The new full carbon Surf Race arrived just before we went to Maui and I've only had a chance for one paddle on it so far. The thing is such a wild shape it's really hard to photograph effectively, obviously very much based on paddle board shape.

Dave and I went for a paddle in really crappy on-shore 15 knot conditions, sea was super choppy, the board is really surprisingly stable considering it's only 26 1/2" wide, I was sure I would fall in but managed not to. On the way back in we ended up going almost exactly the same speed and catching the same waves - Dave was on his old style DC16. The waves weren't huge, two or three feet trough to peak and rough as guts but it certainly caught them easily and felt easy to get back and surf a little, really need a much better day to get a feel for it though. The nose is such a different shape to anything I've paddled before, heaps of volume but relatively low rocker. I imagine it will poke in but just come straight up, time will tell!

On the flat water inside the marina the glide was quite remarkable, it feels faster than The Pin but I really need to time over the same course on the same day to be sure. The secondary stability is amazing, with Dave on it at 105kg he could rock it over to 30 or 40 degrees and it would just right itself.

I'll post more impressions once I've had a couple of paddles on it. The fin that's in the photos isn't the factory one, just waiting for the factory one to arrive - though the red matched though... I'm going to try a much smaller fin, this one felt too big - it's such a different board, feels like everything I know doesn't apply to this guy! The nose reminds me of a wooden clog...

Drain holes on each side of the sunken deck work really well, you don't even notice any water there unless you happen to to look down and see water hosing out each side - clears really fast.