2007 Inland Surfer Yellow

So...it's good to be me. I just got my hands on a brand spanking new IS Yellow (nah, nah, nah, nah, nah ) I've got a bunch that I wanted to share before the actual ride review. I'm really impressed with the changes in this board from last year.

First things first, a comparison picture of the '06 yellow and the new '07 yellow. The '07 is on the left.

The first thing you'll notice is the change in the nose shape. One of the issues with riding the Yellow hard with turns was that the '06 model with it's wider and squared off nose would catch in the trough. This new nose shape will minimize that issue. Also, the width of the nose, with the a somewhat pin shape still allows the board to be used with shuv's. Nice revision, IMO.

The fin placement is the same, with the trailing edge up from the tail, just a shade over 10 inches. The toe-in angle remains the same.

This photo gives a pretty good view of the different nose treatment, the concave at the nose, what Inland calls their Vortex Channel remains unchanged. This feature allows the board to flow water faster at the nose.

The Yellow is still 4'4" long, the same length as a Coex, but the Yellow is 22.5" wide, compared to the Coex's 20.5" width. The Yellow's shape also provides for greater surface area beyond just the width. These components along with a "flip" nose gives this board incredible down-the-line speed. Substantially faster than a Coex. IMO, the combination of short length and down-the-line speed are powerful characteristics for a performance board.

I am very interested in the fins. Most of the high end boards use surf industry components...fins from Futures, FCS, etc. The problem with these components for the NON surfer is that they require a fin wrench (2mm allen wrench) to remove. Now admittedly all of the boards come with the fin wrench, but realistically most folks that have such boards, don't carry around the fin wrench. Also, if you ever lose the wrench, I not sure how many would have a 2mm allen wrench in their garage.

What Inland has done is mate the performance of true surfboard fin with the convience of a phillips head screw that most boaters already have on their boat. Further, if you lose the screw, you trot down to Ace Hardware to get a replacement. Now I know that losing the set screw on a Futures box is highly unlikely, but in the event it happens...I'd rather try and match a simple screw than the set screw with a 2mm socket.

The major players use wakeboard fins on their wakesurfers, with the exception of the HL meat clevers. IS offers 3.25 and 3.5 inch fins with a decent foil. These pictures show that the IS 3.5 is very close to a Futures SB1 3.50.

Nice write up Jeff, I'm still waiting for my new one in the mail. I might be waiting awhile....

Jeff, I'd love to try one of those boards, are they available in So.Cal.? (PS. I have about 300 2MM wrenches in my garage if anybody needs one!)

I'm jealous!! I love my IS Yellow 06' but would love to try the 07 if any of the local shops in Austin would start to carry Inland Surfer. We used to have a shop that carried Shredd Stixx, but they closed down...

Chris Y, you need to come back up to God's country...you can always ride this one. I honestly don't know the availability of the boards. The folks from IS were kind enough to ship this one for us (I say US - they want James to boost air on it and spin 7's , who am I kidding?! ) to try out. I'll have a more thorough write up after the weekend on the ride characteristics.

I know that a few shops in our general area carry the IS line, I think this model is going to sell well.

Just two more pictures for this evening.

With the change in the nose, the 07 Yellow now has what IS is referring to as a progressive rail. The tail is hard, blending forward to a soft rail. This is very typical of surfboards, and surfboard influenced boards like the Shred Stixx and the custom Walker Project models. The '06 Yellow which was more of a twin tip board had a hard rail throughout. On the '06 yellow this tended to cause the nose to be grabby, this softer rail at the nose on the '07 Yellow is more forgiving. Initiating hard turns will feel smoother and for many folks learning 3's they will appreciate the nose being less "bitey".

It's a poor picture, but this is looking toward the tail from the nose down the rail, you can see it's soft or rounded at the nose.

This is my own personal pet peeve, others may not share this. The '06 Yellow's kick pad was built up of 'glass and epoxy with just a thin layer of eva foam. I would fall and inevitably get that hard appendage from the board in my shin or something. So I was THRILLED when I saw that the new '07 Yellow's kickpad is ALL EVA. No more bruised shins!

It's not a big deal, but I do miss it. The '06 Yellow had some fairly extensive tooling that allowed the EVA foam to be recessed into the board deck. The '07 model doesn't have the recessed eva foam. So...that is the review of the design changes, pretty substantial and I think some significant innovation in the fins.

I'll be back here for ride pictures and review after he weekend.

Nuts!! I just bought an 06 last week.

