Gents,
I am 5'8 155lbs, somewhere between intermediate and advanced skill level. I am looking to get a new "groveler" for my usual 1-3ft East coast surf. I have my eye on JS Industries' new Pier Pony (5'4") and a Firewire Sweetpotato (Rapidfire 5'2"). I dont have the ability to test ride either. I need some feedback from people that have riden one, the other, or both....Im leaning toward the 5'4" Pier Pony.
I rode a 5'2" Pony yesterday and it went great in 1' crap. My friend who let me try it is your size. I went to the local shop a couple hours later(with my wife's approval)and ordered a 5'4" for myself as I am 6'0" 175lbs. When I ride small wave slop boards like this, I think back to when I lived on the East and Gulf coasts and think this is what everyone should ride there 80% of the year. I havn't ridden the FW Sweetpotato, but they do stock it at my local shop, and I haven't heard anyone raving about it like they do the Pony. Another great board for crap waves AND decent waves is the New Toy by Surf Presriptions. I love my New Toy that I've had for about 4 years now. It works in about anything under head high surf. My New Toy is 5'9".
I've ridden both these boards but have niether. I'm 5'11" 180lbs. Tried a 5'4" Sweet Potato for a couple days in clean 1 to 2 ft surf on a point break. the sweet potato puts a small on one's face. surfed it as a quad and that thing just has speed!!! can do fun little cutties on it. i did pearl it a couple times. little backhand snaps (more like turns) caught me by surprise sometimes as it cut loose. The sweet potato seemed perfect on days you'd need a longboard to surf. Super fun board, but I felt it might get boring after a while if you wanted to surf a bit more aggressive. Now a couple months later and I just got to try a 5'2" Pier Pony. Rode this as a thruster. Completely different conditions and only one session. Same break but 1 to 3 ft plus, windy, choppy, and mushy. The pony packs a ton of volume for it's size! Paddled easy and got into waves easy! Not near as fast as the sweet potato. You have to work the pony for speed and puttered out on some mushy sections where I felt the Sweet Potato would have just made it with ease and a smile. The Pony seems to self correct also, if the nose goes under just keep paddling or going and it will pop right back out with ease. What I liked about the Pony was it could be surfed more like a standard short board. Could get it more vertical and more rail on cutbacks and I just like the feel surfing this board. Felt I could push myself more. But the lack of extreme speed like the Sweet Potato was a downer. I haven't tried it as a quad though. Also, the Vee in the tail is interesting as there were a few times that I just shifted my weight to the tail and that Vee would surprisingly engage taking the board rapidly off in a directional change; this happened when I wasn't shifting to turn the board, but just to get more weight on the tail. Overall, I'm not sure. I want a bottom end range, but not sure which board I like better. I'd like to compare the boards back to back in the same conditions. Would be nice to hear from someone who owns both and has more data points.