About the test environment

Have been to hurley at various levels on 2 and 3 gates.

At hawaii sur rhone in summer 07... not sure about the level but my profile picture is the occasion i was there.

Review

Spending most of my time in cornwall during the year studying, i find myself surfing a lot... and although this my be board surfing have had a few occasions to get my thruster out there...

consequently i love high speed carving! and boy does this boat deliver! although i cannot myself squeeze into a squashtail, a friend of mine who has one has told me that even though the thruster is undoubtedly slower than the squashtail... it wasn't by very much.

i find at hurley this boat performs well as it hardly ever gets flushed off... unless you do something really wrong, and even though you would normally sacrifice bounce for speed, gets loads of bounce as long as you're doing it right! it just takes a little while to get used to controlling its speed on a narrow wave... once you get used to the boat it's awesome. you definately need to get used to the hard rails though... but they work a treat when you're using them properly :)

on hawaii sur rhone, i had never been before so was just getting used to the wave first. unfortunately i had hurt my forearm earlier that week and only managed one ride, but this was more than enough time to realise i have to go back to put it through its paces properly! it carves like a dream, really fast off the hip!

have also taken this boat to hpp in nottingham and it is pretty good in a hole too... not nearly as good in comparison to its wave capabilities but it loops fine, and is balanced while cartwheeling.

Conclusion

definitely a boat for the wave rider, and holds speed really well in turns. would recommend to anyone who wants to cross a bit more board surfing style with paddling... but doesn't want to scarifice arial stuff cause even with minor tail rocker it still bounces loads!

definitely not however a first playboat to buy unless you've done a fair bit of paddling!

of course everyone has different preferences for boats... but for me there is nothing wrong with this one... except maybe for the dragorossi outfitting... don't like the thigh clamp things, so have removed them.

happy surfing dudes!