My thoughts on the MB

[saxman1]

So far so good. I have had it out about 4 times now in waves in the rib cage to a little overhead at Upper trestles, church and Salt Creek. For the most part it seems like this is the bottom end of the size spectrum for the board but even on the smaller waves as long as there is some shape the board will come alive. It also paddles very well for a hpsb, it can catch guttless waves it can't really surf and it gets in last minute and late really easily.

The board goes top to bottom so well it feels amazing. Evey time i crack the lip the board just comes back under my body so easily its like it does the snap itself. I have also done some very nice cutbacks on this board. I have done the kind where you get a full on back side reo snap off the white water with ease.

I'm still getting used to the board a little and i'm getting used to surfing with booties on again at the same time, maybe thats more of the issue. There have been a coulpe times where my front foot felt wrong, maybe a little to narrow of a stance but it could have been me just getting used to the board. I have tried a wider stance a bit and the board handles it well but for the most part I haven't really put much brain power into it and i'm just trying to get waves in on it.

I have been using a set of techflex am2s. This is a big honkin fin for me but i do like big fins. The board inst as fast down the line as my dominator quad or my quadraflex with the fcs R2 quad set in them. The waves I have been able to surf have been very fast down the line, probably better conditions to have one of my quads out, and made it a bit hard to test the board out. So it has got me thinking. On waves that are fast down the line and not super powerfull would I get more speed from a different fin, like a EA blackstick. The am2 has a huge base and feels pretty good but would a smaller more flexy fin whip me down the line a little faster by making the board go through the motions a bit faster? Conventional wisdom tells me that big base equals more down the line speed but could more speed be achived with a different flex patteren on a smaller fin. I know quads are faster for the most part so Im not expecting to achive the same down the line speed on my Bourez. One thing I think to be true about quads vs thrusters is that quads are faster right off the bat, up high on the face and top speed but thruster are faster on the bottom of the wave. For example if you get stuck behind a big ball of white water on the bottom of the wave you do one pump bottom turn thingy on the thruster and you make it around the corner, on a quad you have a better chance of getting around that corner doing a foam climb but its much harder. Any thoughts would be welcome thanks.