Walker Project Bullet review

This thread may take me a little while to complete because I have some of the pictures on my desktop at the office and some of them on my laptop. Not very organized am I?!

First off so that everyone is clear, there is no relationship between Mike and I - we just share the same last name.

The WP Bullet is Mike's contest level board. It's intended for advanced wakesurfer's and every aspect of the board can be customized. Sp the board that I'll be discussing isn't THE board, just one of the possible variations.

The WP Bullet has it's origins in this board:

That is a Shred Stixx Stixxtreme circa '04. It was exactly 5'0" in length and Jerry Price had that shaped as we talked about boards that would be a bit easier for James to ride and rip on. At the time, James was one of Jerry's team riders. I do believe that James won his first World Wakesurfing Championship - Boys Amateur on this very board. At the time, the shortest board that Jerry offered was a 5'4" I believe. I think that Jerry used to refer to this board as a tail with a tip.

During that winter Jerry was busy making money when James and I decided to build a board a little shorter, with a rounded tail and the fin placement different. Since Jerry was away, James and I started shaping. Several pieces of junk...errr, I mean prototypes later, we created the "green board". James on one of the first rides:

Around this time Jerry was working on the first generation Piranaha and he invited James to come down to ride it and participate in a photoshoot.

We also took the "green board" with us. Then tragedy struck. This board was a TRUE garage board, pretty rough and not built to the standards of most commercial boards. The "green board" was in a rack on Jerry's boat and the handle was tossed over it. When the rider was being pulled up, the rope cut 1/2 way through it.

The result of that accident:

This is back in late '04. I started calling shapers asking if they could duplicate a board, if I brought in the remnants of a broken one. Most said they really didn't want to be bothered and of those that said they could, when I told them that the board was 4'6" long literally half hung up on me. I remember thinking to myself, do I really sound like a crackpot? It seems funny to say this, but back in the day which was 2004, Jerry and Shred Stixx were just developing the first sub 5'0" poly u board. No one else was doing it, at least not that I could find.

Anyway, I was down on the list of shapers in the W's before I found anyone that would actually talk to me. At that time Mike Walker was working heavily with SurfCAD and said that he could cut me a board that size. He had a rough template and could pretty much duplicate the design. I traveled down to San Diego with the carcass of the Green Board and left it with Mike to work his magic on.

The very first Bullet is shown here with the camo flame design:

At the time, James was principally interested in spinning threes and so the design of the board was mostly geared for that trick. In this first iteration, it was "360 board". This is James back in April of '05. He got this board just before the AzWA wakesurf contest that year and rode it for the first time at that contest. No EVA, just wax at the time.

One of his first rides on the original Bullet.

That year James won many contests on this board, culminating in his World Wakesurfing Championship - Boys Amateur from Board Stock 10:

Ok, history is out of the way. The original concept has it's roots in that custom 5'0" Stixxtreme. The origins of today's Bullet lifted directly from the Green Board made in the garage. Today's bullet is a far cry from that championship board:

The Bullet is available in sizes ranging from 4 feet up to 6 feet. The Bullet that James rides is 4'4.5" just about the same length as a Coex. It has a width of 19.5 inches and a thickness of 2.5 inches. The nose rocker is substantial and most folks will be amazed, it is exactly 4 inches. Compare this with other high performance boards like the Walzer at 2.5 inches. The fins are set with 7 degrees of toe in and the fin boxes are up from the tail 9.5 inches.

A quick visual between a 51 inch Walzer and the Bullet James rides:

The Walzer I show in the picture above is one of the lightest boards on the market, but it isn't a carbon model. With traction and fins the Walzer above is 5 pounds. Exceptionally light. The WP Bullet with 4 inch fins and the full length Futures fin boxes, plus full traction and several stickers weighs 1/2 pound less than the Walzer at 4.5 pounds. This is even more remarkable when you consider that the Walzer is vacuum bagged, the WP is a hand layup.

Now, there is a down side to this lightness. The WP Bullet in this configuration will dent if you take it into the wind. The Walzer in comparison is almost indestructable.

So, the WP is one of the the lightest wakesurfers available, it is also one of the most fragile.

The WP Bullet has a radical bottom concave. It extends from just past the nose rocker to just past the fins and at it's maximum depth is 3/8" deep.

The level across the bottom gives an idea:

This concave offers a few advantages. It channels or funnels water quicker under the board creating lift. This lift gives the board considerable speed, while also allowing the board to be broken free at will. IMO probably the best combination of speed and looseness. The board is slightly slower than an IS Yellow down the line and faster than a Walzer. Realize that in the tested configuration this WP has 4 inch fins compared to the 3.5/3.25 found in the Yellow and the 2 3/8" C5's commonly found in a Walzer.

Most skimstyle boards and many commercially available surfstyle boards have no bottom contour. One notable exception are the Trick Boardz line. They offer the smallest wakesurfer available and attribute the speed of their boards to the significant bottom concave.

One additional feature of this concave when combined with the sharp/hard rail design is exceptional rail-to-rail responsiveness. The WP Bullet is, IMO, the most responsive board currently available. Now, again as I stated above, this is a contest level board. Most folks will find the responsiveness to be almost twitchy. It's harsh and unforgiving, but if you have the talent to use it...you'll find the Bullet to be a precision tool.

Point and shoot, the board goes exactly where you point it:



I haven't ridden the SS Chase Hazen Pro Model yet, but I have seen Chase Hazen ride his new Pro Model and the WP Bullet appears to be almost as responsive as that board when ridden by Chase.

As I mentioned earlier, the original design of the Bullet was for surface three's. That was James first and probably is still his primary trick...with 4 variations now. This board has 4 inch fins, and most folks find that they have to reduce the size of their fins to do any surface rotations. In this sequence, James is performing a surface 7. Certainly a testament to James riding ability, but this board's balance and fin placement allows it to rotate almost as easily as a skimstyle board with 1.5" fins.

When you look at the original design of the Bullet, (reference the Boardstock picture above) you'll see that the wings were at right angles. Mike's changes to the design include this blended wing. He explained that where ever water bends it creates suction, so smoother lines create less suction and hence drag, PLUS the lack of a right angle reduces the chances for cracking of the glass.

This is a picture of the tail from the side. The last inch has a decided taper on the deck to reduce volume and allow the tail to be buried, plus the taper flows water better and reduces the chance of fracture.



(Message edited by surfdad on June 19, 2007)

The rails are pretty much traditional shortboard in implementation - hard from tail up to about 2 inches or so past the fins and then blending to a soft rail at the nose. This picture is from the tail looking forward along the rail:

Customization of paint is one of the hallmark's of Mike's product. James drew this out using sharpy pens and Mike reproduced it on the board exactly as drawn. If you can dream it up, Mike can airbrush it.

A few of his custom airbrushed designs:

http://www.thewalkerproject.com/category_s/3.htm#

Some additional examples:

I won't liter this thread with it's ability to do aerials, but it's quite good. I believe that there are two boards better than the Bullet for airs - the SS Hasen Pro model and the Placebo.

Now the Bullet can be customized in many ways. You can choose FCS fins, or O'Fish'L fins, or Futures fins. You can length the board up to 6 feet, or shorten it a few inches. Change any part of the construction that you want. This is both a blessing and a curse for many. Mike can certainly suggest items or even make this exact board, but this flexibility and customization aren't for folks that don't know what they want specifically.

Jeff, nice write up... (as usual) i sent you an email yesterday letting you know that i'm working in california this week... in antioch. shoot me an email if you still have any boards you want to get rid of... my one and only board got stolen last weekend.

Hey Chris - I did respond to your email. I have just the one Yellow at this point.