Best "off the rack" groveler boards for summer

love the looks of this board...looked at one at lee's shop...very nice board...Let me take her out for a spin!

 

Tail is wild looking. Nice lookin board Mitchell!

 

Looks awesome! A diamond tail with a crescent cutout... far out!

Is there any roll or vee in the nose? How far does the hard edge in the tail come up past the leading edge of the front fins?

 

behind the front fins the edge is hard and not tucked in at all.

At the rear of the front fins the hard edge starts to slowly tuck in a bit from the rail.

At two inches in front of the front fins the well tucked in hard edge begins to gradually soften to a soft "edge"

At eight inches in front of the front fins the soft edge has transitioned to just being the tucked in soft rail bottom and remains this way to the nose.

There is a slight roll in the front six inches.

The bottom is flat from there back to the front of the fin cluster where the single channel begins to appear.

The channel bottom develops a vee or roll to it out the tail.

The shape flows seamlessly from detail to detail. Its very refined.

 

Wow... nice description. You can clearly see the lack of any tuck in edge through the tail. Pure release off the rail.

Digging that rolled vee inside the concave through the fins. Does the bottom outside the concave, along the rail, have some vee/bevel, too... or is it just flat?

 

Scoop it someone

http://jerseyshore.craigslist.org/spo/5650669906.html

 

So after reading this thread (and a few others), I finally decided to pull the trigger on a groveler. Picked up a vernor mini-simmons 5'5" x 21.75 x 2 9/16. Guys at Freedom cut me a deal that was too good to pass up, and I've been debating getting a mini simmons for almost 2 years now. Super stoked to try it out asap (tide had killed what little wave we had by the time I finished my purchase and got to the beach). I keep reading good reviews of Vernors from some of you, so that seriously helped in the decision making process. Thanks fellas!

 

Sucker.....

 

beats the hell out of an old man log

 

that thing is sexy man... please report

 

bbbrrrpppppp!!!!!!

 

Thanks, will do! When I saw it on Sunday I wanted it...thought about it and decided yesterday evening to pick it up today if it was still there.

 

Dude!! Does it come in yellow??!!??

 

The log or the old man? probably both i guess.

 

Nice one, Matt... lovin' the S deck.

 

I love the color. That's a hot ride. I've seen a couple vids of dudes riding that. Looks like fun. I love my groveler. Favorite board I own. Enjoy!

 

Someone mentioned wanting a ride report on my Vernor Mini Simmons, so here goes. So I finally had a chance to ride this board in a variety of waves. Using Lost controllers; 5'5" x 21 3/4 x 2 9/16.

ankle-knee. This is pretty much all I had to play in for the first few weeks after I purchased the board. I will say I was a little surprised that I could sit with most of the longboarders and still catch waves. Nothing really special to report; wasn't able to do much else than trim down the line (which was expected). I did notice it didn't bog down as much as my twin keel retro fish.

Super weak thigh high it started to get fun. Was able to climb up the face with ease, felt like it turned pretty well considering what I was working with. Beat sections somewhat easily, but nothing significantly different than other boards I've ridden. I will say that I noticed it was a bit quicker down the line (but it could have been my imagination). That day was hard to find waves that werent closeouts, and we'd had some upwelling so I was freezing my ass off in just boardshorts -called it a day after an hour, so I dint really get to ride it extensively in those conditions.

This morning got out in waist with the occasional chest - mushy & crumbly with steady onshore winds and moderately poor conditions, but waves had a little juice (I felt bad for the surf camp kids eating sh!t in the shorebreak). HOLY FVCK!!!!! this board FLEW down the line. I kept outrunning the pocket and found myself out on the shoulder before I knew what was happening the first few solid waist high waves I caught. Board turn on a dime - so much that on the larger sets it started to get squirrely and skatey in an almost out of control sense. Definitely fun, but caught me off guard. Once I started to get the board a little more dialed, I found that cutback at speed were a breeze, and it was super easy to link sections and catch the reform all the way to the beach. At 33(ish)? liters of volume, a little harder to duck dive, but nothing impossible. Easily was sitting outside the lb-ers and catching waves with ease.

This board paddles like a dream. i had a pretty solid set of expectations about what a mini-simmons would do from all the reviews y'all have posted over the years, and it met all of those. I'd say the only thing that really caught me off guard is how well this board turns. for being almost 22" wide with a tail around 17+ inches, I was not expecting to be able to whip it around like i can. It could be the short outline - I've never ridden anything this short before. Regardless, it's a blast to ride, and I now find myself eager to paddle out on knee-thigh high days, when before I wouldn't even bother (even on my lb). I'm having so much more fun in small conditions than I can ever remember, so that alone was worth the purchase, and in mushy waist to chest, this will now be my go to board. It even has me thinking of selling my fish, which has been one of my favorite boards for years. All in all, my new favorite board, an it has made small summer days not only tolerable, but genuinely fun in a way they really weren't before.

 

^^^ great ride report. Pretty much echos my experience on those kinds of boards. Especially the part about it making you eager to paddle out on knee-thigh high days.

Advice: don't sell your fish if its a good one. Mini Simmons make small summer days fun in a way that the fish doesn't. It's faster in mush, it paddles into 2 foot waves easier, than the twin keel fish....all of that I agree with.

I sold my 5'10" twin keel about four years ago when I really got into the mini simmons and wish I hadn't. There are days where I miss that board. The twin keel fish is a truly amazing and unique shape for riding front side in walled up, small-medium sized, down-the-line kind of waves.

My two cents...keep it.

 

Thanks for the advice; I'll keep the board. I'd rather learn from your experience than do it the hard way...