The Spey Underground
CND - Custom Nobuo Design
CND’s founder and owner, Nobuo Nodera, started his double-handed journey in 1983 when he became the chief rod designer for Daiwa Sport UK. As well as designing some of the all-time classic double-handed rods like the famous Daiwa Amorphous, he also gave a young Simon Gawesworth his first job in the industry.
From the beginning, CND was an industry leader in rod design. The Specialist Series featuring the Thompson Specialist and later the Salar, Steelhead and the Skagit Specialists along with the I-Speys solidified CND as the industry leader in cutting edge design.
The owner of the very first Steelhead Specialist, none other than Patagonia’s Yvon Chouinard, dubbed CND as this “funky little underground spey company making cutting edge stuff”.
To this day “The Spey Underground” continues to lead the industry in design.
Bias Versa Technology
Good rod blank design depends on the combination of a number of elements: the mandrel taper; the modulus and strength of the carbon prepreg; and the layers and thickness of the carbon fibre. The most popular (and cheapest) method involves one directional laying of the carbon along the length of the blank. Most high-quality blanks involve laying a second layer of carbon fibre at 90 degrees to the longitudinal layer. This gives a significant improvement in performance.
The Bias Versa and Gravity rods take this a step further with a new technology. With the help of a nano pitch technology we can now add on layers of carbon as thin as 0,5mm instead of 1,2mm. This makes it possible to add on more layers and this technique will give you a very special feeling of a light, crispy and fast rod, with the CND feeling down in the cork. The first layers are made in the longitudinal plus 90 degree fashion. Then, using the most advanced carbon fibre cutting machine combined with the highest engineering skills, layers are cut with the carbon fibres laying on a 45 degree bias. Further still, the last layers are cut on an opposing 45 degree bias.
This multi layer construction produces a rod that is very light, casts extremely straight and recovers exceptionally quickly. This combination of state-of-the-art proprietary Japanese carbon fibre coupled with the most advanced cutting and laying techniques available today has produced the truly magnificent Gravity rods.