Grindwater Muaka

Just picked one of these up Sat. I'm pretty new to wakesurfing, and all my exp has been a CWB tsunami, that is way too small for me. Has anyone tried this board?

I met the owner of Grindwater, Darin Shapiro, at our boat show last month. He had several of his boards there to see. I would love to demo a couple of them. Anyone have any experience riding any of them???

Take it not a very popular board

Seriously, no one has ridden this or any other of their boards?

i would think folks in florida would have had a better chance to demo the board.

Weren't there some boards from last year someone may have riden?

I saw their line at the 2009 january surf expo show, so i would think someone would have ridden one that visits this forum

I actually had the chance of demoing there line up last fall. The Ginsu was my favorite ride by far. It was a very effortless board and super boyant. The Shaka is their cruiser model kinda similar to the hyperlite Landlock but it is also a lot more boyant and fun if you like walkin around the surface of the board.If you are looking for a board to go out there and shred then I would reccomend the Slaysh. Its a lot smaller than the Shaka so you can really throw it around. On all of these boards I took off the stock fins and threw on some Hyperlite 1.3 P wings. It really loosens the board up and makes the ride a lot funner. The only board I did't ride was the muaka and it's just the big brother of the Shaka and is gonna ride just like it just for a bigger person.

Joe, i thoguht the boards used FCS fins.

I know they were talking about that but last year they were still using the standard bolt pattern to keep the cost down to help the price point for retailers. Now that I think about it the Ginsu did have the fcs but we just put smallers fins on it to loosen it up.

What's the difference between the fcs and bolt pattern? I'm a complete beginer, and have just been wake surfing on the side, so I know very little. Wasn't much fun with a baord way too small for me.

Originally Posted by cjh1669

What's the difference between the fcs and bolt pattern? I'm a complete beginer, and have just been wake surfing on the side, so I know very little. Wasn't much fun with a baord way too small for me.

fcs and future are two surf fin companies. they are what is used on almost every real surfboard. surf fins work so much better than wakeboard fins for surfing. hopefully surfdad comes on here and explains it.

The fins on this board are thin plastic that look like a sharks dorcile fin, they look like real surf board fins, as far my untrained eye can see

As FreeRider209 (I think) points out - the bolt through wakeboard style fins are substantially cheaper than a removable fin system like FCS, Futures, Probox, O'Fish'l, etc. Makes sense for a price point surf style board. For a skimmer with a single trailer, the wakeboard bolt-thru fins are probably the best.

The removable fin systems that Mitch points out offer a few things. One is fin choices, both of those companies offer probably 50 fins suitable for behind the boat, and in different materials - plastic, nidacore, fiberglass, etc. Literally there are maybe a hundred choices of fin combinations that will help you dial in the board. All high end independent surf style wakesurf boards have these removable fin systems.

Another deals with the fin orientation. The bolt thru fins pretty much must be mounted straight up and down. Whereas, the removable systems have the fin "canted" on an angle towards the rails of the board. This cant offers lift to the tail of the board, the board will feel as if there is less drag and is more responsive when the cant is adequate. Also, more of the fin is engaged when the board is heeled over in a turn. So the second major benefit that the removable fin systems offer is the performance increase associated with the cant of the fins.

The last significant benefit is toe-in. Most manufacturers that opt for bolt thru fins just run the fins straight going length-wise. On high end surf style boards, the fins are toed in - just like the front wheels of your car have an adjustment for toe-in. The toe-in does a few things, one is that it allows the fin to hold on longer in a turn. The angle of attack on a fin going straight will fail sooner. Now, sometimes that's what we want - when you do a lip slide, you're pushing the fins to failure. The other thing that toe does, is allow an easier initiation of a turn. In short, the toe availabe in the removable fin systems aids turning performance.

So these are the removable fins you speak of? Can't really tell from the pic, but they are toe in.

Yep - those are FCS plugs, like Mitch was asking about.

Thanks, Hopefully it ends up being a good board. I struggled on the composite cwb Ive ridden thus far.

I think you'll like it. Ricky Carroll is a Florida shaper and he did the origianl shapes for Grindwater. Ricky won the Sacred Craft "shape-off" in '07. He knows how to shape a board, You'll have to let us know how your new stick rides, once you get it wet.

Will do. Pretty excited to try it. Probably will give it a try in about 2 weeks