A 197cm long wave board. Imagine you are traveling with boards shorter than 2 meters? How much easier would that be? Perhaps Jaeger Stone and his dad (SSD Stone Surf Design) opened a new chapter in terms of wave board development?
The board is 18 cm shorter than Starboard’s Black Box and around 30 cm shorter compared to most of the actual wave boards. Jaeger shows that he is able to sail as usual on that new concept. We have hooked up with Jaeger for an interview, to speak about this new shape, the pros and cons, planing ability, etc.
And don’t forget to watch the video, where Jaeger rides his new shape: Video – Jaeger Stone
Continentseven: How are you doing more than 6 months after your injury?
Jaeger Stone: I’m doing well now thanks. After the surgery on my ankle I had 9 months off windsurfing to make sure it was completely healed and to reduce the risk of re-injuring it. The ligaments in my ankle have healed as expected now. When I’m sailing I don’t experience any pain at all and feel like I can do whatever I want which is good. It still gets quite stiff and sore after sailing but that’s also to be expected for a little while anyway. I feel like I’m close but because I’ve had the 9 months off I think I still need another couple of weeks on the water to feel 100% and get all of my confidence back. The time off wasn’t too bad though as it allowed me to do all of my rehabilitation and focus on my last year of Physiotherapy studies.
Continentseven: You were quite productive in the meanwhile and worked on several new shapes together with your dad! Is the 197 cm long wave board the shortest you ever built?
Jaeger Stone: Yeah, this is the shortest sailboard we’ve built so far. Over the last few years we’ve gradually been decreasing the length of our surfboards more and more and I’ve always been interested in the idea of riding a sail board similar in size to a surfboard. I’ve been asking Dad to build a really short board for a while now so after he built a couple of surfboards and kiteboards using the same concept we thought it might work and gave it a go. It’s far easier to travel and pack a small board in to the car too.
Continentseven: Is the board just chopped in the nose?
Jaeger Stone: The board is a combination of the two shapes we have been riding for the last 2-3 seasons, however it has a mildly straighter outline. To get the length the nose has been shortened and to maintain the volume the nose is wider and slightly thicker. The areas of the board removed do reduce the volume, but these areas don’t seem to add too much to the efficiency of the board so we’ve been able to get away with it. The channel concave and bevels in the nose compensate for the reduced nose rocker that has been removed. The smaller board feels like a 70L and the bigger board is equivalent to an 80L in regards to sailing efficiency, even in light winds. Using 4 fins allows for new design paths to be followed and for us to move away from the more traditional ideas.
Continentseven: How does this shape influence board characteristics like stability, control, planing ability?
Jaeger Stone: The increased width and volume up in the nose helps increase the boards stability and efficiency in light winds. I have adjusted now but in the beginning tacking required a little more energy due to the reduced nose length. It planes just as early as my other boards though, and once on the plane in high wind or light wind it planes just as fast and then through the turns feels even faster. Jumping from my regular boards to this I don’t feel any difference.
Continentseven: Can you go even shorter?
Jaeger Stone: Yeah of course. There’s no limitations in regards to what can be shaped or ridden so we can only try and learn from there.
Continentseven: What sail sizes are you using on such a shape?
Jaeger Stone: So far I’ve used a 4.0, 4.3, 4.7, 5.0 and 5.3 on them which is all the weather has allowed. I haven’t had any problems with these sizes and it just feels like I’m sailing a normal board. 5.3 is the biggest sail I use so it would be interesting to see how big you could go and what they could handle.
Continentseven: You are pretty light and you have great skills. Do you think this shape would also work for heavier dudes?
Jaeger Stone: Everything is in proportion so a board of this length or slightly longer with increased volume may be appropriate for a larger windsurfer. Both my Dad and brother are bigger than me and can use the same boards without any issues. People can only try these things out themselves to find out if they like it or of it works for them. It’s still early days and they’re not for everyone.
Continentseven: What are the pros and cons for such a board?
Jaeger Stone: We’ve only been riding these boards for a month and the season is starting slowly so we will keep finding out any pros and cons. At present the pros in comparison to my normal length boards are that it is really fast through the turns and because of its length you can really turn quite hard and sharp as it fits perfectly in to small-medium size wave pockets. The cons are that it can take a couple of runs to get use to and to figure out how to transfer your weight differently when you first jump on it. Other than tacking requiring a bit of adjustment due to the reduced nose length, the general sailing ability and efficiency is equivalent to my other boards.
Continentseven: Will you use shapes in that length for competition as well?
Jaeger Stone: We will keep fine-tuning the boards over the Summer and I’ll probably take one to the next event I do. I’m confident that I sail just as good and can do everything I do on my normal boards.
Continentseven: How is the control in the air?
Jaeger Stone: Jumping feels normal now. It took a couple of crashes to adapt to the landing for Back Loops, but the boards are easy to move and control in the air. We haven’t had any really windy days here yet where I’ve just been able to jump, but hopefully we get some strong wind soon and I can see exactly what it can do.
Continentseven: Will you keep on riding such short shapes or will you return to longer ones again?
Jaeger Stone: We’ll definitely keep riding the shorter boards now and over the Summer to keep testing them in different conditions. At the moment we’re riding a lot of different shapes and sizes like the keel quads and diamond tails we’ve been working on as well. I think that’s the best way to progress and keep it interesting. We do squabble over who gets to use these boards though.
Continentseven: Thanks for the interview.
©continentseven.com 2013
Finalmente una ripartenza decisa verso lo sviluppo del WS ,tuttigli attori del WS si sveglino , grande Jaeger.
Ci siamo fermati al freestyle , possiamo risalire i fiumi?
In cabezo sails a small italian guy with an fanatic new wave with a broken nose. Looks exactly like this crap.
in the last times several shapers are experimenting with this kind of boards. we could see pablo from killerfish customs ride a board like this during the whole summer in pozo. (201cm)
Mark Angulo shaped the Angulo Victory 68 twinfin already in 2010, which is only 214cm.
i use it in waves, and it works perfect! the new 2014 Simmer Frugal 66/77 is even shorter (210cm)
I just think about that yesterday! Surfers stance wider and closer to nose that give more control I was thinking to move mast track closer to the nose and make nose wider and tail thickier and more narrow with more space btwin footstraps and mast track and wider space btwin footstraps. Good luck!