The first surf was at a right hander down in Margaret River. Overhead with a bit of grunt.
As soon as I initiated a rail it was like “wheo, what’s going on here?” A totally different sensation. I half expected the tail to blow out as I dropped in and went into a bottom turn, but it was the complete opposite.
The thing not only had bite, but it accelerated like nothing I felt before. The other sensation was lack of friction. It was fast. Straight away I knew it was something special, but I kept double checking myself thinking, am I sure I’m not just trying to convince myself it’s insane because I wanted it to be?
Cutbacks were so tight and fast with a turning radius that wasn’t just tight, but tight with acceleration. Into and out of the turn. Froth levels were extreme, but now I had to validate it against previous favourite boards.
Hopping onto my proven 7’10 x28 squash tail thruster (vs the 7’10 x 29.5 twin) it now felt stiff and slow. Then I tried putting the same fins in a favourite swallow tail fish of similar shape which was again narrower, at 7’10×28. I had high expectations for this board too, but nope. Didn’t have the flow whatsoever. Rail to rail transition and cutback magic was gone. Such subtle differences making a huge difference. (I’m not sure why this continues to amaze me, but it happens a lot.)
