Meyerhoffer mark 1 - 9'2" Longboard

I was on the lookout for a cheap light epoxy longboard for myself for travel and for my youngest daughter to learn on. I picked up a Meyerhoffer 9'2" in a surfshop in poor condition for a good price.

The board looks downright weird and is marketed as a high performance longboard that rides like a shortboard. The construction is SLX epoxy which I think is Bi-directional glass over 2lb polystyrene EPS with a 3/8" wooden stringer. The epoxy is pigmented white which makes repairs pretty invisible and the will also resist browning. It repaired quite easily. I had the board out in 2m, 15second swell and took a few lips full on, so it seems a solid board to me.

There are two unusual features to this board. Firstly there is an incut in the center of theboard which gives the board a waist. Secondly the tail width accelerates to nothing from the fins back.

On the plus side, unusually for a longboard it will tuck neatly under the arm of a person from 5'2" up and its reasonably light. That was my favourite feature of the board

My first day out, I kept falling off the board. I normally pop up and start to turn from toward the center of the board. This board does not like that and will behave unpredictably if you do this. I eventually found the middle of the board is unusable for riding and is only a bridge to move between the front and tail of the board. With this board you have to pop up and keep the widest part of the bottom portion of the board between your feet.
Once you can do this it really takes off and is surprisingly agile, reacting to drive and pumps. I found it pretty easy to do floaters and radical direction changes.

I'm not sure what the numbers on nose rocker are but I found it wasn't enough I was pearling on hollow drops I would normally make on the McTavish.

I also found the tail weird. Normally I can noseride a while, then if the waves hollows out I can walk quickly to the back of the board to turn. Not on this board - every time I tried it I came off the back.

In smaller waves it caught them easily and you could noseride it equally as good as any other performance longboard.

In fairness, the board does what it promises "hard turns off the tail" and it does that very well, providing you are standing with the bump between your feet. Ultimately it was not my cup of tea, I can do the hard turns without having to compromise midboard performance, its a bit like a bike with training wheels. I would think that this board would suit people who only ever ride meyerhoffer longboards and are tuned into them. If you want to interchange boards with standard longboards its too radical a change in style, one which I could not master. I swopped this board after 3 months for a McTavish Fireball, which was pure bliss first ride.

Solid construction, easily repaired, light and comfortable but a one trick pony.
Rating 3.5/5