DHD's Puzzle Piece

Puzzle Piece (Swallow Tail)

Intro to board

Over the years I haven't had the best luck with boards from Darren Handley I would try the top fanning models over and over. To me and many others they went backwards, for some reason they didn't work on the flatter waves of Victoria. This bought me too the Puzzle Piece a bit of a flatter rocker and a little bit less going on than the usual DHD's I dwelled on this board for a long time. The hip to a wide square tail really bothered me and for a while I turned it away and thought it wasn't a good board. I had done a bit of research into the boards Jordy Smith was riding and he was riding a lot of swallow tails on boards like the New Flyer and the Rookie which to me have similar traits to the Puzzle Piece in rockers and bottoms curves. I decided to go out on a limb and grab a puzzle piece with a swallow tail and to my surprise it has come out perfect and it goes really well! 

How it goes

I have surfed this board in small Jan Juc to larger waves down the coast and beyond. This board has gone to Hawaii with me and just recently indo. The swallow tail in my mind gives you the best of both worlds as in it can give you the hold of a round tail but the release if you push it enough of a rounded square. This is because the swallow tail gives you a little bit of a extra rail length and the two points of the swallow are a lot easier to dig into the wave compared to a big chunky rounded square. However you still have the release of the rounded square because the width between the fins is the same as what it would be if you were to get the same size board in a rounded square tail.

Whose it for

This board is a bit of a smoky in the DHD range that not many people realise is a really good board. I compare this board to a JS Monsta or a CI Fred Rubble. It's a good all rounder that will go in most conditions perfect for your go to board. I like to think of a all rounder as a board you can just keep in the car and you always know you are going to get waves on it. This board fits the bill just perfectly. 

Ideal fin set up: The AM template or the MF template anything with a good combination of all the different aspects of a fin. A nice base a enough rake to draw out your turns but still up right enough to pivot in the beach breaks

Rating: 7.5 

Ideal wave size: 2 to 5 foot

Conditions: Offshore barrels to onshore slop