First go out on the Buttons

The forecast last Thursday was for big getting bigger, and my window of opportunity limited me to Ocean Beach. I hit VFWs before dawn and waited for the light to show me what was there. I took my time and thoroughly applied base coat to the Buttons board, carefully installed the fin in the box with the tip ~1/2" back from one fin base from the tail of the board, and tied the new leash string tight and short.
The paddle out wasn't easy but I made it. Compared to the Haut, this board is narrower, with more float, which gives it an unstable feel when paddling out, kinda like at the top of a round buoy. It duck dives under waves, but the float distribution is different and requires a few shifts in technique. By the time I made it out I had about 100 yards to paddle to get back to the peak I wanted.
There were about 4 others out, and we were all chasing waves and catching few. This board feels different when paddling for a wave. I need to be more in the longboard/single-fin mind-set of sitting a bit further out and paddling for the waves earlier. The board doesn't want to spin and drop, that's for sure.
I got into one and the board felt stiff, as expected, but solid and stable. I softly leaned on the rails and there was little to no response with the board wanting to hold it's line. The waves had some junk on them and were 6-8'. I caught 3 smaller ones before getting stuck inside for a long set. I decided to beach and walk back to a channel.
Once on the beach I walked back to where I had paddled out before and waited, and waited, and watched 2 other guys get washed in, and waited. There was never enough of a break in the ever increasing sets for me to think I could make it back out. I gave up.
By the time I was dressed there was only one guy out and I could hardly see him between waves. Everyone else had ended up the same as me, the waves were solid 8', and the junk in the water was making things look rough.
I look forward to better conditions and a session with more waves to give the board another try.

Buttons Pipeliner

My new (used) Buttons Hawaii Pipeliner. According to the website: http://www.buttonshawaii.com/surfboards.asp.html

these are shaped by Owl Chapman. Now, I'm a bit jaded at this because ghost shapers are a big part of surfboard manufacturing. If anyone wants to tell me it wasn't shaped by Owl, I'm okay with that, since sometimes the ghost is having a better day than the name.

I haven't ridden it, but the plan is for it to be my bigger wave board. By my rough calculations it has more float than the Haut(s) do, but less than the Junod Daisy does. I hope I can get in early but still duckdive efficiently.

There are no numbers on the board so here is what I measure:

Length 6'7", Nose 13 1/2", Widepoint 20", Tail 12". I can't measure thickness, and the wide point is not the mid-point, as can be seen in the photos.

I hassled Prana over at 23breaths http://23breaths.blogspot.com/ to give me some info on the fin a very similar Brewer that he's got. It sounds like the fin that came with this board is appropriate for the style. This fin is 5 1/2" at the base with 7 1/4" of height.

Haut2

So here is the new Haut, purchased to replace the old, nearly broken one. As is clear from the photos I've ridden it plenty and can safely say it does the job. For me this shape works really well because I tend toward the lower quality waves in an effort to get away from crowds. Dimensions as written on the board: Length 6'0", Thickness 2 3/8", Nose 15 1/2", Middle 20 1/2", Tail 16".

It came with plastic Vector II 438 quads. I'm happy with the plastic fins and may not ever bother putting in the glass ones off the original Haut.

I asked for a bit more glass and a stronger blank be used. I also got a slightly wider stringer, all to avoid this one from breaking. Doug was against it all because he said the performance would suffer. I insisted and I don't notice the performance as any different.

A trip to SC

I made a trip to SC on Sunday and got down there around mid-day. The point of the trip was to check out a used board I saw on Craigslist, but I also wanted to take the opportunity to surf. I parked at Rockview because the tide was high and the wind was all over the North Coast. There were waves coming in but the tide was around 4.5' or so and Rockview wasn't working. Sewers, surprisingly, was. There was some south in the water and it was clear by the occasional long wall that swung into Sewers.

I had decided before I even saw the board that I wasn't going to pay the $375 asking price. The board is a Buttons Hawaii 6'8" Pipeliner model shaped by Owl Chapman. In my mind this will be a good board for hollow waves when I want to go slower and sit in the pocket, possibly in the tube. The only place I'd seen these boards online was at Icons of Surf, and when I checked to see what they cost new I saw they had dropped the prices on them to $470. The is dirt cheap for Icons, so I got the feeling that there was something wrong with these boards. That in mind I wanted to offer about $280. Once I saw the board and met the guy I could see that wasn't going to happen. This guy apparently grew up in SC and knew several of the guys hanging around the beach that day. He collects boards and was just trying to shuffle his collection a bit. I waffled about the board while everyone talked. Around the time he was ready to leave I told him I wanted to pay $300 for the board. He said "No" and I let him go. Not 10 min later he called and said he would settle for $325, and I told him so would I.

After that I stashed the board in the car and suited up. I needed to pee, there were a few waves at Sewers, and there were only three guys out there. I jumped off the rocks at Rockview, which was sketchy cause I don't do it very often and paddled over to Sewers. I got myself a handful of good waves around 4'. Nice drops with some shoulder to play with, which is something OB doesn't give me very often. The Haut felt great to me and I'm really getting comfortable on it. Or maybe that board is just MADE for SC waves.

It was either because the tide was starting to drop, or we were making it look too fun, but in the next 20min the crowd increased to 15 people. The waves were not that good, but I guess they were worse everywhere else. I paddled in.

So now I've got a new board, which deserves it's own post and description. I still haven't gotten photos of the new Haut up, so that is also on my list of to dos.