I just picked up a 06 two weeks ago. I still have not been able to try it out. I like the design of the 07.

nice, I like what they did with it.

Looks like a pretty sweet ride.

Nice review. Jeff I've never had a problem with the '06 kick pad. I did have a problem with the fins though.



The 06 Yellow is a pretty amazing board. It's very fast even for +200 riders. One of my crew is something like 250. We were talking about the boards in my quiver, after several rides he said that the Yellow was probably the best one for him, even at his weight.

I'm working on my three. I've had my best near sucesses on the IS Yellow.

Inland Surfer seems to have done a lot of RnD work this last year, nice.

I, like Jeff, just bought an 06

If you're trying to describe the IS Yellow in a single word it would unquestionably be FAST - all caps.

It begs to be ridden at least 2 MPH faster than any board you've ridden. Attempting to ride it below 10mph feels like you're in rush hour traffic. IMO, it's the fastest under 5 foot board available. Now, that translates into a couple of things in my mind. One is that for folks that are just starting to learn tricks, can use the extra speed to recover from shaky completions of tricks. Several times during my rides, I was able to recover with my rear leg awash in the curl. On just about any other board I would have been done.

We like to do a test where in James blasts at the wake as fast as he can and then slayshes back to get a feel for the flex. The yellow has no real flex, very stiff. So...James decides that it would be fun to test it as a wakeskate. Now I know this isn't wakesurfing, but just try this on any board less than 4'6" long and with a standard wakesurf rope. AND land it out in the flats.

Did I mention that the yellow is FAST?

I found the board to be remarkably stable for it's relatively small size and marked speed. I did ride the board at about 11.2 - 11.7 up from 10.5 where I normally ride. I could have ridden at a faster PP setting given a few more hours of testing. I was able to ride backside switch, which I'm not great at, and especially on smaller boards.



(Message edited by surfdad on June 04, 2007)

Lipslides and tucked with one knee on the board were pretty much effortless for me. I have difficulty tucking one knee down on the board with boards this size because of a lack of stability - I wobble all over the place, but not so on the yellow.

I also found the board an admirable performer backside. I was able to slide the tail loose on backside snaps. The speed of the board helped with that. The version that IS sent us had their 3.5" fins and so the board did track straight. I would think most folks that order this board will opt for the smaller 3.25" fins.

I always like to put Judy on aboard that we test because she is so petite. She has excellent skills, but some boards are a bit too much for her to manage. As you can see in the picture, the yellow rides "high-n-dry" with Judy. She raved about the traction. It was comfortable for her, but also allowed her to shift her feet a bit. One of the problems she faces with other traction is that she can't get into position well on a new or different board. She found that she was able to move her feet, while not coming off the board at the same time. KUDOS to IS for this new traction that are using.

I found this picture interesting. You would think that a board as fast as the yellow is would reguire a hand PLOWING through the water to slow it down. However, with the short length, folks can do a cheater five with their rear foot pretty well back, but also...the Yellow has very significant fore/aft control. James was able to balance without having to drag a hand and still maintain his speed without racing forward.

Another good write up........ question, tho? How does the new IS Yellow compare to say a Walker Bullet where James is airing really big without the rope and spinning?

Hey Bryan, good question, I just took a break for that STUPID WORK thing. I don't know what it is about my clients and the IRS they just don't understand priorities. I've got a few more pictures and narrative, hopefully I'll address your questions.

With the speed of the board down-the-line, James was able to do floaters pretty far back on the wake. This isn't a good shot, but the board can be ridden with accuracy.

I'm almost out of battery, so I may have to continue this later this evening.

James was able to throw a shuv, but like all surf style boards, riding it revert is difficult. With the short length on the Yellow this proved more difficult for James. Dobale, but not a strength of the board.

I am going to post a few airs, I'll have to come back to this later after I charge the laptops battery. The Yellow is a sturdt board. I don't think that a mass manufacturer can build a board as light as the contest specific boards that James rides. His Walker Project bullet with traction and fins is in the 5 pound range and as I always say - it gets pressure dents if you look at it too long. I don't think the Yellow is designed with that sort of riding in mind. We dropped the yellow once (sorry Jeff!) and it survived. On the WP Bullet's we end up having to repair the board in the same instance. So...airs, were pretty good, but not as high as James can get with his lighter weight boards.

Makes sense to me. I forgot how fragile those superlight boards are, I'm a real beginner ocean surfer, last time in Hawaii we rented epoxy boards, supposed to be more durable than a straight fiberglass board. Epoxy boards maybe more along the lines of an inland surfer construction?

