Expert Opinion's

Expert Opinions

Let's be honest, I don't know everything about all the surfboards in the world. A lot of the time I gain my knowledge from listening closely to men and women who know more than I do. Listening is the best way to learn all the important things in life. But most importantly the best way to gain knowledge for your board knowledge. 

This leads us to my latest blog post, 'Expert Opinions' in these posts I will be asking the people who influence my surfing to give us a run down on one particular brand of surfboard. First cab of the rank is a man who has done it all; he has starred in a feature surf film, slogged it on the QS and he made the final of the Ripcurl Pro Bells Beach. If thats not a hefty resume, I don't know what is. If you haven't already guessed it, I'm talking about Adam Robertson, hailing from the humble town of Portland. He now resides in Torquay and is the high performance coach for Surfing Victoria. A lover of all types of surfboards like myself I have asked Adam to give us a run down on Santa Cruz based surfboard company 'Stretch Surfboards'. 

Enjoy. 

Alright so here we go.

This is me riding “the Thing” model.  From what I’ve ridden this has been my favourite board I’ve had from him.  It has also seemed like it is the most versatile as I’ve ridden it in waves from 1 - 6 foot and the board has still worked very well.

Adam Robertson-Kandooma from AR Elite Surf Coaching on Vimeo.

Adam Robertson riding a 6'1 Stretch from Rob Dog on Vimeo.

Basically there’s 2 types of waves that I’m riding in the clips.  Ranging from 2 - 5 foot.  All of mine I get as 5 fins. Stretch is really known for his quads but I still go the 5 fin placement, just so the boards got 2 chances of being a good one.  Plus it just gives me more options and a new feeling in an old board when I flick the fins around.

The footage above of Winki is all on a 3 fin with a DL template fin which is an Andy Irons fin in the “Kinetic” range.  This is probably my favourite fin on all my boards.  However I have had some recent success with the less raked K fin in all my Stretch’s.

The footage from the Maldives is a combination of 3 and 4 fins.  I would say 80% of the waves in the Maldives footage is on a quad.  Back fins are a little small but it’s hard to notice on the footage.

The link above is of Bruce and Nathan.  I believe they’re riding a 2x4 model.  I think Nathans is the Cork Veneer model which I’ve heard are basically indestructible. They seem like they have a little more area up front, maybe built for waves like Tahiti or a wave with a lot of up and go which would work at Winki with a nice big wall. I haven't surfed a 2 x4 but is one I will be looking at in the future as the outline intrigues me as board you could surf as a squashed down gun perfect for waves like Winki and Gland where you need to create high amounts of down the line speed. 

ANALOG - NATHAN FLETCHER -LAVESE LOS MANOS from rook productions media on Vimeo.

The next link is a Nathan Fletcher movie which I think he made when he bust his pelvis surfing pipe.  But it’s a great movie to see a bunch of Stretch boards in all kinds of conditions.  I believe Nathan only rides Quads and I’m assuming most of this footage is on a Fletcher 4. 

Adam-Stretch 6'2 Quad from Rob Dog on Vimeo.

The above link is me surfing a 6’2 Fletcher 4 quad.  I got this board made for Hawaii at the end of 2011.  Board still goes SICK.  I don’t think it’s as versatile as my “Thing” but it’s still a really solid board,  It seems to like a wave with a little more push.  It probably took me almost 2 years to find a really good fin set up with this board.  Now I’ve found it I find the board goes a lot better in more types of waves.  It doesn’t really spin out and is a really solid board when I’m in potentially a hairy spot on the wave.  

Robbo.