by benjl » Thu Dec 24, 2015 6:47 am
Well first review was interesting: was 2-4ft semi-clean / choppy heavy beach break.
Seemed to paddle ok although the nose takes some getting used to and trying to get the right positioning on the board. I found the nose kept getting buried under the water while paddling due to the lumpy sea.
I got a couple of solid lefts and immediately I was up on the first wave. The drop seemed to give me lots of time and the board felt really stable, it didn't scream with speed and looseness like my dominator despite being basically the same volume and similar construction.
I didn't feel like I could turn it as tight as the dominator but this is still early days and it felt like I had so much control of the board. Couldn't believe it felt this easy in the first wave!
The second wave was a bit more steep and I was surprised at how easily the board made the drop, again just so stable and in control. This wave would've started off about shoulder high and then peaked up to overhead while riding it but didn't feel it. I remember going down to do a right-side bottom turn and ended up doing a more steep turn than I've ever done, it felt like I was literally parallel to the water and just drove the right down deep off the bottom.
definitely seems that it could easily take well overhead and be in control.
I'm also surprised at how the large amount of volume didn't feel like it at all. It didn't feel like a bulky board or anything that would be 34l in a 5'8 guise, it also felt longer than 5'8. Almost like 6'0.
I didn't get much of a chance to try and grovel but I did get one .5-1ft face and it picked it up ok. Would probably be ok grovelling on anything clean with a face.
Like the dominator though, it needed a good face to take off so I guess I was already in the right zone after riding the dominator yesterday.
Didn't get to try it on any white-washy take offs but seems a little bit heavier and stronger than rapid fire But pretty similar.
Can't wait to try it again!