The ride report from Mark Yee

"I took the wooden fish out for the maiden voyage this morning.
2.5 ft hightide waves at Winkipop, slight SE onshore but still very rideable... if you have a wooden board!
Legrope attached, a light rub with some cool water sex wax, a pre surf photo and I was out there.
I spent the first 5 minutes adjusting to the extra width and weight (6.4kg), but it paddled well and was still easy to duck dive.
A shoulder height set wave comes at 'uppers', I was a bit too deep and late and managed to nose dive, albeit in a graceful renaissance-retro wooden board kind of way.
Next wave I was in peak position, took off and....FLEW.
Mowing through sections the 2 guys on regular shortboards were struggling with. The full-speed trim all down the line and ended up at 'lowers' a good 150m away.
I spent another hour trading waves with one of the older regulars, feeling my way through the characteristics of the board. Any surface bumps were made negligible and before too long i had made a few tentative off -the-top manouvers. I think it will loosen up in turns once I can get a better feel for the extra weight-induced momentum of the board
The only time I thought I had pushed it too far was midway through an end section closeout floater.
Thinking to myself. Did Jensen design the board for this kind of stuff ?? And quietly praying I wasn't going to put my feet through the deck on landing, it air dropped off the lip onto the flats without missing a beat.
So I celebrated with a post surf photo, a coffee from Swell Cafe and am hoping to make a paulownia mini-simmons 5'5" sometime over summer."

Hope you guys are getting waves.
Cheers
Mark