Bomber Surfboard?

[serge]

This is the same place that I am grabbing for 360s. Can anyone help with how to redirect the kite after coming around on a strapless 3? I need to maintain my death grip on the board until it's back underfoot, and by then the kite is at 12 and I can't ride away.

I usually just loop the kite at the end ;-) seems to flow better that way.

changing hand and redirecting the kite seem to mess with the flow of the jump, there's a point when the kite comes back the other way that just messes with the end of the trick imo. It stalls the rotation and flow ....

you can also take your back hand and reach out to the other side of the bar, essentially flying the kite with the back hand on the front. But you still have the change of direction that I mention above.
just my R&D .

Serge

[sc-surfer]

The firewire boards look sick though. Has anyone ridden one?

Got the hellfire for christmas. Been riding for the last week here in LV. Love it.

I'm jumping it with straps, and riding strapless. So far no signs of damage. The deck is waxed surf style with no front pad and still no heel dents. It is significantly heavier than the surf model but still has some flex and rides smooth. Doesn't have that harsh epoxy feel of the super stiff boards.

As for performance, I prefer it as a thruster with the Deviant center fin. Still upwinds almost as well as the quad setup but seems to turn faster. I'll have to go back to the quad again to confirm but I'm loving it with 3 fins.

At first I found it to be a bit squirly but I'm getting used to it. Moving my foot position helps a lot. It turns quick and gets up on plane pretty fast for a 5'6". When chasing swells downwind it seems to have enough glide. I'll have a much better idea of its wave performance when I get it back home to Santa Cruz but its very promising so far.

Jumps are easy and the landing is pretty soft for a board with no pads. The tail is pretty wide and I'm just landing with a heavy back foot then shifting my weight to get moving again. My feet and knees haven't been complaining.

FWIW

[Aloha]

I've tried some FW surfboards for kiting, but curious how you'd compare the kite specific ones? You touched on it a bit...

I'm a heavier guy and would sink the crap out of a 5'6" but that board sounds super snappy. I'm riding thruster w/ deviant and love it--prefer it to quad

[sc-surfer]

Follow up on the Hellfire.

Still loving it. Prefer the thruster setup over the quad. So far NO heel dents anywhere (no pad up front, just wax). Riding it strapless is the best. I'm able to put my feet in a really good position for long tacks and then move them to a more natural surf position while on a wave.
The thing will turn in about a board length if pushed. I find that I can just throw the kite the other direction and just before it rips me off the water backwards I can slam a turn and be heading the other way.
As for jibes, I'm still not hitting them all the time but it's wide enough to be pretty stable as I switch feet. It also rides toeside real well. Again, just a quick re-position of the feet and staying upwind is no prob. Can't quite get as close to the wind as heel side but that's going to be true of any board.
The one thing I will say is that the board likes to be lit up. In light wind it is a challenge to keep upwind. It has definately made me a much better rider!

For comparison I'm about 180lbs, ride mostly on a 9m at the coast.

Just my $0.02