The Hopper – Featured Blog

Spotted an interesting board out at Millers last week. It’s called the Hopper, and is made by Dennis Ellis at The Boardroom. Had been hearing plenty about the board from fellow Millers local Brett Hoppe, who’d convinced Deno to have a bash at his own take on the Firewire Vanguard. And thus the Hopper was born….

So Deno, take us through the basics:

This board is my take on the work Thomo has done incorporating the  straight or parallel rail concept. There is a lot going on with this board,most obviously the squared off nose which straightens the rail line for maximum contact providing loads of drive from a shorter board.

What’s the theory behind the chopped off nose?

The nose area starts with 2 channels to direct water flow into the spoon concave which flows into a single concave throughout the board and leading into the tail channels.

And the big-ass tail?

The tail is also a lot wider than usual,creating a bigger surface planing area and features 4 deep channels running out the tail for control. There is an extremely tucked edge in the tail area without the usual sharp edges, to allow for easy rail to rail transition.

Other bits & pieces?

The board also features a totally flat deck to maximise volume from a thinner board and the rails are thin running up to an edge on the deck to keep the response sharp and allow the board to stay on a rail during turns. This boards construction is XPS foam with epoxy resin, and a carbon strip down the bottom eliminating the need for a stringer as well as enhancing flex in the tail where the carbon ends between the fins.

Thanks to Brett Hoppe for letting me use my discretion on this baby and tweak it to my interpretation of the original design!

So there you have it. If you want a Local is Lekker version of the Vanguard then pop down to The Boardroom and order yaself a Hopper. It might have a blunt nose and a wide butt, but plenty of performance outta this puppy, and a whole lotta fun.

Want one? Tune Deno on 041 586 2276.
Shop deets here The Boardroom

Another summer’s week. Coupla fun lil waves about here and there during the week if you weren’t fussy. Water warm enough for boardshorts some days. Unfortunately the kiff conditions also meant that the red tide made an appearance again. Friday saw a pretty big slick of the stuff snaking all the way from Cape Recife to the harbour.

​There had been a few patches here and there for the last coupla weeks, but this was the first serious showing of the punk phytoplankton in a while. 

Sunday saw some cooking easterly surf pull in to the bay. Hummies was firing. Pretty fast though, plenty got in, not many got out. If you took a drive things got even better. Bruce’s had some nugs, although you had to survive the freezing-ass water for your fix. Coupla beachies in the area produced the goods as well. Also claimed a few fibreglass sacrifices too…

Nice new board by Deno coming outta the Boardroom midweek – his take on the Firewire Vanguard, with a few mod’s thrown in to keep it fresh. Brett Hoppe was seen taking it for a spin at Millers and it seemed to have plenty of vooma.

​Random co-incidence saw a shot of Pottie (aka Craig Potgieter, ex-local now Aussie local) pop up on my newsfeed. Good to see the semi-ballie going vert on his Vanguard. Just wondering if some Noa Dean/Christian Fletcher aspirations happening – noticed the front deck pad! Pottie reckons it works like a bomb cos it’s so cold where he is the wax gets too slippery, plus he says no more wax melting off on his Indo trips! Double whammy from the double deck grip.

West Aus still having it’s finned friend issues. Latest incident saw an ou ignore the shark warning cos the waves were cooking. Turns out he wasn’t such a breeker after all once the shark started stalking him in the line-up! Luckily nothing happened, other than needing to wash his boardies when he got home. Sure, we aren’t on the menu officially, but still pretty stupid not to get out when you see one. Cos you’re certainly gonna get out damn quick when he comes past to check you out!

Still on the subject of toothy locals, turns out Knysna isn’t the best possie to be going for those midnight dips in the lagoon. Dude landed a nice looking raggie at Thesen’s Island. No need to panic though, they’re pretty harmless guys and are unlikely to nip you unless you happen to stand on them!

Hawaii continues to get pounded my massive swells. El Nino definitely suits the Pacific, pity the same can’t be said for the Indian Ocean – we ended up with a kak years surf in 2015 thanks to the the “Little Boy”. More like lil critter if you ask me! Hopefully it dissipates soon, and we get some payback surf this winter.

The small surf has resulted in a different form of carnage at local breaks – crowd carnage! The absence of surf means ou’s are frothing on every lil lump, and plenty of family waves happening. Chris Scott caught this one at Hulett’s in SF this week. Six ou’s trying to catch one wave. Least they were splitting the peak!

Summer days mean lekker conditions for taking shots. Local lensman Dean Cothill has got himself a drone and is no doubt gonna be wow’ing us with some epic aerial shots of our bay soon. Just goes to show we live in a kiff lil town.

Kelly proved he’s still the King this week, taking out the Volcom Pipe Pro in flawless conditions. Pipe doesn’t get any better than that. Ou’s reckoned it wasn’t just spitting, it was barfing! Maybe this is the inspiration Slater needs to get back to winning ways on the CT? His 9th place finish last year was his worst in a long while.

Charts are looking not so flash for the bay this coming week. Go wildside or go home it seems. East, east and more east. Onshore bowls or bust. Annoying cos there’s a nice 15 sec groundswell that woulda been fun if it wasn’t gonna be mushed to burgers by the east.

Thanks to Zuma-muppet my annual subscription to Surfline is now a whopping R1000. $ 70 doesn’t look too bad til you convert it into our funny money. But worth it to see the 17 day forecasts and get the swell forecast maps used on the ML website. Gonna have to find a job that pays in dollars soon!

Cos if you had a few spare bucks you could grab this lekker Indo surf charter boat for only $ 100k. Saw it on sale and spent the next few hours daydreaming where we could sail it!

Early birds get the worms…