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*

[oasis-surfer]

Spider makes Epic boards! He is brilliant with service and if anyone has a problem with their board - contact him directly. The glassing problems are sorted. If you are snapping boards chances are - the board is too thin for you or you are surfing in crunching shorebreak or you are out of luck. I have only had great boards, great service and great stoke. Spider lives his brand and loves surfing. ( NO SPIDER BOARDS ARE MADE IN CHINA _ HE SUPPORTS THE PROUDLY SA INITIATIVE!!)

[donhoe]

LMAO!!! This started in 2006 \ It turned 4 years old in Feb. Way to keep an old post alive

[thesurfwizard]

bought a 5ft 10 Spider Bomb 6 months ago from a cool shop in newquay. What a board!! Best glassing I have ever had on a board, and by far the best shape. Tried a few of the boards from local yocal shapers. What a waste of time and money. They are so up themselves, and as for the quality - rubbish. The shapes were rubbish to. Local shops have been slating Spider - what a bunch of whining cry babies. Spider has shaped for 20 world champions. Who they hell have they shaped for? Pathetic!!

[garbarrage]

will this thread ever die!!!

[esonscar]

Bump !

[isaluteyou]

bought a 5ft 10 Spider Bomb 6 months ago from a cool shop in newquay. What a board!! Best glassing I have ever had on a board, and by far the best shape. Tried a few of the boards from local yocal shapers. What a waste of time and money. They are so up themselves, and as for the quality - rubbish. The shapes were rubbish to. Local shops have been slating Spider - what a bunch of whining cry babies. Spider has shaped for 20 world champions. Who they hell have they shaped for? Pathetic!!

20 world champions eh!!! somehow i doubt it Funny i dont see any of the world elite riding spider. But i can name quite a few local shapers that have 100% shaped boards for pro's that were ridden in contests or at the very least were ghost shapers for bigger labels whilst doing their own local brand.

Its what works for you personally. I still say custom shaped is the way to go.

Might be worth pointing out that everyone tooting spiders epicness are clearly not forum regulars and probably either work for spider or are really amped on their boards so much so that they open a forum account and write a good review. To close my input in the topic i know of people that swear that bic/nsp are the best boards they have ridden - anybody who actually knows what they are talking about will find that laughable

[ltiegs]

bought a 5ft 10 Spider Bomb 6 months ago from a cool shop in newquay. What a board!! Best glassing I have ever had on a board, and by far the best shape. Tried a few of the boards from local yocal shapers. What a waste of time and money. They are so up themselves, and as for the quality - rubbish. The shapes were rubbish to. Local shops have been slating Spider - what a bunch of whining cry babies. Spider has shaped for 20 world champions. Who they hell have they shaped for? Pathetic!!

20 world champions eh!!! somehow i doubt it Funny i dont see any of the world elite riding spider. But i can name quite a few local shapers that have 100% shaped boards for pro's that were ridden in contests or at the very least were ghost shapers for bigger labels whilst doing their own local brand.

Its what works for you personally. I still say custom shaped is the way to go.

Might be worth pointing out that everyone tooting spiders epicness are clearly not forum regulars and probably either work for spider or are really amped on their boards so much so that they open a forum account and write a good review. To close my input in the topic i know of people that swear that bic/nsp are the best boards they have ridden - anybody who actually knows what they are talking about will find that laughable

isaluteyou........., Have you stopped laughing yet? I can continue with these posts indefinitely, NOT IF YOU'RE BANNED FROM THE SITE YOU WON'T but at some point I'm going to cross the line between being a spammer and being a twat!

[donhoe]

I love my Proctor Custom too. Todd made me a believer. http://www.proctorsurf.com/Surf-Boards/worldwide-custom
This is a board promotion thread right? HAHA!

[garbarrage]

Absolutely right mate you have gone over the line!! So you can get people to ride your boards by giving them free boards. I would ride no other board if you gave me free boards.

I have owned 2 Spider boards to date(picked the second one up recently at a steal, otherwise wouldn't have touched it) and as I stated nearly a year ago in this thread, there was nothing wrong with the way either of those boards surfed. In fact the second one is probably one of the best boards I've ever surfed. But on both of these boards the glass jobs stink. As someone (KS I think) said. If you are a pro then these boards are super light and responsive. But for your average surfer who wants a good board to last a while they suck.

Having owned 2 of his boards (the first of which I paid top whack for) I can categorically say I will never, ever buy a Spider board again (unless someone is practically giving one away). If I can get one for say 100 bucks and get a couple of good months out of it I'll be happy. After that there's going to be so many repairs on it that it's going to weigh twice what it did when I got it. I have no problems with boards that ding when I get in a sticky situation while surfing good waves, but boards that ding while taking it out of the van (once through it's bag) I won't stand for as a consumer. Times are hard, there's a recession on, and I for one want value for money. I don't want a board that is made for pro surfers who get them for free and couldn't care less if they last one session or one year.

I should add that my current "magic" board I had made by a guy 100 miles or so down the coast from me, rides every bit as well as the spider, cost about 100 bucks less than my first Spider, and one year and some pretty heavy waves on is still in one piece and has only one minor pressure ding on the deck. Given the options, next time I want a new board I know who I'll be calling.