Nervous - Apprehensive - Disaster - Loving It

The Bonga pitched up today coinciding with the best forecast that we have had for weeks.

3pm 8ft 11secs 11mph 17c
6pm 8.5ft 12secs 9mph 16c
9pm 9ft 12secs 7mph 16

High tide was about 5.30pm - this forecast would normaly mean a decent, head high on the beach wave - it's going to be a baptism of fire. Nervous? Well I knew / heard that the old 10' Bonga was tippy and this fish was narrower than my Naish plus the stepped rails gave the board an even more slimmed down look. Unpacking it I thought 'This baby is going to be hot - possibly too hot' The tail is super slim but she's busty on top. Board dimensions are

Nose 19" (1' from end)
Tail 17.5" " "
Length 9'6"
Width 28 7/8"
Thickness 4"
Weight - wait (I'll get back to you)

1st off pics


Prettier than the web Pics



Step rails



Nose Lift





Flipside



Making the Naish look Porky (And it definetly isn't) Now I'm aprehensive!

So having sized the board up I'm beginning to think 'This board is going to be too tippy' bear in mind what I wanted was something Fractionally more forgiving in chop than the Naish. Bugger. I began pinning my hopes on the fact that the board had less nose and tail rocker (hopefully keeping more of it in the water, and a slightly fatter nose that would not sink away sideways in chop.

Naish dimensions -

Tail 17" 1' off the tail
Nose 15" 1' off the nose
Width 29 1/4"

So the Bonga's tail is almost as tight as the Naish and the Bonga is a Swallow tail. I'm not sure but I think that shaper's use a swallow tail design to maintain the width of a board where a pin or a diamond tail would mean pulling the tail in too quickly. Please someone correct me if I'm wrong.

The nose tells the story though, two inches broader, still not the full rounded spoon of my old 9'8" Starboard and with more rocker than the Starboard. That is sort of in keeping with my plan, but what the hell would the effect of those rails be??

Picking the board up it felt light - full depth handle grip centrally placed and a great looking white diamond cut deck grip.

5.30pm could not come soon enough. I'm now typing this at 11.40pm and am totally knackered - sorry but the surf impressions will have to wait until tomorrow night - having said that the surf looks good then as well - could be a late night. Just to wet your appetite - I will be going in on the Bonga tommorrow as well, as I said before, tonight was a baptism of fire having lost a side fin and broke a brand new leash!!!