Hi Peeps,

The long awaited day finally came yesterday when our Flat Water race boards turned up (well one of them in any case) .

I've been looking forward to this board for months and couldn't resist the urge to get it wet this morning. I woke extra early (4am) so as to be on the water for 30 min before any one else showed up.

It was twilight conditions when I hit the water with what I now affectionately call "the Hatchet" (See pics of the bow). Conditions were near perfect, a light breeze from the east, temperature at 31 degrees at 5am, and a slight run out tide.

First thing I noticed was that the "Hatchet" is just a bit narrower than it's open ocean counterpart, and subsequently slightly more tippy but really nothing to be concerned about.

It's so weird when watching the water split around the Hatchet's nose (it doesn't "peel", it splits), it looks so smooth but doesn't give the feeling of speed until you look down at the GPS or the scenery gliding by at speed. Just amazing! With so little effort I was comfortably paddling along at 9km/h without raising a sweat and barely my heart rate either. Up the tempo of the paddle and apply a little pressure and the board accelerated to around 12km/h into the current. Man, this thing is so fast!

The real kicker is that it's not how fast it is in top speed, it's how fast it goes with so little effort. It's literally a medium cruising pace of paddling to maintain 9km/h, so effortless, I felt I could paddle like that all day. A new love affair has begun.

The board itself is light and has the brushed carbon look on the bottom surface (which is not my cup of tea but I'll overlook it for it's performance ). The rocker is basically none in the forward half of the board, it's dead flat with a progressive rocker in the tail up to what looks to be about 3-4cm tail lift. She's only 27.5" wide and very flat on the deck with a raised bow.

Comes standard with the 26cm G10 Fly race fin which tracks it beautifully straight. The nose being vertical, I'm thinking, would be pretty effected by cross chop and side winds, although, the nose sits low in the water when evenly trimmed so not so much from wind but more the slap of wind and boat generated waves. I'm thinking upwind into the chop would be dead easy as there is little slowing of such a needle nose.

The Hatchet bow is so sharp and dramatically morphs into a very flat bottom. This is a stunning board and looks as fast as it goes. No idea how it goes on a downwinder, but am thinking it would be happier in the flat water. I didin't buy if for it's downwind prowess and am now starting to think I may not sell the others that arrive this week coming ...... at least not to fast paddlers

Very excited paddler!