Board Review - Jacobs 422 Performance Noserider

Posted on: 2009-08-21 11:09:03
Section: News

Having really only ridden traditional-style logs the Jacobs 422 Performance Noserider was a bit of a departure for me. Sure, it had the breeding of the original Jacobs 422 Noserider but that 'P' word in the middle had me a little cautious to say the least. Three days after I collected her, however, I was glad of it, glad of the pin tail, glad of the pulled in hips, I was even glad of the side bites!

What had looked like waist high peelers from the road had turned out to be solid 1.5x to 2x overhead monsters with a few bigger clean-up sets thrown in for good measure. This was truly a lesson in "small vs. far away". Now anybody who knows me knows I like my logs on smaller waves, anything under 2ft and I'm reaching for the log. A hint of anything over that and I'm on a fish or shortboard, no question. So half way out to the line-up when I started to hear the sets breaking I did start to question myself.

I had nothing to worry about, the board slipped into each wave perfectly without any struggle whatsoever. The side-bites took a little getting used to but I was thankful for them in the steeper sections where the board forgave me my mistakes more than once. There was no noseriding done that day, although I did manage one or two turns and cutbacks when the wave allowed it. Probably not the prettiest but hey, I wasn't killed, and that's the important thing :)

Since that first day out I've put that board through her paces in pretty wide range of conditions. From a beautiful 2ft glassy day on a right-hand reef up North to head-high onshore slop at home she hasn't let me down yet. I've kept the side-bites in for most days except the really small clean logging days where all you want to do is glide. All in all I'm delighted with the board so far, she's really earned a top spot in my quiver and opened my eyes up to the more subtle elements of longboard design.

The Jacobs 422 Performance Noserider is available in Ireland through californiadreamin.ie - prices start from € 860.

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