What do you think about Spider surfboards?

[isaluteyou]

for about $200 -$250 not shitting you, why don't you email Spider and get a board custom shaped and air freighted to you? you might pay less and get a custom board?

Or alternativerly you can go to a local shaper and get a board dialed up for your specs and local wave scene. Dealing with foreign imports is just nuts. The only way to get a true custom is to meet the shaper face to face theres only so much you can gather by email and phone

[thesurfwizard]

My mates and I have been riding spider boards for the last 3 years. They are by far the best on the market!! Glassing is superb and the shapes are unreal. There is no way the likes of Sunny Garcia and Andy Irons would rate these boards if they were not the best (saw Andy Irons on telly the other night talking about how good his spider board was)!! We have been buying our boards from emoceanl in newquay, and those guys are real cool and know what they are talking about. They also do not try and rip you off by selling you the wrong boards (like a lot of shops do!). There seems to be a lot of whinging going on, is it possibly that the local shapers are running scared?

[Tris]

From the day I first started surfing, I've asked some embarrasing newbish questions and did every mistake a surfer could do at least once (except waxing the bottom of my board... although I did place two bords on top of each other, when they were both waxed) but anyway, the best and smartest thing I ever did with surfing was going to a renown local shaper who craftet boards made specifically for my local conditions.

I was redeemed.

So like a few others said, go local.

Oh and what do I think of spider boards? I don't know, never seen one around here.

[donhoe]

One mans trash is another mans theasure.
It's only good if you like it.

[surfaMIKE]

A few months have passed and spider boards have become better. they are improving their glass jobs and apparently they are much stronger. that does NOT mean i would still buy a spider, they have a reputation for bad quality and i for one dont have the patience or money to buy another board every 4th month. basically, i dont want to take the chance. i would rather buy a wedge and get it in epoxy and know that it can handle our break than risking a spider. there a few wedge boards here and the owners rave about them

but then again, different strokes for different folks

[esonscar]

I have never heard of spider surfboards before I read this post.

It sounds to me like they are ultra lights for those who are willing to throw them away after one or two sessions.

This is actually exciting because imagine all the shapes you’d go through in a year !

[darcy]

Sorry to bump an old topic.

I have a 6' 0" Spider Safari roundpin. It's true that the glassing is a tad light, but I wouldn't say it was overly so. I got destroyed by some 9 foot close outs not too long ago and it held out just fine.

If you wanted a board to duck dive easy this would be it. There's no weight to it at all. But you pay the price by having to take some late drops.

Nice fast board, though. Not too loose. I think it's a great shape. But, for the same price, you could buy a Firewire - great shapes and indestructable.

[esonscar]

^ Somehow, from all the descriptions above here, I feel the Firewire might not quite be in the same league as the Spiders !
I hope you discover the difference !

[darcy]

Have you used Firewires? What did you reckon to them?

[esonscar]

I have not used firewires - I build my own custom carbons and clears (I am an ex senior industrial research physicist with my own hydrodynamic philosophy).

I used to use equipment up to 5,000 bar water pressure to prototype automotive components for the big car makers – 5,000 bar ! go look it up !

But I am a still a surfer to the core – the career was nice, I used to check the surf, ‘phone the lads and students in work – then we’d all leave en mass for a surf and some lessons provided by myself ! (as long as we were ahead in our research tasks of course!).

I’m still young too – nowhere near retirement and developing new styles and technology for surfers everywhere ( at my own expense !).

Two years testing of a new genre surfboard and looking good (still secret !).

Firewire should be good for a grommet though, unless ……… (psst – pm me !).

[darcy]

*le intrigued*