13 foot of Wood: 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.