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The Yater HP Bisect
Yater Bisect with Pope Hollowfoil fin
Basic shape idea: Rockered high performance.
Length: 10' 0''
Width: 23 and 1/2''
Width at tail: 13 and 1/2''
Width at nose: 18 and 1/2''
Thickness: 3 and 1/2''
Single fin.
The Yater Bisect
This was my first Bisect. I had ridden the Yater shape in the soft top model made by Surftech. That was the board that made me want to get a heavy, long longboard. I talked to Karl Pope, and decided the Yater Bisect would be comparable. It was. It worked out great. I surfed on it for a year before trading it for-- another Bisect!
Yater in Profile: Note rocker
The Yater shape has several features that may influence you to go with this particular shape of Bisect. It's got rocker all the way through it. It's got hard rails in the back and a narrow tail. The nose is trimmed quite thin and has turned down rails for lift. There's some nose rocker so it won't get in the way when taking off.
Turning
This is a turning board. When I had it, I found it worked best when constantly turning, climbing and dropping, or pumping.
You can turn from just about anywhere on the board. You can turn quickly from the back half, as the rails in the back are quite hard. The tail is narrow and diamond shaped. The hard surfaces provide lots of drive when pumping, and three fins are hardly necessary.
When I got this board I was not yet surfing at an advanced level and the turnability really helped me improve. As I progressed I found I had the most fun with this board in bigger, clean surf. I could sit way outside and be sure of paddling in for an early start. It was easy to get into the waves, the nose wouldn't pearl, and big cutbacks were very smooth from turn to turn. This board is made for going rail to rail.
Wave catching and paddling
This board is a wave catcher supreme. It's also easy to knee paddle. Long sessions are possible due to the stability. I could knee paddle, sit on the board, one armed paddle, anything to conserve energy and stretch out the session. I liked this board for winter, since I could float on it with my feet out of the water, and it didn't rock when kneeling on it in place.
Trimming and nose riding
Nose riding is not its strong point, although the board is extremely easy to cross step on and turn in cross stepped stance.
The front third of the board is a good trim spot. You can actually turn from up there somewhat, and it's easy to sideslip and stay in control while nose riding. The board accelerates until the front third.
The tip is pretty hard to master. The trimmed out nose doesn't offer much float, and the downturned rails don't give enough lift to make up for the thinness. Also, the heavy rocker means the board will really slow down if you tip ride. In general, tip riding this board means running up for a few seconds then backing off.
I found something interesting about nose riding this board. It has a double trim spot. It trims at a little more than half way up in most lines on a wave. On a high line it trims at half way, then takes off again when you step up to the nose. Once the tail is pushed up in the back into the curl, the front rocker is positioned to plane and not push water. The board trims fast with your weight close to the tip as long as the tail higher is positioned higher than the nose. Needless to say, it's hard to position the board to do this.
