Thanks for the ride... shaka

Homer's Take:
I was very excited when I was invited to ride this monster of a board, as I had been overseas for most of its time in Dunedin and had missed out so far.
I awoke the morning of the big day to find the large south swell we had was still hanging around, this was a concern as I had no idea what this board would ride or paddle like.
I made my way to the chosen spot to find Jay already had the olo in the water - seeing this I grabbed my 9'1 woodie and started to paddle out getting worked and having to make my way back to the channel for another attempt.

Finally making it out the back the last thing I wanted was another 4 feet of board, but that's what I got.
I was now seeing this beautiful board for the first time, I was on it, out the back, freaking out.
I paddled about 20 metres further out the back, to make sure no clean up sets would touch me. The board felt great I love the concave deck its so comfortable, like it was made for me.
Now sitting way out the back I double check the legrope and wait.
First set comes and goes I have realised this board is massive I was unable to turn it around in time, I have ridden an eleven footer a few times but this feels much bigger.
Here comes a wave I start paddling with what seemed like no chance at all of catching it, this board is such a good paddler not a wobble just straight line speed and before I knew it I was on the wave,

standing and racing down the face with complete control, which was surprising, it now felt smaller, still big, but smaller, one step forward and it takes off planeing so stable and smooth not feeling any back wash or anything.

Seeing a section in the wave I crouched to absorb the impact and held my breath...

there was no impact, and upon opening my eyes I noticed I was around the section and still going, one step back and into a cutback, surprise again this board can turn!

I wonder what the fin is like... Back into the whitewash I try to turn and the board has other plans and goes straight.
Popping up after being dragged along behind the board underwater I realise I had forgotten to breathe again - after that section my heart was racing with adrenalin.

Struggling to stand or walk I dragged myself onto dry land so I could take a look at my new love.
This board is such a work of art beautiful to look at and ride, I'm so happy I got some swell to try it out on, but I'm upset we chose its last day in town to begin our love affair.
Thanks for the ride... shaka.
Enjoy the rest of your hikoi Olo.

bye from Dunedin

phoam's take:
Today was the last session on the '13ft of wood', and the remnants of the big south swell greeted us in the morning with a light offshore grooming some solid 4ft peelers.
A collection of classic boards lay across the beach, and the session turned into a morning of board swapping amongst the crew.
Still to come a post on Homers' session on the Olo this day.


surfscabs take:
Well i Shouldn't say so but I'm glad to see the Future primitive go.
We have had the pleasure of riding a beautifully crafted Surfboard but personally it is damn hard work and adrenalin inducing to ride on big days .
Paddling out meant finding a spot with a workable channel and a good long period swell so you could time your 'go out' well,
Even then a couple of times i had to paddle so hard i felt i was going to pop a heart valve.
Catching waves apart from turning it around was hell fun and adrenalising and she felt stable as a table on the wave!
Fast ?
dunno don't care surfing's about more than size and speed and i cant be bothered entering the debate.
One in my Quiver?
Well I'm building one of Roys boards next summer though it will be shorter and more intended for all round surfing!
The Pipeline Claim?
I've never surfed pipe not sure i could so who am i to comment!
But i'd sure love to see it dropping in at pipe.
Thank you very much Roy !
you've got a good heart to let us all test pilot such a lovely board and i hope someone gets shacked on it!
Surfscab

Last session photos:
Below- the Spot

Paddling out ...


Above scab punching through & another easy wave

Above scabs last wave.

Hayley's Take:
I had heaps of fun on the big log, It's very hard to turn It just wants to
go straight but guess thats what It's made to do hold it's line in big
pitting waves.

I only took it out in 1ft white water reforms so can't comment
to much on it, but one other thing was it paddles real fast.



Caitlin caught a few last waves as well as me. And Mike with the wood.

Update

Sorry folks but there has been no news lately
been a tough week with surfscab out injured
and co conspirator beano out with car troubles .
hoping for some more waves in the next week
then the dunno's crew
will arrange getting the board back up north soon as gas money allows.

Thirteen and a half

Today i decided it'd be fun to take out the Olo and 'Blurple' a 7'4" single fin pintail that really is my favorite board.
So essentially i was aiming for two single fin pintals, one half scale, same day, same surf, sets reaching double overhead..scene set! lets surf.
Rock paper scissors not needed i got the Olo and started the paddle out which is a weird set up seeing you paddle between two rocks and over some shallow shelves covered in bull kelp,
today the water was doing a damn fine version of a washing machine and i'm not afraid to say i was nearly getting bucked off the board and turned around just at the time when i wanted to paddle like mad to shoot the gap between sets.
Once out the back it was back to good old olo country just picking a wave well in advance and committing as the waves were tending to be a bit more sectiony with backwash off the rocks.
with only three of us out and knowing the spot well paddling deep and stealing set wave was working a treat for me.
Switching it up with Blurple saw me wondering where the flotation was on my shortboard but first wave it all fell into place and i'll say speed wise the olo seemed about the same but when i stalled the shortboard and got back on the gas it powered away nicely where as i noticed on the olo it seemed when i stalled it i tended to get myself in trouble trying to get it to get moving again.
*any suggestions as to wether i should even be stalling (it seems easier than cutting back) or how to get the speed back on quicker gladly accepted and attempted.
anyhow DOH seemed okay as far as catching/riding but damn hard work .
Disclaimer. get over it! :)

