Angst, buyers remorse, fear etc. etc. Unless its the same dimensions, same volume, same fin set up, same board, I think it's natural for everyone to be a little anxious about a new board. Unless you're a pro or have any significant wealth, boards are expensive. And just like a car, loose value extremely quickly. We pay a huge premium to have a fresh deck but is it worth it? Off the rack, I honestly don't know. I have had some luck, or it was diligence performed (I'm a little obsessive about surfing and learning all things surf related) because I have a success rate of about 85%. But I have bought a couple "lemons", and nothing is more irritating. The worst off the wrack buy was an Al Merrick, it worked, it was funnish, but I think I learned more about what I don't like than I learned about what I did like about the board design. So was it a total loss, no, but in retrospect an expensive lesson learned. Whats your worst Surfboard buying experience??
I bought a POS 7S Superfish about 10 years ago. Not only did it surf like ****, it was brittle as hell and dinged whenever I sneezed or farted on it.
Best three boards I've ever owned were custom. I have had some very good off the rack boards as well though. I'm currently riding a custom fish that I like a lot. What I have found over the years is if you bought an off the rack board you really like, go get a custom by the same shaper. Better to have the dimensions slightly tweaked to your specs instead of going to a completely different shaper and trying to duplicate the board you liked. Chances are it won't ride the same at all.
bought an epoxy Jimmy Keith called the Queen Ann's revenge from a local shop for a waaaaay too expensive price. Surfed great, was light weight and had a blast on it. I don't know if it was the way Jimmy Keith mixed the resin or what but this board turned out to be the biggest lemon of all time. Within 5 months of purchase the board de-laminated majorly 4 times. Each time I got it repaired, and almost every few weeks I would take it out of my board bag and witness a huge bubble of water appear on the deck. I wasn't doing any big airs or hard turns on it, and I made a point never to slam my knee into it to hard on duck dives or mistreat it etc. long story short, last time I buy a board from that local shop, last time I buy a Jimmy Keith, and last time I buy an epoxy board in general. I'm sticking to used boards until I get a salary one day.
I wouldn't want to disappoint my troll fan club, Francis. I'll let you handle all of the Einstein material.
when Clark foam went under I ran to a shop and bought a ....lost shortboard. It was a P.O.S every board I had custom was the total tits, 350-450 from a local guy to make your dream sled? its a bargain at 600$ let alone 400-500$ new surfboards on the rack were 400-425 in the early 90's not a whole lot more 20 years later, but price of milk bread eggs has DOUBLED to TRIPLED in same time period and I now think Masterjasson and Yankee should enter the thunderdome two men enter one man leave
i bought a step-up at the local shop on the northshorehawaii so i could use it at sunset so i took it there and paddled out and broke it in half first wave.
I am critical about what boards i buy however its more about how i will adapt to them as long as its foam and resembles a standard shape itll ride
Had one of those. Bought it from island style in 84 I think. I thought I was on the cutting edge. First time out 2nd jetty Sandy Hook I caught a wave and said, this can't be right.
