RyanO
X
- Location
- Gold Coast, Australia
You may remember my build thread a few months ago of my stock kawasaki powerplant (850) Q8.
I've used this thing for 100% surf riding.
With our Gold Coast surf being between 3-4ft (Proper measurement not faces) it has been the perfect surf boat.
With some time in the tray of this boat I cant fault the way it rides in the surf. It does not dig the nose in coming down the face of the wave in the latest of drops. It holds a rail and have had some TC style cover ups with our recent surf conditions. And can get the thing pointing vertical up the face and spin the tail around half way up and get it pretty damn close to the surfboard style cut back.
I've got the engine set fairly far forward in this ski and even with my 1 mile ride to the surf its fine and I can ride the thing flat out (poop its fast!) although a rookie might get spat off.
The 800 power plant is out of my old stock class SXR.. its bored to 850 (made no difference) has an ignition, stinger mod, heat sensor bridge (timing advance), and I had the barrel decked to sort the port timing out.
The power the engine deliveres pulls amazing from the very bottom all the way to the top and is much nicer to ride than any yamaha platform I have ever ridden.. If anyone is looking at a freeRIDE hull build I would highly recommend the KAW running gear over the YAM gear.
The only thing I do not like about the Q8 is the cyclone footholds..they are very duck footed and do not like doing 1 footed rolls and flips as im not confident in the holds.
I just had the ski wrapped by Joel at Five Three Designs on the Gold Coast in Australia. Joel and FTD are well known in the MX industry over here for the sickest Bike graphics in the land.
Anyone who says these things are bad in the surf/for surf riding just hasnt spent enough time on one.
Sorry about the iPhone pics and the ugly orange trailer.




I've used this thing for 100% surf riding.
With our Gold Coast surf being between 3-4ft (Proper measurement not faces) it has been the perfect surf boat.
With some time in the tray of this boat I cant fault the way it rides in the surf. It does not dig the nose in coming down the face of the wave in the latest of drops. It holds a rail and have had some TC style cover ups with our recent surf conditions. And can get the thing pointing vertical up the face and spin the tail around half way up and get it pretty damn close to the surfboard style cut back.
I've got the engine set fairly far forward in this ski and even with my 1 mile ride to the surf its fine and I can ride the thing flat out (poop its fast!) although a rookie might get spat off.
The 800 power plant is out of my old stock class SXR.. its bored to 850 (made no difference) has an ignition, stinger mod, heat sensor bridge (timing advance), and I had the barrel decked to sort the port timing out.
The power the engine deliveres pulls amazing from the very bottom all the way to the top and is much nicer to ride than any yamaha platform I have ever ridden.. If anyone is looking at a freeRIDE hull build I would highly recommend the KAW running gear over the YAM gear.
The only thing I do not like about the Q8 is the cyclone footholds..they are very duck footed and do not like doing 1 footed rolls and flips as im not confident in the holds.
I just had the ski wrapped by Joel at Five Three Designs on the Gold Coast in Australia. Joel and FTD are well known in the MX industry over here for the sickest Bike graphics in the land.
Anyone who says these things are bad in the surf/for surf riding just hasnt spent enough time on one.
Sorry about the iPhone pics and the ugly orange trailer.




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