Offshore

The first two waves are beano (including the face plant) and then they swopped, and the next wave is surfscab, then two of his wipeouts, then then scabs soul arch wave the two more, actually when they are both walking down to the beach,you can see a short clip of scab limping from the fin chop off the olo a few days before. last wave was from the other angle of the switchfoot. then beano got it back with his slow big drop. then scabs barrel on beanos shortboard, then beano smashing thru the wave at slomo, one more beano wave and then the end, oh and that Fugly, my guinea pig, who was on the tape that got filmed over, he was at the end so I just kept him in there, because hes so special.

The music is by a brilliant Dunedin band:
Junk Shop Star
from their album 'Music for Headfilms.
Check out their myspace or download their music here

I love their sound, and with song titles such as stringer, twinfin, mindsurfing, railgrab layback gives it away that they are passionate surfers too.

A few extra Photos from Dunedin

Above Beano.

a few before the film

went out today and shot some film of scab and beano on the Olo.
Got a few pics on the canon too.
here they are for now, not sure when i am going to get time to edit something up, but maybe next few days. ~ phoam

Clean and 2

Surfscabs take
After a week of mushburger waves it was a pleasant surprise
to arrive at the local to see some nice lefts peeling off the bank
not to mention it was 10am and no sea breeze
woah sweet!

the waves were closing out a bit but a sharp eye
and a gentle warning to the grommette not to drop in
on a out of control test pilot, ensured i snatched
the odd peeler..

and apart from being sucked up over the falls a few times
(I'm no barrelmeister)
the board was making the drop and swinging under the curl nicely.

until i mistimed a turn and went over the falls
snagging the fin with my calf muscle
which now resembles a rugby ball.

Beanos take
(he hasn't written anything yet, but it was surfscab taking the pic on ym camera, and he couldn't work out how to unlock the lens barrel to zoom it out, so all his pics were taken at 100mm, apart from the first one, which was the last one)

Phoams take
I can't believe this, I am putting a pic of me actually surfing up on the internet.. .. thanks scab for handling the glass :0)
It was my intention to just go out on my longboard for a paddle to keep up my fitness, having done my cruciate (again) almost three weeks ago. A few waves on the 9'1 where I carefully popped up with a heavily strapped knee & got a few smaller waves in while beano was out back on the Olo, and scab was nursing his fin chopped calf on the beach with my camera.
Before we all went in I decided to try catch one wave on the Olo, so swopped with beano and paddled back out, catching my first wave ever on it and popping up just fine.

Very easy to paddle, but soo hard to turn in the water to get set for a wave! you have to really plan ahead. My wave died pretty quick in the reforms, but it was enough to get a feel.

The jono and jimi session

Jonos Take
Had a wee blat in some 1-2 foot waves today

First impressions, paddles freakishly fast, seems to pull to the left when your paddling tho, and as everyone else has said really hard to turn quickly for waves, took me 3 waves to get back into mal mode, anyway thats the negatives.
Once I started surfing it I started realizing what everyone had been talking about, letting the board do the work, I was trying to angle my take off to much and just getting messed up, because i didn't think it would bottom turn too well, once I started taking off straight, and letting the board do the work, it started showing me what it could do,
it almost seems to bottom turn and angle along the wave on its own,
and the board feels much shorter than its 13 feet once you get on the wave, I just rode it like any other mal, trying to get a bit of cross stepping going, in general p!ssing around, having fun.
Passed it onto Jimmy who was making some sweet late drops on it and getting some nice long rides.



Then we went tandem, me at the front. First wave I thought we were on it, jumped up, then realized we weren't actually on it and Jimmy had stopped, so i went over the front,

second wave went heaps better, we both stood up, both just cracking up laughing that we'd managed to do it, rode out the drop, went straight for a bit then fell off, it was pretty hard to stay on, but I reckon with practice and a bit of wax further up it would make a pretty sweet tandem board oh and we're really keen to have a go on it with some bigger cleaner waves (tandem of course)

Jimi's Take
(not sure if he's going to say anything so pics for now ~ Nic)


(stoked!)

(sliding just a few feet past the rocks)

( moving up the nose)

The power of the wave

After a long night at work
i pull the tab on a beer
and discover the cult of personality
has overtaken the hikoi
Fortunately for those of us who are members of the cult of Boardriding
Know that a new day with a new craft and a few waves
will produce joy and wash the world away.
Wait with baited breath for the photos (except mine are a bit fuzzy)
~ surfscab

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.