Calling all mutant riders

[plummet]

hey bros.

the idea of a mutant is growing one me.

whose out there on a mutant.

what do you like about them what don't you like?

what are you riding?

[davesails7]

I ride my Mako King all the time and love it. I've ridden it with the mutant setup a few times, but didn't like it much as a mutant. It just feels awkward riding on the front of the board.

I prefer to ride it as a regular twin tip or strapless. When strapless you can still ride it backwards, but you get the benefit of adjusting your foot position so you're not so far forward.

I think other people have said they like riding the Mako King mutant style though. I like that it give you options.

[Brent4336]

Went through that stage once.

Had one built. Was super sweet looking, Bling paint, dope shape, kind of regular angular twintip tail with tiny thruster set, and a nice kind of spoon bill nose with tiny TT fins. Slight offset stance, 143x 40 ish?? cant quite remember the dims. too bad it just didn't do any of what I wanted except rip one way.

I had hoped for something great in waves, that was big enough to double as a light wind planing machine. Something I could back out of shorbreak when I needed to, but was going to rip on my strong side.

Turns out I'm 1000 x happier on surfboards. The mutt ripped on its strong side, with good grip from the fins and killer planing power from the rocker line and stance, it just sucked balls going backwards again because of the rocker line and stance. It needed so much power to really ride tail first that it only worked in real strong winds. Found it impossible to jybe so every transition in less than nukin winds was a plop in, switch the board and waterstart again...... lame!

I have no problem jybing and tacking a tiny surfboard, but the mutt was almost impossible to transition consistently. I also found that the time I really needed to ride it tail first to get out of trouble it just lacked the planing power and upwind to get me where I needed to go to avoid the wash. Gave it up despite the fact that it was a custom thing of beauty.

Surfboards my friend. No need to reinvent the wheel.

Just my opinion.

[davesails7]

I have no problem jybing and tacking a tiny surfboard, but the mutt was almost impossible to transition consistently. I also found that the time I really needed to ride it tail first to get out of trouble it just lacked the planing power and upwind to get me where I needed to go to avoid the wash. Gave it up despite the fact that it was a custom thing of beauty.

The mako king doesn't have that lack of planing power when you ride it backwards as a mutant, it just feels awkward because you have put extra weight on your back foot.

I have no problems tacking and jibing the mako king strapless, so I'm guessing it wouldn't be an issue if you put some directional straps on it. I only rode it mutant style with the twin tip pads and straps. I think the new models only come with the directional style straps.

[plummet]

Interesting.

The reason i'm looking at a mutant is because i don't like my surfboard. Sure it does carve up waves nice. but every other aspect of it i dislike. I dislike how it slaps through chop, how its very twitchy on the way out. I don't like jybing and my knees hurt (they are a bit stuffed from years of mountain biking) riding toeside upwind. Infact the upwind toeside knee pain is the biggest killer. I really don't like riding toeside at all apart from down the line which doesn't seem to give me pain.

Yes you can jybe every time but really enjoy my fowards and backwards style of wave riding the TT provides more than the directional sb which is better down the line but worse (for me every where else). The wholy grail for me is to ride out at full speed boost to the moon off a wave lip land on just before the next wave slash a transition on the wave face and ride back the way i came on the wave usually upwind.

So... i'd like a little more surf style ride on the wave face. but i still want the TT feel slamming out through the waves. I'd intend to ride it backwards out through the chop and fowards back into the beach.

PS i already have a wave style TT which handles chop and waves very well.

[Robsw6]

I have used every Naish Mutant since they started making them - and from what I recall, it was all down to Flash Austin - but no doubt there are riders out there who know more & will correct me.

The 4'11 Pro was my favourite, so much so that when it died, Tad Ciastula built me a replacement that was tweaked for better grip.

I still find that I gybe a lot of the time, but for me the performance is not quite as good as surf boards, however as my Mutant is a double layer construction and extremely strong, it makes a great travel board, as my surfboards always get dinged in transit.

The Mutant comes into its own when messing up a gybe would be very difficult and the waves are big.

[sojopo]

LOVE my mako king. Rode it as a first board twintip style until I learned upwinding, then switched to mutant to learn how to ride toeside and toward a surfboard. Getting the hang of my surfboard now, but when the conditions call for it and I wuss out, I prefer the king becuause I can ride it like a directional, but can also go reverse to get out of a quick problem. Say there's a wave coming that I don't want to hit, I'll just go reverse for a bit and flip it toeside. It's a confidence thing. And, it's really really fun to ride, smooth carvy turns. ChaChing.

[Brent4336]

Interesting.

Infact the upwind toeside knee pain is the biggest killer. I really don't like riding toeside at all apart from down the line which doesn't seem to give me pain.

is your surfboard strapped?

[oldkiter]

Last year I got the Liquid Force Kitefish (5'3") - after a couple of sessions I was curious as to how it would act as a TT so I epoxied on a 2" TT fin just ahead of the forward strap. It worked very well so I put 2 holes through board and have a removeable fin now in front.

I know this is not a true mutant nor a true wave board but it works - at least here in SoCal with light wind and shorebreak waves - and gets me out in 1-2 mph less wind.

I tried it with rear 3" fins and it is much "tighter" and surfs pretty well - and tried some gybes.

And it cost $350 delivered! Inexpensive fun!!

I recently got a directional and hope to improve my gybes, tacks, etc on that this summer.

[plummet]

Interesting.

Infact the upwind toeside knee pain is the biggest killer. I really don't like riding toeside at all apart from down the line which doesn't seem to give me pain.

is your surfboard strapped?

not at the moments. i still get knee pain unstrapped. i haven't tried a swivel bar yet. maybe that will improve things.