2nd time on the water - no surf to be seen so time to stretch her legs.
Put in at Port Sorell surf club and headed east across the bay. Wow, what a great little paddler - smooth and fast and tracks a treat. Fairly wobbly water across the channel with a huge run-our tide but didnt bother the board at all.
I bought this board as my allrounder, with a focus on open water paddler and was not disappointed at all.
Had a bit of a grovel on it in 1ft waves last weekend, and looking forward to testing its wave prowess in coming weeks.

Hey Billboard, I hired the Element from Bart in Maui and absolutely loved it. I ride and 8'6" Laguna Bay so it was really nice to have the glide in the open water and I only surfed it in small 1 foot reef waves but was definitely won over. Great choice!

I had a 9'8" Element, and can confirm it's versatility. Very good on flatwater (river cruising) - even for a large (110kg) lad like myself. I even put a windsurfing rig on it a couple of times & went for a cruise, although I couldn't quite get it on the plane.

A very loose board for small <2ft waves...unfortunately, mine came to it's demise on a >3ft wave off a bommy as did my leggy - both snapped.

My honest opinion of the construction - not suited to a >90kg person in the surf. Otherwise a good all rounder.

My mate who lives in sei lanka is 100 kg and has had his element up there for almost 2 years now. He took a mana as well and has ridden that twice in that time - he reckons the element is the best reef break board hes ever ridden bar none. Personally Im nowhere near 100kg but still enjoy it in the surf. Ive got a converse ordered for my main surfing board so I should have all bases covered.

All boards can snap, so not going to dis the Element based on one breaking. My only take on it was that it was very thin, and from memory, the board was suited for 'up to 85kgs' rider...I know that I pushed this with another 25kegs, so only myself to blame there.

Had I been confident that it wouldn't happen again, I would've got another one - great fun board.

I've been riding an Element 9'8" for around 4 months now & love it. Great on flat water, catches small waves so easily, ( had a ball this summer on tiny waves that were way too small for a Mal). As I've got better I've surfed it on reef breaks up to head high to head and a half in size and the board really comes into its own. It's so fast & way more manouvreable than my 8' Mal. still, now I'm thinking of moving down to either a pocket rocket 8'5" or 9' pro.

Trev

I'd really like to know how the "new 2013 shape" element compares to the earlier model.
I have demo'd the 2011 element for 3 days and found it to be a real slug, just couldn't generate any speed out of it. Shame because it was nice and loose and turned so easily. Able to crank off nice tight roundhouse cutty's, nice re entries. But no speed, kept getting caught by the break.
I ended up buying the drive, as it's name implies, great drive down the line, awesome speed.

BUT how has the re vamped shape of the element changed it's surf ability?

Cheers,
Ken.