Hate to admit this, but got the 8.0 wet for the first time this morning. We searched the entire southern goldy and could not find a bloody wave anywhere so we ended up paddling out at the alley with 5000 others and a cracking 1/2ft swell on offer

Scotty on a sup, Tom on a 9.3 - and me on a goddamn 8ft minimal - I could not have been on a more inappropriate board for the alley - especially a half a foot alley !
However - I managed to jag about 6 or 7 little peelers through into laceys (ok I may have burnt tom on half of those) and actually had a little bit of fun. Even got some sweet trim time on 3 of the better ones - very very suprised considering the board has quite small thruster fins on it. Jeez if I can get that many waves on an almost unsurfable wave I cannot wait to get it into some real surf - its gunna be so easy to take every wave off tom then

I have to say I have copped a bit of flack for putting so much meat in a board for someone my weight but it doesn't feel at all chunky or cumbersone in the water and it paddles as well as any standard 9fter I have ridden - I have come to the conclusion that foam is your friend