Review: Strongwater Runt 5′ Epoxy
Summary: The Strongwater Runt 5′ Epoxy tries to be an all-around river board, but fails to impress on most waves. Continue reading for the full review…
On paper the Runt appears to have everything you’d want out of a river surfboard. It has a decent amount of volume (32.7 liters), generous rocker, a fast tail and a blunt nose. On the surface the Runt looks like it could work well on most river waves, but after surfing it for a full season I only found one wave it really excelled on.
On most large river waves, I found the Runt too slow. At Glenwood I was able to catch the wave easily enough, but once surfing I found myself constantly pumping to stay on the wave. When I tried surfing further towards the nose, I found the board got super loose and almost uncontrollable. At Springdale I struggled to catch the inside wave on the Runt more than any other board in my quiver. The Runt would just flush off the wave no matter how hard I paddled.
I found the Runt works well on adjustable shortboard features. But on those waves, there is no need for all the volume built into the Runt. I would love to try a thinner (and perhaps shorter) version of the Runt on a shortboard wave. I think it would perform great.
Pueblo’s 4th Wave is a shortboard wave that requires a popup where a little extra volume is nice. Unfortunately the 4th Wave is so steep that the wide tail of the Runt made it difficult to keep the board out of the trough and up on the face of the wave.
The only wave I felt was ideal for the Runt was Lunch Counter. The Runt was very easy to catch and popup on this wave. Once surfing, I found the board was able to do it all: make big carves, throw buckets, spin, surf backwards… you name it. The extra volume of the Runt allowed it to surf the both green face or the foam when the wave surged. On the swim, the volume made it easy to catch the eddy even at high flows. If Lunch Counter is your home wave, I highly recommend the Strongwater Runt for everyone (beginners to experts). I enjoyed the Runt at Lunch Counter so much, that I’ll be keeping the board just for surfing that wave.
If you are considering the epoxy Runt, you’ve probably also seen the soft-top/foamie version. Interestingly enough, I found the foamie Runt surfed better than the epoxy Runt on most waves. Not only does the foamie often surf better, but it’s also more durable and cheaper than the epoxy version.
It’s hard to find one board that works well on multiple river waves. I prefer to have a quiver of boards and surf the best one for any given wave. If you’re looking for a good all-around river surfboard, there are better options than the Runt. The only surfers I would recommend the Runt to are Lunch Counter locals.