Hey,
Donnie here, I'm thinking of buying a second hand take-off 7'4", but i
havn't heard much about them.

I googled take-off in the hope of enlightenment, but only found mesurements,
specifics and some sales jazz. (It wasn't very helpful!!)

Seemingly, take-off are a realitivly new, cornish brand. The boards
are epoxy resin, ehh, single stinger etc.

They're meant to withstand novice learning experiences, ( aka; crashes!! )
but are more manouverable than BIC's or NSP's.

Can anybody give me their opinion? All advice will be much appriciated!!

wouldn't go near 'em to be honest. have heard stories about them de-lam on the top deck.

Hi Donnie,

If I was you I would try to by some second hand plastic.

If you're just starting out (and I'm only guessing that you are) you won't care too much about the "more maneuverability" that the Take-off is supposed to offer.

The two basic requirements for a beginner board:

1) It has enough length (volume) to get you paddling fast enough to catch waves, and perhaps stand up in the white mush, where you won't be going fast enough to turn anyway.

2) It doesn't fall apart, ding, crack easily. My BIC got badly finned so don't go thinking plastic is indestructible.....

Look at your first board as the first step on the ladder, you're probably not going to keep this thing. Don't be dazzled by nice colours and graphics, this won't seem as important when your sifting sand through your gob like a catfish.

Try and get a decent BIC or NSP secondhand and put the money you just saved into a decent wetsuit. Go surfing (a lot). Get better and then get a better board for xmas!!

Hope this helps,
Al

it just came to me that NSPs are epoxy too and I've surfed a couple of them of different sizes and I did think they were marginally better than my BIC.

But I also remember that when i started renting boards the NSPs were always in rag order while at least the BICs were still water tight.

So as an appendix to my last comment:
Get something in good condition and look after it. And don't hit anything!!! there's not much out there to hit and most people are definitely softer and more brittle than most surfboards.

If you are going for this type of board buy Irish and get a Seven board from Markus in Castlegregory, these board look like the best shapes and best finshed moulded boards out there

AFAIK - these boards are chinese made for Escape Surfboards of Cornwall.

They seem quite light in the surf-tech mode, certainly lighter than BIC's NSP and marcus pop-outs. I have no idea how they ride or how durable they are.

if your buying one of the epoxy pop out type boards check carefully for damage. whilst they're harder to damage to start with once they do go they'll suck up the water like crazy. look out for sprayed areas and check the weight of the board.

I agree - support the local guys!!.

Thanks for the advice.

Does anybody know if their fins are "FCS", or else what type
are they because trying to replace custom fins can be a b****