Friday, October 12, 2012

6'8" Firewire Dominator

6'8" X 21.8" X 3"I bought this board trying to find a board which would react faster to pumping down the line than my mccoys for fast breaking waves. it similar to a nugget shape so I thought I'd find the transition easy. This one was FST technology, a pvc foam composite sandwich over eps. It has the standard firewire balsa rails. Fin setup is quad or thruster, I rode it with M5's. I rode this board a fair bit. I found it rides very different to the mccoy. It has a flatter rocker for a start, concaves and thin rails. It paddles great due to the volume and flat rocker, better than a mccoy. It also handled mush and fat waves really well. because theboard is light you can pump the crap out of it and get a but of momentum going on fat waves. However it resists turning compared to a mccoy, not half as smooth or balanced. I think the distribution of volume (foil) is all wrong. It would be a great board if the volume in front of the front foot was reduced and a little more volume added to the tail. Durability wise its pretty good, I took it on my winter trip to morocco and it survived being kneeled on when the driver was tying the boards to the roof of the bus with a rope.

Rating 3.5/5 Good board but could be a lot better if the foil was changed.

2 comments:

dadgroms4life. said...

6'8 seems pretty big for a dominator, given they are pretty much a groveler board for small/head high waves, that is A LOT of volume. I think over a certain size the design features of this board become redundant. As an active fit surfer you could probably lose 4 inches, still have a board with tons of float, paddle and volume but a lot more responsiveness and turning ability.

Unknown said...

I am new to surfing and in my search for the best surf brands this is exactly the kind of real recommendation or review I was looking for. Will you be posting more on other brands?