Spitfire or Hellfire? HELP!

[Baker]

Sam lam is a big guy and rides the dom in a 5'8. I've really got used to small boards and actually prefer having a smaller board in bigger waves. The spit is good as long as the peak is pealing not throwing. Although when its small and sucky its fun to be on. I might be trying a 5'8 sub next as I thing it night have a bit more speed than the spit. I will keep the old faithfull though still just in case it doesn't work out!

[rmd101]

Took a trip today to check the boards out first hand: 5'10" felt like it had a little too much foam for my liking, but the 5'8" felt kind of scarily short! However, I figured you guys hopefully know what you are talking about haha (and I have read the entire Spitfire forum pretty much and heard the same advise over and over) and as per normal my scouting mission turned into an impulse buy and I've taken the plunge and bought an FST 5'8". Just need to hopefully score some waves this week and baptise her!

Cheers for your guidance, guys!

[prjwebb]

You're stoked! The 5'8" is a beauty. Before long you'll be thinking that's a normal length and anything else is long!

What fins do you have in mind?

[rmd101]

Cheers, buddy. Gonna feel it out as a thruster since that's what i'm used to - have always got on with M3s (much to everyone's horror), PG5s & 2.1s. Think I read you were using the k3s? Been using 2.1 sides and m3 rear with the Blakbox so think i'll give that a go first. Think I also have some PC3s & 7s kicking around somewhere as well. Fins are so damn expensive, though, I tend not to experiment that much - just buy whatever looks cheap on ebay!

After that I guess I'll see how I like the included quad set up.... haven't previously preferred them over thrusters, though.

Any recommendations?

[prjwebb]

I always preferred the Spitfire as a thruster with K2.1s, then K3s once I chopped it off into a squash tail because the 2.1s got too slidey.

I recently tried it with a K2.1 quad set plus knubster and that went really, really good.

[Baker]

Yeah ride it as a thruster for a while and sus it out. When you've tried it out in all conditions then maybe try as a quad for speed in the smaller stuff. Go with what feels right, I only tried mine as a quad after a year but i'd always feel safer with 3 fins.

[Baker]

Oh and for fins there's a guy on ebay in the us selling the new k2.1 and k3 green-flex fins for about 34 quid. Only took 6 days to get mine!

[prjwebb]

Or you can take a set of two off me... :P

[iggy]

Yeah, my initial thought was to give the Spitfire a go, but then my eye got caught by all the other models and confusion set in...... haha

What are your thoughts on the different construction types (i.e FST & Rapidfire)? 5'8" sounds about right for volume, but i've never ridden under a 5'10" & being fairly tall-ish 5'8" just sounds ridiculously short! How have you found late drops on these? The 5'10" sounds like a brute, though: 20.5" wide & 2.5" thick!!!

Guess i need to get on those demos.

Everybody has their own preferences. The Rapidfire is lighter than FST but feels the closest to a traditional construction board.
Me personally like the added weight of the FST and the organic feeling of it. I kind of feel more the `twang effect` on FST than Rapidfires.
As far as length goes, I`ve been sckeptical in the past about going small, but with the correct skill level/conditions/volume, you can actually venture to go small. at 165cms and 84 kgs I went at some point from a Dominator 5`10```to a Spitfire 5`8`` to a sweet potato 5`2``. You just have to identify which conditions you`ll be surfing the board mostly

[Chris]

my sentiments are that neither tech feels exactly like a center-stringered board strictly due to the way the boards flex. way more life. I also find the rapidfire to have a faster rate of return to its flex, meaning it loads up and gives it back a little quicker than FCS. that is that twang. The FST has a more even flex and really smoothly loads up and give is back to you in a buttery way. It makes carves feel insane!! As a result I find my self gravitating towards rapidfire for my smaller wave boards and FST for my better wave boards.

only my preference though!!