I read a review Giampalo Cammarota did of the Jimmy Lewis 11′ X 30″ board. You can read it yourself here. He didn’t like it all that much, but I believe he’s missing the point. The board isn’t for talented surfer/windsurfers like Giampalo. It’s for busted up geezers like me and anyone who wants to start doing an otherwise really difficult sport. (While I’m writing this my shoulder is aching from paddling into a lot of short period waves today–no channel, no lull between sets, just paddle and slam, paddle and slam).
Here’s some pictures of my buddy John Karamanos trying out the stand up board. He has replacement knees, so he couldn’t pop up from a kneeling position. So he sat on the board and paddled it out with a kayak paddle. No way he could have done that with a typical board–he doesn’t have the balance to sit flat on a board, and he weighs about 250. Click on the thumbnails to view the full size photos.
I went out today at thousand peaks (south side of Maui on the road to Lahina) in slop from the big Kona winds. the waves were rough and confused, the wind was gusty. It was challenging, but I did about two hours of paddling around, caught a few waves, only fell in a few times.
