Pambula Beach
28 Nov 08

Conditions: Strong cross shore wind. Fast, steep, chest high waves.

I thought I would take my own (comfortable) board out for the first session of the weekend. I took the Oxbow 9’6” down onto the sand as well, with the plan to swap over at some stage. Never got around to that because the waves were quite sucky on the shallow sandbank and I didn’t want to snap a borrowed board.

My 11 footer felt nice in the conditions and I was glad for the extra stability in the heavy chop. The good glide and paddling ability of the Oxbow 11’ made those frantic races to the take off zone during lulls easier than they might have been on other boards.

The extra length made it a bit difficult to make critical drops and work it down the line to make sections.

I got up near the nose a couple of times, nearly made some big floaters, got a few nice bottom turns in and pulled off a decent cutback or two.

Overall: Not the best board for the conditions but had fun anyway.

Highs:
- Good paddling ability
- Good noserider
- Can still turn it in critical waves

Lows:
- Hard to make steep drops
- Gets caught in the wind easily