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saltyheaven said..
Surfed the Death Machine today. I'm very glad that I bought the board and am sure to learn a heap from it, both about riding and about shaping.
For a board that comes with dire warnings about needing just the right kind of wave, being a humbling experience, not really a backside option etc etc, I really didn't have any trouble riding it, it felt pretty natural straight off the bat.
Surf was a shifty, pitching and kind of random beach break. Head high, couple of sets a foot or two over head. Offshore and clean. The board was setup with a Narrow base 9" GL flex fin. (The standard issue Liddle fin which I already owned.) The trailing edge of the fin was 13 1/2 inches forward of the tail.
First thing I noticed paddling is the width. At 22" wide it's no wider than two of my other boards, but it feels wider paddling because the width is so far up the board, up near where your arms are when lying down. Board paddles ok, not as well as my other mids but not too far off either. Duckdives easy.
First wave on my forehand, expecting the worst, I just took off gently and cruised, couple of little turns, flick off. Easy. Not noticeably fast, or bar of soap like, or ill tempered - just easy and smooth.
After a dozen or so waves (fore and backhand), I was thinking it didn't really feel that different to what I'm used to. A bit of luscious drift in the back end on steeper takeoffs, a bit more hold from the rail forward. I was still taking it pretty easy.
Experimenting with moving my stance further up the board is what I think started to give me the first glimmers of where this thing can go. It loves to be ridden from forward. With both feet in the front half of the board and close together a bottom turn became lean and push hard with both legs, I was actually stepping my back foot forward to bottom turn, the result was the kind of nose to tail buried rail turn I've been lusting after for so long. This board just does it naturally.
The rides weren't very long so it only happened a few times, but stringing together a couple of these bottom turns and the board just went faster and faster. I pulled off laughing.
Other thing I noticed is the amount of hold from the forward part of the rail. It really does grab the face from way forward near the nose and is drawn upwards. The couple of sections that came my way offering a chance to pull in under the lip ended up with my line being too high, I just wasn't anticipating enough the board getting drawn up the face by the nose.
I'm super excited to get this thing out again in all sorts of conditions, I'm sure I'm just scratching the surface of it's virtues and quirks. I encourage anyone who is tempted by a Liddle but put off by all the negative talk to give one a go, it's different and interesting and offers sensations unlike any other board I've ridden.
So yesterday we paddled out at a fairly heavy and peaky mostly closeout beach breaks, around head high with the odd OH... definitely not "Hull" waves... and I have to say, Mikey was owning the place....
The board seemed to have plenty of natural speed and really nice carve and control... There were only 3 guys making waves with the other 2 being on traditional SB's...
I got smoked out there, really struggled to find anything, managed a few scraps was all...
Was very impressed by the Hull, clearly a lot more versatile than we thought.