The Duke - A Nobel Addition To The OR Mako Family

[mikelet]

Hello Droffats , it's just me or in the pics you posted (second and four) ,the side fins are canted inwards ??,it's that normal ??,don't make so much sense , maybe invert right to left or it's a matter of the side fins being symmetrical are futures thruster rears with no cant at all , if so maybe there's probably a mistake with the fins supplied ,IMHO they should be quad rears symmetricals( or assy ?? )with a fair bit of cant to deal with the deep concave bottom of the board in order to have some positive cant ...
It's like driving a ferrari with the hand brake on

[NYKiter]

There is no canting....its an illusion in the photo...
Although the two outer stock fins don't appear to be flat on the inside like sufboards.
No real performance difference - but it would be nice of OR to comment on why they chose this type of fin?

[atomic-chomik]

Swap the sidebites, it will rectify the inward cant me thinks.

[EastCC]

Not an illusion, the fins do have a slight cant which levels out the slight concave at the rear end, those fins need to be swapped over.

[NYKiter]

Nope just looked.

The fins are perpendicular to the bottom of the board (no cant) but they are toed in.

The board comes with three fins, two are smaller in height than the center fin.

[windybrit]

I note the talk about this new board with great interest ....... I am concerned however that this gushing is getting a little OTT, is it worthy of an international peace prize, or is it merely noble

[Balloonboy]

I note the talk about this new board with great interest ....... I am concerned however that this gushing is getting a little OTT, is it worthy of an international peace prize, or is it merely noble

Merely Nobel, Alfred.

[geir]

Just got back to cold Iceland from the OR event at OBX. Been riding a Celeritas 2012 for about two years with a front footstrap in chop and small waves. Read somewhere that might make things easier learning gybes. Got gybes now under my belt but wanted to progress to strapless and something more. Been riding Mako twintips for some years, which suit our choppy conditions really well.

Having read about the Duke before heading to OBX I was already sold, bit the bullet and bought one unseen and untested. Knowing how much the Mako concave/outline does for riding chop/waves and reading about the surfboard bounch being eliminated I was sold.

Got some really good sessions on my new Duke during the week and the friendly sound side at OBX made it possible to learn to tack in about an hours workout. That thing spins so easy and is so stable. No problem misplacing the (new) front foot in front of the footpad towards the nose and still ride out of it. Was wearing vibram five fingers (cause of the nasty shells) and the board was totally glued to my feet, even too much so at times so I had to do a kind of heel rolling on the back foot during the tack. Have no idea if that's a good way or not.

Can't wait to see how it turns out back here in our mushy stuff.

Geir

[adamj2281]

I've had 3 more sessions on the Duke since my initial impressions. Great board, easy to carve without slipping out that the King is prone to do. Gybes are super easy on it, upwind it rides really well. I'm interested to try it in larger waves, so far, biggest have been waist high, but it's way more fun than my old surfboard, which is now collecting dust.

Again, I'd say this is a great replacement for a directional in less than ideal conditions, and maybe for those looking to move into riding a directional more as a first board as it's really forgiving on gybes.

Last session was in 12-14 on the 14.5 Flite, no issues.

Also, a bit off topic, but OR's new Above the bar trim is a marked improvement. The lines are higher quality, the bar floats are much better, and the bungies actually work coming from the top side down around the bar ends. I haven't had issues with the depower line wearing with the above the bar trim has with the below the bar.

[ORSales]

Hey all,

The fin configuration on the board was actually a lot harder to nail than expected, especially when trying to use conventional setups on a heavily concave bottom. Toe in = massive disturbance as it caused vectors to swirl into the water rushing under the bottom and channeled by the concave. Cant, ever so slight cant to the side bite fins, so I suspect the ones in those photos need to be swapped left for right. For future shipments of boards we will look at properly labeling the fins as the cant is so slight it is hard to see at 1st.

A note on canting... the deep concave made a mess of that too. Best way I can explain is that relative to the angle of the base of the board where the side bites mount, those side fins are heavily canted, they just appear to be up and down as the base is so angled.

Next batch of Dukes begin shipping in 2 weeks, already over 60% sold out... Noble indeed!