Hello all,
I've had a 6'3 activator for about a month and wanted to share my experiences on this board. Overall I think it's a great board and although expensive, was worth every penny! I bought the Rapidfire model, and using a thruster setup (flexfire clay marzo's). I'm a 165 lb rider, intermediate skill, and maybe should have gone smaller since this board floats much more than my 6'3 shortboard, and I had a little trouble duckdiving it at first.
The first thing that stuck out was how easy it was to paddle this thing, I felt like I was flying on the water compared to my other shortboards, and it made me wonder if I was going to small on my boards all along. I'd usually never be the fastest in the lineup, and so would never wait in position for the sets because the stronger paddlers would usually win position over me. Now? It seems like I can more than hang with those guys, only longboarders seem to catch waves further back than me. Honestly it feels like cheating haha.
In smaller waves, this board is plenty fun. Because of how easy it is to paddle, I scratched the idea of buying a longboard for small surf. 1-3ft faces, still rideable. Had a few fun days at rockpiles when the waves were just waist high. Paddles fast and you can whip this board like a shortboard, it's quickly become my main surfboard in nearly all conditions. It handled surprisingly well on the North Shore. The board seems to be perfect for breaks like laniakea where the takeoff isn't super critical. Steep drops are still possible, I've surfed v-land, rocky point, and gas chambers with no problem, but Pupukea was a bit different, ate it on a couple takeoffs on the waves that were breaking close to the sandbar (near air-drops and double ups). For breaks like that, I would probably be better suited to riding my old shortboard, but for most conditions, the Activator became my weapon of choice. I'd give it a 9/10 :)
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Originally Posted by fokaiHI
