RE: RC Surfer
The RC Man is right. The boardsharks does not compare to a kyosho or Tubey. I started with a boardsharks and eventually got the Tubey. Not cheap. It cost me $460 to get a Tubey setup from OZ with one goofey footer dude and a regular footer dude and I believe that price has gone up. And that was stock. I dropped another $500 to modify to a brushless setup. Let me tell you it was worth every penny. Now i can blaze through the surf blasting big airs to get out into the lineup. Also catch waves with ease where the Boardsharks struggled.
I think the Boardsharks has potential to be modified but you still have the problem with the self righting. It does not self right very well. You definately have to twist the body using the guys arm to help push him up. That is the only way I could get it to self right fast. When he is face down by twisting and holding he pops up rather quick. Back down it takes longer as the arm does not twist as far when he is face down. All in all can't beat the Tubeys self righting ability.
Then there is the problems with the guy getting out of alignment. Also the fishing line eventually gets loose and he will lean to far and just fall over. You will have to re tighten to correct. I also had my guy break apart at the waist but you can pop him back together. Although the articulated body feature is cool I think it is just to delicate for larger surf and the dude is way to heavy.
RC man how do you get 40 min runtime? I use a six cell 4200 nimh and I get 25min tops and thats if I sit and wait for the sets. If I go full bore I probaly only get 15min.
There is a Rcsurfing group at Yahoo with lots of info. Just use the search feature. Also Dave Reese's Radio Waves dvd is pretty sick and has modifying tips as well. They use modified Kyosho dudes in that dvd. He rips some pretty epic waves in Santa Cruz and on some of those days I think I would be real surfing.
It's not a cheap hobby but the fun and enjoyment is priceless. Its pretty much always overhead for the little dude. Good luck and happy rc rippin.