provides lots of support on the water when bouncing. "When you start the bounce it does- n't sink in as far, starting you off higher up. You’ll also notice that the planing surface is huge and the rocker is set back to offer an ideal pivot point for the ollie-—the bow comes up high so when you push it down your entire boat leaves the water easily."
Tiggers will like it If the Transformer did nothing else it’s worth buying just for the bounce. Carve to the top of a wave, point downhill and this boat is air- borne. No fancy heel push/knee pull action required. It just bounces. The trick isn’t to get the boat off the water, it’s keeping it down. Your first few surfs on a fast wave will have you gig- gling and just trying to hang on. It is a very new and very addictive feeling. Getting air in the T3 doesn’t require a huge
feature. This is where we think the large vol- ume stern is helpful. Here’s our theory: Like pulling a cork under water and letting it pop to the surface, when you carve to the top of a wave the buoyant volume in the stern gets trapped in the foam pile and then squirts you forward into the trough. This little push pro- vides the momentum you need to get the Transformer aerial on small breaking waves.
Good-bye wave carving, hello spins The Transformer is extremely loose on a wave and is as happy grinding as it is front or back surfing. The edges are far enough out of the water that snagging in the current is not an issue. Front surfing the stock Transformer is twitchy. Besides the fact it is hopping all over the place, the huge planing surface wants to spin if you’re not aggressively carving. Add the tips to the stern and it settles down, stops bouncing, tracks better and falls into a more useable category of boat for most people—at least at first. The Transformer is very slow edge to edge, simply due to the extreme width. You have to concentrate on getting the boat way up on its side and carving off the front edges to perform vertical blunts and backs stabs. Add the tips and like longer boats, the Transformer will let you carve off the stern or blast down and settle in the trough.
It’s in the hole The Transformer is very smooth and stable spinning or cartwheeling. We thought it would be difficult to stay ahead of the rotation, yet it seemed to cartwheel slowly and predictably. It's like cartwheeling an inner tube with some ends to let you know there is a front and a back. The tube keeps you rotating smoothly and the bow and stern get you started.
2002 winter 37
Without the tips on the Transformer, it was
difficult to perform rotational moves such as the tricky-whu or pirouette. When you begin to rotate on a vertical plane around the boat, it tends to fall back into the hole. We asked Eric Jackson about this and he agreed. "Tricky whus are super difficult without the long tip on the stern," he said. "The long tip provides the length reaching the green water and provides the extra balance you need to do the pirou- ette."
Bolt on the eight-inch tips and you have a completely different boat. It’s 100 times easier to bow stall and they make stern squirts possi- ble. The vertical stability of the tips turns tum- bling into traditional controlled cartwheeling. The Transformer loops with ease. Once the nose is down, the boat is headed up. The high volume central area makes the T3 super reten- tive, and the short length makes it easy to throw over your head. On a good foam pile, aerial loops are easier than three point cart- wheels.
The ends Don’t jump in the Transformer for five min- utes in flatwater and think you’re going to like it. You’ll feel right at home in the posh F.A.T. 3.0 outfitting but you’ll feel lost in the volume. Get this boat to a play spot however and the Transformer is wonderfully retentive, cart- wheels smoothly, hops like water on a hot skil- let, and loops like a drunken circus clown. Does it change from bouncy to slicy? Not
exactly. There is too much volume to make it truly slicy. But the tips do work and make a huge difference to the performance. The tips tame the Transformer down and add vertical stability. They make a full-on bounce boat perform more like a boat most people are used to paddling. Switching the ends allows you to tune the Transformer to your skill level and the move of the day. If the fun of transforming your boat isn’t reason enough to buy one, you might be happy to know that Wave Sport offers the Transformer for $200 less than last year’s models.
length width depth weight volume
MSRP Cdn/US
Transformer 1 70 inches
25.25 inches 12.25 inches 30 lbs
49 gallons $1495 / $999
Transformer 2 72 inches 26 inches
12.75 inches 32.5 lbs
55 gallons $1495 / $999
Transformer 3 76 inches
26.75 inches 13.25 inches 35 lbs
60 gallons $1495 / $999
Transformer 4 80 inches
27.5 inches 13.75 inches 37.5 lbs
67 gallons $1495 / $999
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52