A new Victoria prototype being test on Lake Martin
Testing testing and more testing( to me its riding , riding and more riding)….I guess technically you call it research and development. Last year I wrote about Victoria ‘ s wakesurf line testing grounds being here on Lake Martin. I have been working with the guys at Vic for a handful of years now and in the past few with the enormous growth of the wakesurf industry so has their line. When I first called Laguna Beach, CA and spoke with the then team manager, there was one board and it was optionally outfitted as a carbon fiber board, same shape, different structural materials. The line has grown to 6 shapes and the original has been dramatically changed. I am proud to say that in the current line up two of the boards have come from some concepts we came up with and tested here on Lake Martin. The Debut hit the market in 2015, a full wooden board which has become more of a kids board than anything for a number of reasons. The Captain, a fish tail multi fin skim style board was quite a few years in testing before it launched in the 2016 line, seems to be more of a bigger rider board.
So what’s happening now in the world of R&D for Victoria….I have two prototypes we are testing that today have a ton of potential to be the next new board in the line. It is very different concept then that its predecessors, with some serious surf style influences. It’s a big board, really big! It’s made to be ridden by someone who wants to cruise and carve, with lots of stability. when this board is ridden by a little bit lighter rider, it catches a little push from the very back of the wave with ease. It’s body does have a pin-tail and it’s an inch thick mid density foam core(for right now anyway). I would generally describe it as a skim style long board, which will use up to three fins. The exciting part about this board is that it will really preform when you push it. I have tested it with a few fin set ups, which makes a enormous difference in how it handles on the wave. Currently my favorite set up is a dual 1.25 ” fin set up, followed closely by the single 1.25? fin. Obviously there is a nearly infinite number of setups with fin sizes and from a single to three fins. I like the twin fin configuration for the stability and ease of use..yet when you want to get agressive and carve it hooks up, when you go to spin the board in a 360 it will break free and the rail holds the board on the wave face with slipping out. When you kick it around in a shuv-it it snaps around fin side or even easier when ridding it backward (once you’ve shuved it and do your shuv out). You can even boost a nice amount of air off the lip when you snap it at the top of the lip. The board is so stable that I was able to spin a 360 with a friend of mines kid on my shoulders, and she rode tandem on the nose and center along with me. Unquestionably the easiest tandem board I’ve used.
I wouldn’t be surprised a but if this is one of the 2017 additions in the line; question is how much will we change it. It can always be improved, and that’s why there is another with some nips and tucks on the table right now that is about to be mailed to Lake Martin…we shall see what Tex Haines and the guys Victoria can come up with!
