jumping on it to paddle out it felt very easy to paddle well balanced and not too unwieldy until i started hitting some decent white water then it felt like a damn big board but once i got into the swing of turning turtle i found i was losing less ground but it was still damn hard work.

Paddling into my first wave i was outdone by my thinking the board didn't have enough speed so i pulled back!

As i was paddling for the next wave the board felt it was traveling too slow to catch the wave but at the last second it latched onto the wave (this seemed to be characteristic of the board) and felt stable as i bottom turned and set off down the line.

As the tide kept dropping a few bigger waves started to sneak through which presented my first problem...

popping over a wave i'd pick a wave and set up to crank the board around line up for take off (which i got down to quite a sweet technique) but if the wave looked like it was not going to peel off i was facing the wrong way sitting deep and seconds from a thrashing,

if i got my selection right the olo took the drop so easily it seemed wrong on such a big board.

i only needed to bail on one wave and while i was "packing" myself everything worked out pretty well.

Overall i'm looking forward to catching a lot more waves and seeing a few of the crew down here take her out and their reactions!

Meanwhile my arms are feeling the burn
and i'm stoked i stopped smoking :)