Jeff -- have you guys tried the 4skim yet? Would be interested to see your write up of how it compares to the yellow. another idea for the yellow (if jeff page is reading) is to make one with a center fin rather than the two fins...

I know that epoxy has a reputation for strength, well at least stronger than polyester resin.

The 07 Yellow had a label on it referring to Epoxy Infused. The Epic boats are built using resin infusion technology. At the beginning of the year when we were working on vacuum bagging I did some research into infusion technologies.

In standard vacuum bagging, the board is laid up wet. That is the board and covering material is covered with epoxy and then placed in a bag, where the epoxy is drawn out.

Vacuum infusion takes a different approach, in that a vacuum is drawn while the materials are still dry. From that point, epoxy is infused using vacuum pressure. Rather than starting with excess and drawing epoxy out (as described above), VIP starts with none and pushes epoxy in. Ideally, any excess epoxy that is
introduced will eventually be sucked out into the vacuum line. As a result, only the minimum
amount of resin is introduced. This lowers weight, increases strength, and maximizes the
properties of fiber and epoxy.

The 07 Yellow just looks amazingly smooth and shiny.

Hey Matt, we did a brief review of the 4skim - WAY BACK in March or maybe it was February. It was just so cold that we couldn't push it. We sent the board on to Ed Sullivan in Ohio, so we haven't down any more review on that product.

I only had a few opportunities to ride the 4Skim board, to be honest I’m a little heavy to get a good ride on the 4Skim. The 4Skim board was awarded to John Rogers at the Norris Lake Ice Breaker.

A little birdie told me that the Yellow ’07 demo is also heading to Ohio. If you want to ride one and are in the area look me up, come out to the Scioto Wakefest, NWL Nationals, or a gathering.

Here's John with his latest board

Ed, I'll be forwarding it to you tomorrow, hopefully NOT by UPS. Be sure to get pic's of you completeing a surface 3 on the new Yellow. Make sure that everyone out in the midwest gets to one of those events to try out the new Yellow.

Yeah, what's the deal with UPS cracking boards?

I was just noticing that Inland and WP ship Fed Ex, I wonder if they are better?

When Jeff shipped the 4Skim he asked UPS to package the board. They did a poor job of packaging and the box looked like it had taken some serious abuse. Fortunately the board arrived without any damage.

Jeff let's see there's about see 250 million Americans, right? Let's say that there are 150M on the left and right coast trim off the south, Alaska, and Hawaii maybe I have 60 million remaining in the Midwest. Let's say the very young and old won't ride so maybe were down to 50 million. At about a half gallon of gas for each ride I'll need 25 million gallons of gas. At $3.00 a gallon that's $75 M for fuel. Jeff I'll see what I can do to get every Midwesterner on this one board if you can build an oil pipeline to Columbus

I can't wait to get back and see if the new Yellow will give me the edge I need to complete my 3.

Anyway I'll be sure to have the yellow in the hands or under the feet of a lot of riders.

UPS barely closed the box, shipping peanuts were everywhere. See the crush at the side.


Another crush on the top


The Board came out OK

Mr. Ed,
do you play bass? i play guitar and drums.. its the best..

That's my daughter's bass. I play six strings but I suck. I was working on SRV Pride and Joy.

Jeff sent the demo board to me for demoing and as a prize donated to the Scioto Wakefest (This July 7th and 8th).

I have an ’06 Yellow to compare against the new ’07 Yellow. We gave the boards a good side by side comparison. To start I have to say that the old Yellow is one of my favorite boards and I ride it often.

One of my crew thought the new board pearled more easily. After he made that assessment he pearled everything else that he rode so I think he was just having an off day. Since the bulldog nose has been trimmed I can rationalize that the old board has more running area up front and so the new board might pearl more easily than the old.

We agreed that the new Yellow tracks with the boat better than the old board, again I think I can attribute that to the new nose. The fins are different but very close to the old board in size and shape.

The new Yellow feels more maneuverable than the old. I wouldn’t say that it’s loose, it just handles better. I think it’s all about the new shape of the nose. I do think that the old yellow is faster down the line. I think we’re trade down the line speed for improved maneuverability. I rode the new Yellow pretty hard for quite a while, I really burnt my legs riding the board. I really had a great ride.

I don’t have any big new though. I’ve been working on trying to pull of my first 3. I’d say that I came close with the new board but I’m still not pulling it off – dang it.

Final word is that I wish I could keep the ’07 and award the ’06 at Wakefest. Someone is going to take home a great board.

Old and New

Faster please

Let it slide