RE: RC Surfer
Ok Here it is the definative lowdown on the new Boardsharks board.
I have been involved in rc surfing for years now & own evey single board from the Tubey, all the kyosho models right thru to the copied chinese surfer girls.
All up I have 16 surfers & they are all modified in different ways.
Different tails, turnfins, brushed, brushless, speed controllers, jet powered, different rudders etc etc
Naturally as soon as the new Boardsharks board hit the market I had to check it out!
To be honest I did not expect much because in the way of performance because I have already experienced how poor a stock surfer of any kind is with their 540 brushed motor & poor electronics.
Nonetheless I purchased two boardshark boards & enthusiastically took one down to my local surfing spot.
I decided to take one of my 7 cell metal hydride packs because the nicads are inferior in run time & power delivery.
First thing I noticed in the water was how slow it was. This is a combination of too much shaft friction & too little power.
The board had a tremendous amount of trouble trying to get over even the smallest waves & barely made it out to the line up. When I finally made it out the board did not have enough power to catch waves properly. When it is on a wave it is restricted in it's ability to surf because of the on/off functions. There is no proportion to the steering or the speed of the motor. Full right , full left & full speed(?)
Next noticable dissappointment was the boards ability to self right. I noticed that a few guys have said that twisting the rider will assist its recovery. I can tell you that this is far from normal & is a mosly due to a rider that is too heavy (especially top heavy).
My board just kept flopping in the water & I was waiting for other waves & whitewash to hit it to assist it self righting. Finally after been hit by the 6th or 7th wave it popped back up.
After around 5 min of trying to catch waves & get out the board started doing it's own thing. It wasn't out of range & the batteries were new. The board just started heading out to sea with no control at all. It was turning & riding on its own. It says on the box that it has return technology but this is nonsense.
Anyway now that I know how they perform out of the box I will remove everything & modify it to my own standards.
Classic case of "you get what you pay for".
I get dozens of individuals coming up to me on the beach lately. They all have tha same dillema. Nearly all of the guys have seen me playing with my highly modified brushless surfers that dont leak, selright instantly, & run for around 40 minutes per battery. They see my 50-55km /hr boards launching 15-20 feet of the top of waves (sometimes over 6 feethigh waves). They all thought that the cheap boardsharks board would perform the same & they are all having major problems & are all dissappointed. It seems that they are all frying the electronics especially trying to replace the stock brushed motors with lower turn versions. I also have had dozens of people that have wisely asked questions before purchasing.
The ONLY way to go is to remove everything & replace it.
It really does boggle me as to why the creators of this board did not test their own product. If you look at the video of the boardsharks board a trained eye will notice that the 30sec clip shows next to no manouvers. This is for a reason & one must ask the question why would they release such a limited video as a promotion. Put simply, if you saw the truth you probably would not buy it.
The Kyosho boards are no longer available (apart from a guy here in Oz that has around 18 new kits left) and they are the best .Then comes the Kyosho Lisa, then the Chinese surfer show (copied from the lisa by the chinese). Both the surfer lisa & the surfer show had leaking probs but with some extra sealing mods are a pretty good board. I can take any of my boards out in 6 foot plus surf & have them repeatedly dumped & not have a single drop of water or moisture inside.Even after 5 batt paks in a row. I dont use the girl riders because they leak & then dont self right properly, I use the original kyosho dude riders. They are made of a tough light weight foam covered in thin plastic. Being so light & bouyant they self right well.
After all the negative feedback & dissapointed kids & adults faces I have seen lately I thought it only fair to share the truth & clarify the major questions. If you are thinking of getting into rc surfing I hope this message finds you first you so you can hopefully make an informed decision.