After about 6years of trying all different boards, brands, shapes and sizes I decided to bite the bullet and buy a brand new one. My first Smik! The stock dimensions of the new 8'2 Smik v3 spitfire just seemed about as close to a custom as I wanted anyway! Something about that rounded pin just called out to me.
I've been chopping and changing with my
quiver for awhile trying to find the right blend of boards while also frustratingly wanting one to be as much of a '1 board quiver' as possible.
My local break is typically pretty solid, big beach break, shifting peaks, currents, and chop (plus crowds), so I wanted something with a bit more length and glide than my 7'9 jimmy Lewis world wide, but a refined tail to handle juice better too. In summary, the v3 hit the memo with flying colours and loving it more and more. I'm only 70kg.
I've had it out in a range of conditions now- low tide overhead peelers, lefts, rights, slight chop, smaller waist to shoulder string off-shore wind rollers and it does it all.
Stability: Considering the narrow pin tail + decent rocker, it's surprisingly stable and paddles quite well. It gets on to waves pretty easily and not too
tippy. I did a 2hr session yesterday basically standing the whole time in strong off-shores and came off once! Also prob got about 20x waves! Quads are burning today.
Speed: I was surprised reading that people said this was a fast board (given the rocker and pin tail). Most boards like this ie the jimmy Lewis stun gun, are non speed generating to control Bigger waves, whereas this has a single to double to vee out through the start of the back fins. It does seem to have good speed and probably why it seems to still work in smaller waves with a curl. A quick pump or two and she's off.
Control: this is where I really noticed the difference to my 7'9 worldwide. In the very first wave, the control was incredible. So poised, and it felt Like the user had absolute control to point and click where to shoot It. Where this gave me a second wind was on big carves off the top- the Tail and vee really hold on and allow you to cut back without slipping like my other boards might. Oddly while Not being as fast or loose as say my WW, I could do bigger and better turns with more confidence. It's inspiring to push harder on both front and backhand.
Turns: pretty instinctive, im Prob more Of a front foot surfer and this board seems to work from pretty much anywhere on the board. Step on the middle to plane , glide and get some speed, rock slightly
back and it starts to turn. Put more weight on the tail and it really starts to pivot (decent tail Rocker). I think my backhand surfing has never been better. I've had a few step up style of sups before and found them generally to be a bit flat rocketed in the tail- gives control but doesn't create a lot of Fun factor. This board isn't like those, I love the tail rocker.
Weight: it's pretty light, maybe 7kg.
Fins: it came with a nice set of fins, bigger centre than sides. I rode this for a few sessions and may explain some of the control compared to what I normally run. I changed the fins to my usual
bigger sides and smaller centre and it seemed
to open it up a bit yest. Bit looser, more sensitive for smaller waves. Keen to try quads! Made it feel a bit more like a surfboard.
Overall: I'm pretty stoked. I don't think I could really ask for more without sacrificing something else. I've now used it in pretty much everything I'd normally use my boards in, without having to change boards. It's good to have confidence in board to handle bigger stuff, but also still able to glide and hack around in smaller stuff. Probably as close to a one board quiver I've found in a long time (for the waves I surf). I never tried the squash tail version I've always found that pins just work for me.
Any questions fire away!
Nice mate, looks like a great board to me and is a Jumbo version of my favourite 6'6" surfboard that I owned many years ago. I hope to add one to the quiver one day, and reading your comments certainly makes it seem a great idea.
Cheers.
Steve.
Awesome mate!
The Spitfire and the WW is a sick quiver. Use each depending on mood / waves.
Enjoy!
