A New Hope... The G-Mat Rubber Bucky - JMC
/Sooooo then. You will have seen my previous posts about the Rubber Bucky - JMC which I built for Jamie McClellen and then another for Andrew Stephen Buck. Well, I had to build myself one
My new mat named “hope” is very, very, light. 70/70 construction and a super free-breather with crescent ended I'-beams with 7 breather holes each. What that means is that the I-beams give the mat its shape but barely restrict the airflow at all. That, along with the very ligth material, squarer back corners, negative rocker and criminally light weight grip job means that this mat is really fast when ridden at very low inflation.
The other interesting thing about this design is that it responds well to decent waves so is a real all-rounder. Jamie has been riding his RB-JMC in heavy hollow waves and has been out-running hollow fast breaking waves. ASB describes his as “as good as a mat gets”.
ASB at Rincon. Photo: Beth O’Rourke
Jason MacMurray has ridden ASB’s and says “That thing is next level”. He went on to say “The way it carries through the flats and from behind the peak is crazy. Andrew was making waves that he had no business getting around the section on”.
Jamie says “As a gauge, I would say I’ve owned somewhere around 50 modern high performance surfmats in the last 15 years. I have about a dozen at the moment and 4-5 are in my working quiver being ridden regularly. The performance characteristics of the RB-JMC are highly unique. This mat seems to excel at both ends of the spectrum, from tiny windswell to 6-8ft tropical groundswell racetracks. It has an uncanny ability to track high in the pocket and naturally hold the line I want to take, whilst simultaneously breaking the tail free for unlimited acceleration. Honestly it’s the best fuckin mat I’ve ever ridden by a long shot and it’s basically replaced my entire quiver” Well that seems pretty definitive.
My own experiences have been really positive too. Hope has been ridden in waves between waist high and overhead and has been great! Noteably faster than other mats ridden on the same days. In partticular, the squared tail corners maximise that tail-slip magic with the mat finding its natural resistance free plane easily. I agree with the thoughts from Jamie, ASB and Jason though. Definitely NOT a beginners mat.
The RB-JMC has performed well in solid good shaped waves
This is definitely more than a Rubber Bucky with a tweak and I am stoked to add the RB-JMC to my quiver of models available to customers. This feels like a break-through mat that I am very, very happy with!
Cheers
G