Well, after a bit of decision and seeing comments about needing some new material on the site.. I pulled the trigger on the below.

It's a blue planet carbon ninja star- appx 6.9kg on the scales.
its the 8'4 x 28 x 100l model.

its a touch longer than my current model, but the super thinned out rails I'm hoping will enable me to slice and cut harder, and I've always been a fan of the pin rails. The way the rams really taper down is almost similar to the new step-decks.
I get receipt of it on Sunday evening but looking forward to a test spin!

Why the RUSTY sticker

Haha it's not brand new, so not my decision on the sticker

That's a nice board benjl and I've seen how they perform, well design BP.

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JEG said..
That's a nice board benjl and I've seen how they perform, well design BP.

Yeah? I've. Struggled to find much on the net or any reviews of this size one! What sizes or how have you seen it perform? The rocker seems quite flat for the design but I guess with the pin tail and narrow rails, it might counter it. Just keen to get it in the water and take it for a spin!

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benjl said..

JEG said..
That's a nice board benjl and I've seen how they perform, well design BP.

Yeah? I've. Struggled to find much on the net or any reviews of this size one! What sizes or how have you seen it perform? The rocker seems quite flat for the design but I guess with the pin tail and narrow rails, it might counter it. Just keen to get it in the water and take it for a spin!

Only seen this dude about 5 times out on the surf and I'm not sure if he's on the 8'10 or 9'2 board but it does looks good and performs well in the surf. I like the 8'10" x 29" x 4.25" x 120L or the 9' nose rider though, oneday maybe

Good stuff Benjl - be keen to hear how the new board goes.
While I'm not in the market for a new short board, I have also been keeping my eyes on Blue Planet - I reckon they look the goods and there's a few sweet vids on YouTube that are worth a squiz.
Get amongst it bro!!!
A new stick - yeeeew!!!

Great shape. It just looks right. Quad or two plus one, dual leash plugs very thinned out, light and a perfect length. I think I need one! Looking forward to a review.

Bob

Well we're not off to a great start..
the guy was supposed to meet my partner at the airport so she could fly it home to me.
he didn't turn up (I've alredy paid him!), phone is turned off and the number he gave me for his wife is also not a valid number.

Wish me luck!

Oh you're kidding mate?
Fingers crossed - he's probably just been caught up somewhere.
Hang in there man - stay positive.

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benjl said..

JEG said..
That's a nice board benjl and I've seen how they perform, well design BP.

Yeah? I've. Struggled to find much on the net or any reviews of this size one! What sizes or how have you seen it perform? The rocker seems quite flat for the design but I guess with the pin tail and narrow rails, it might counter it. Just keen to get it in the water and take it for a spin!

Rocker quite flat but with that outline, it will carve perfect! No dishpan!
I hope you have not been dropping in by a crook.

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benjl said..
Well we're not off to a great start..
the guy was supposed to meet my partner at the airport so she could fly it home to me.
he didn't turn up (I've alredy paid him!), phone is turned off and the number he gave me for his wife is also not a valid number.

Wish me luck!

How did this saga turn out in the end? Was it a scam?

The board is still in transit, hopefully making its way up on Wednesday! Missed a lot of surf in the meanwhile but will be looking forward to the arrival.

The guy was away out of reception so gave it to his wife to drop at the airport, although gave us her wrong number so we couldn't get hold of either of them and missed the flight up here initially

So the good, bad and the ugly..
the board arrived with a massive crack in the middle from what looked like a forklift going through the bag and board!
Waiting to hear from the freight company whether they will cover the repair?

the good- it's a mighty shape. Really hard to get a good angle to show just how much the volume tapers to the rail and also from the front to the rear (so thin).
I decided to tape the crap out of the area around the crack so i could just try for a flat water spin before getting fixed.

Shes agile!! Jesus! It felt like night and day to my jimmy lewis 8'3 x 28.5 @105l which feels so much more stable in comparison (this is 8'4 x 28 x 101l). You can see in the pics just how much the tail and rail sinks in to the water. Note that I'm only 70kg!
feels like you need to stand pretty far forward to keep the back less out of the water.

You can inagine exactly how this is this will perform on the wave- the rail and rails will sink and rip (is my feeling). Even just trying to change direction in the flat water seemed rapid. Can't wait to get the rail repaired and try it in the surf!

At 62kg I have trouble on the 81L Flow . I also have to stand way forward and feet way close .
Struggled to be honest . The waves I have caught have been awesome but just falling off way too much in between waves

nice one benji ,you have a simular sink to me on my 120 litre @ 96 kgs but the surf of a smaller board is worth the hassle ,
enjoy ,and bummer about the ding ,

Let me guess. TNT?

