Donald Takayama Double Ender Surfboard Review (PU)

I've had this board for 6 months now and absolutely love it! It's 9'6 x 23" x 3", has full rails that seem to turn down at the tail and it's the heaviest board I own. About a year ago I was in Byron visiting my good mate Tommy who owns a Model T. Just on a one week road trip diving and surfing up the east coast, I didn't have a board with me and had the option to take out any of his 3 boards (the Model T, a Classic Malibu knifey longboard, and a retro fish). I first took the Model T out in a messy and dumpy 3 ft. beach break, nose dived a handful of times and had a handful of great rides. I had never been on a longboard as heavy as the Model T before and the glide had me hooked. Upon my return from my Christmas trip to Norway and the UK I discovered I still had enough money to buy a Takayama for myself and thus ended up with the board you see above :)

The Double Ender does everything in my opinion and I'd recommend it to surfers of any level. First of all it paddles super fast. It's heavy board, lots of foam and stiff. In 0 to 3 ft. surf it goes great but requires a bit of footwork to keep in the curl. It's the easiest of my boards to noseride in small waves but, due to it's weight, it is slower to come around than my Mctavish Neo-step (review of this board coming soon!). Good news is that Mr Takayama has put some great bottom contours on this design and matched it with a nice fin so it's loose and drivey from the back, and has good play from the middle and nose (thank you Sir!). For reference, I'm 6' and 78 kg but lighter framed surfers will love the board as well. It's Marta's favourite board because "it floats very nice so I don't nosedive and it's easy to turn".

Taking it out in bigger waves it turns into a whole new beast. The weight of the board combined with the fuller rails and excellent Takayama fin give this amazing driving feeling out of turns where you can really feel the rail pushing you out of the water back to planing. I mainly ride sharp rail boards so the power off the rail was a refreshing feeling for me and lots of fun! Not to say it isn't hard work getting it on rail, the board is stiff and heavy after all.

Here's the Takayama website and description of the board:

http://www.hawaiianprodesigns.com/surfboards/retro-longboards/double-ender/

Not much of a description but some nice photos of other examples :)