Some surf action, and some new fins?

Another action round up. I've been trying to get out in the surf as often as possible. I've had a couple of Cornish sessions and a couple of North Devon sessions. The New Rush 7/2 is ripping in the surf!
After my little rock/fin incident I've set about re-shaping the remains of my fins and have made and started testing a new centre fin. So far the whole small side fin, larger center fin set up has been working really well, and the first prototype centre fin has worked well too. If all goes well I'll make some molds from these originals and try and make a few of them. I have a few other fins shape prototypes too, they just need re-fining and testing. Watch this space for more!

Fresh off the work bench, center fin prototype 1

The best looking surf boat ever??

The new fin set up after their first test

Cool new Yak Camo sticker

Hmmmm....... sparkly!

Me, my surf kayak and some waves

Here's a quick round of pictures of me in my new Valley Rush 7/2 surf kayak. Once again southerly winds meant a trip down to Haryln. The swell was much smaller this time, only 1-2ft, but still super clean. But being a bank holiday also meant that the surf was very busy.

The only problem was when I took off on a good sized wave, went left, got closed out and then ended up surfing over some rocks. OUCH!!! A few clonks and bangs later and I was back on the beach inspecting the damage. Lucky for me the fins took almost all of the damage. My right fin loosing large amounts of glass, my left fin, only lost a little glass, but split and delaminated, and my centre fin barely seems to have been touched. As for might boat it only has a handful of very minor surface scratches across the hull. Phew!

Moments after this I ended up going over some of the rocks in the foreground.....

Ouch!

Time to invest in some new fins. Then take the grinder to the old ones and make a smaller set out of them!

My New Toy

The newest, latest and shiniest toy in my arsenal arrived just the other day. I'm now the proud owner of a Valley Surf Kayaks Rush 7/2. I had this little beauty custom made for me. Its built in the lightest and stiffest, Vac bagged Carbon Kevlar lay up, with a foam core deck and hull for extra stiffness without extra weight. When built, the guys at Valley weighed it and reckoned the shell (no foam seat, or pillar) came to about 9.5 kg. That's seriously light!

All it needs now is a few bit of foam here and there to pad it out, and then it'll be time to hit the waves!