@scotty, it's was PBT. In your experience do the freight companies cover their stuff ups? The board bag was brand new and looks like it's been dragged through mud in addition to the cuts and rips

Hi Benji,
Great you finally got your new stick. Long term learn to fix your board yourself as you can get supplies from Fiberglass NZ in Panmure. If you want a great repair and cosmetic match check out Bruce Nicholson of Big World Composites m.facebook.com/BigworldComposites

Thanks 515, have flicked them a message. I haven't repaired carbon fibre before so thought best leave it to the experts!

Can't wait to get the board out for a proper wave-test!

Gee you've had some bad luck. That is absolutely disgusting how your board was treated! Looks like no accident to me. And the ones at fault should have reported the damage caused & you should have been compensated for not only a repair but for the time & inconvenience in my view.
Plus a new board bag as it probably cannot be repaired to its original condition. Those guys are paid to transport & not to damage. So in my view you have a case. Maybe report it to Fair Trading. Send pics etc. Go straight to the top if you get no satisfaction from the couriers, be demanding with them & threaten to report them.
Pro repairers for your board can do an excellent job. So good to hear all is not lost.
If your board was broken like tail or nose snapped off. That would be a replacement cost in my opinion.
Hoping things go well from now on & you get great satisfaction in your future rides.
Nice board.
Good luck & have fun!

Nice looking board, shame it's been dinged...
Hope you get that sorted, then come back and give us a review

Still waiting for any response from the freight company, who then said I need to raise a claim with a different company (which I have done) and no further response from either of them which is frustrating.
Been some great swell recently that has been missed!

on a side note though, I took it to a repair shop the other day and got to look at it side by side to my jimmy lewis supertech 8'3. I thought the supertech has quite fine rails but the blue planet is soo much thinner when side by side! Crazy difference.

Also when looking closer, as well as being quite flat rocketed, the concaves are also incredibly flat and shallow. It must be a very small single for most of the board to a very slight vee in the tail.
It seems to use the rail thickness and pin tail to create turn and bite rather than rocker or much concave

Well I can finally do a mini-review! Still no response from insurance or the freight company but have just paid for the repair myself in the interim (see the grey patch). I got to try it on mini- 1-1.5ft swell lastnight at a local beach which only breaks 2-3x a year, so definitely not the conditions this board is meant for. It was also very clean so couldn't really test in chop, but imagine it would be quite difficult.

There are several really interesting things about this board:
1). The front has a noted step-rail and really looks like the new generation SUnova boards (i've tried to get photos to show this, but it's much more noticable in person).
2). It's almost like 2x different boards joined in the middle. A full on gun in the back half, and a pumped up volume small-wave board in the front. I've tried to show some pics side-on to illustrate just how much the volume differs from front to back.
3). The flow on's from this are that it is quite twitchy with the volume distribution. It makes you want to stand way further forward than normal to get on the volume-bubble sweet spot. It almost feels like a 12'6 pin tail touring board, with all the volume in the nose to stay out of chop but the back rail and tail doing the work when on a wave.
4). There is hidden nose rocker, but tail rocker is really flat- and you notice this on the wave. It gives it stability, rather than jumping on the tail and expecting it to curl back up the wave. In a critical wave I imagine it would give a lot of confidence in a hollow barrel.

Coming off a 8'0 x 27.5 93l Sunova flash, stability wise it is quite similar despite being 4" longer, wider and 7l more volume (more volume in nose, less in tail).
I only caught some very small waves, but certainly felt 'more glued' to the wave than the flash, which felt more playful. I imagine this could change with more power to get it working? Certainly felt like 'in the juice', it would hold easily. My question is, how loose can I get it?

I imagine fin layout will also be key on this board, tried as a quad lastnight but thruster might work better?

Stay posted for a proper review in bigger stuff, we have some cyclone swell coming shortly!

thanks for the review and I really like the shape of this board.

Took it for another hoon today, still pretty small off shore maybe chest height at best.
The first wave I came straight off it, seemed to sink much quicker than expected! It is quite a twitchy thing.
I find myself standing really far forward to try get the volume bubble to get on the wave early and than having to jump backwards.

i did notice the extra length in turns (compared to my 93l 8'0 flash' that I've revently been using but I was also using quads which draw a wider arc.

i nearly for a mini barrel and it stuck a really close out small wave so I can see that in big and hollow stuff it sticks where my other boards would have slid out.

really keen to try it as a thruster, damn the 4+1 set up! All my sets are futures, but I'd have to take the centre fin off my only small fcs set to get the set up I'd like. Not sure how well 2x different sets of fins work with each other if I had futures side fins from one set and centre fcs fin from another? Can't wait to try some bigger waves.

i did a couple of tight hacks on one wave so think I just need to get used to it