An Ongoing Experiment: The Maunganui Chip

Say hello to the Maunganui Chip! We were pushing the logs into 3 ft, 4ft, then 5ft + and loving the challenge, but started to find a classic log design would fail in certain situations. Mainly the hull bottom out the back end felt like it would start dragging at max speed, and if it did get over the line, buck you off with a vicious chinewalk. Hilarious for anyone watching, but very dangerous, sans leash.

So the mission brief was a big board that trimmed like a log, walked like a log, and turned like a log, but handled better surf more like a midlength. Enter the Maunganui Chip.

Design elements include pointing out the nose - no nose riding here. We tweaked our popular 'Hotdogger' rocker as it was the most versatile log rocker. We kept a subtle concave in the nose - a cheater five can be the safest stance in the barrel. The loggy entry blends into a flat tail, complete with a 50/50 rail through to a sharp down rail out the tail. Blending the 50/50 rail into a down rail out the tail proved tricky, but we got there in the end.

Model in image is 9’2 x 23’ x 3’ with our 11’ inch speed fin and asymm'd tail.

The result reminded us of Dale Velzy and the seminal ‘Malibu Chip’ of the late 50’s. Think surfing from the middle of the board and the big drop knee turns of Phil Edwards. Perfect.

Looking forward to testing. Will keep you posted.

-Ry

UPDATED 1/11/22

Words by Ryan Glover.

A year of testing and what a journey! First impressions of the Maunganui Chip were consistent with expectations. First conclusion was to swap the 11' Inch rake for our 10'5 inch classic. The board turned too well! It felt like you couldn't push very hard through a turn so needed a fin with more surface area.

The next surprise came surfing West Coast Maori Bay. It was lumpy 3ft High tide rolling into a horrible gutter. Not good enough for a short board, too small for a midlength, time to break out the Maunganui Chip. After a bit of fun linking rides through to shorey the tide began to drop and the swell cleaned up. A few bigger sets came through and then suddenly I found myself trying to park the Maunganui Chip in a 5ft barrel that was running off towards shag rock. The board felt really good, it was consistent, held a critical line and didn't feel too big at all. If anything it was too fast, it took all I had to slow it down and when I let the brakes off it accelerated into another gear. Okay, I thought, very interesting.

The next two big swells I took the Maunganui Chip to Puni's Farm. The perfect training ground for sharp take offs and barrels. It's a very square wave and I quickly learnt there was no swooping bottoms turns on a 9'2 board with 4' inches of rocker - in fact don't even bother trying to get to the bottom on a critical set. A couple of hilarious nose dives later it was evident, pick your spot five meters deeper than usual, set your line and go for it. Feeling confident, that was when I decided to swap my 9'6 Involvement Era Log out for the 9'2 Maunganui Chip when packing for a Winter trip to Bali. I figured I could still ride it like a log in the small stuff, and maybe, just maybe, I could push it into some bigger stuff.

Canggu is a zoo of foamies, learners, shredders, locals and want to be locals. Anything goes and paddling out can leave you fearing for your life from a rogue board or three. But it's as good of zone as any to harden the feet and get that first sunburn out of the way.

Ryan Glover, Canggu, Maunganui Chip by @banting.archives

Ryan Glover, Balian Maunganui Chip by @madesurfbalian

Four days into the trip the Gu was buzzing with the news of a swell about to hit. A deep weather system situated down by Antarctica had passed under over a week earlier. The swell was on its way, but when? And how big!

The day before the swell hadn’t started showing properly and there were a few options being thrown around. @_thomas__smith made the call and I made the pilgrimage out to the Bukit early in the morning. The first surf was high tide and pretty uncrowded I realise now. I shoulder hopped for an hour before getting a couple and figuring things out - like the deeper you are the easier the take off. I was riding my 7’8 x 22’ x 2’3/4 Twin Pin Mid to start with. It handled really well and I was thankful for the length and volume. High tide Padang take off is much harder and turns into more of a ledge. There were a couple sobering moments… paddling for a mid sized one and missing it to turn around and almost get caught by a set, seeing a really comfortable local not make a drop and absolutely get obliterated, then everyone in the line up comment how lucky he was there was nothing behind it, as he and his board bobbed closer and closer to the cliffs, and another guy getting his leggy ripped from his ankle and his board disappearing into the cliffs not to be found again.

I got three I was happy with, and considering I'd pushed my luck, went in.

Over lunch I debriefed with Tom and we unpacked the session. Reports were now saying 8-10ft Padang Padang and Ulus was 15-18ft. A couple guys on 10ft boards had started at Padang before making the long paddle to Ulus. One older guy on a 9ft + board got one of the better waves at Padang, taking off the deepest I’d seen that session, before gliding into one of the biggest barrels I’d witnessed first hand.

Tom suggested the Maunganui Chip for the next session. Without his support I would not have had the confidence.

The tide was dropping as I paid my 15,000 rupaihs and made my down the Padang Padang stairs. The beach was closed for swimming and the rip was insane. There was white wash everywhere and the ocean kept surging.

The crowd was a bit more hectic but the take off looked far more accessible. The pack was intense though. I watched a few locals get absolute bombs including what looked like a 15 year old grom. I felt a bit out of place floating high on such big board and even got a few comments. @luke_cederman was a friendly face and had the positive comment “Well at least your gona have no problem catching them.”

Soon after I rolled into my first wave, looked up, saw three photographers in the channel, set my line, felt good, then the lip threw out, I was deep, too deep, I got obliterated. Two photographers swam over laughing with praise. Fabio from @wavesurfphoto gave me a little plastic business card.

Ryan Glover, Bukit Peninsula, Maunganui Chip by @wavesurfphoto

Ryan Glover, Bukit Peninsula, Maunganui Chip by @_thomas__smith

Six weeks in Bali and the Maunganui Chip exceeded expectations. Big, small, it was fun in all. Sometimes I play with the dystopian thought experiment - if you had to choose one board for the rest of your life, lol- I think the Maunganui Chip would be high on my list - for where I'm at anyway.

Check on our blog post Bali Ha'i for a beautiful clip by @_thomas__smith and a sum up of six weeks board testing in Bali.

Cheers