I heart my Stretch quad

So, I bought by 1st ever used board last weekend in my 6 years of surfing. It's pretty hard to believe I've never bought used but, quite frankly, everything I ever see used is a total POS that's overpriced and misrepresented. "Only ridden twice; 9/10 condition!!" Bullsh*t. Only ridden twice, if the sessions were about 40 hours long.

Anyway...I found a killer deal on a Stretch quad shortboard with Marko EPS foam down in San Diego from a cool dude named Matt. He surfed the board for a few months and it just didn't work for him. The price was right. The condition was flawless. I like to call his board an "adult-owned" board as it was taken care of and used responsibly, and it shows.

Surfed it for the first time yesterday in some shoulder high and clean waves--head high sets if you waited--and was blown away. Fast as hell. Light as a feather. Loose as a street-walker, with drive for days. In a word: bitchin.

Super thin and narrow (2.4 x 19.125) but for some odd reason, the EPS foam floats me with a length of 6'6". Sure, it's no fish or Bonzer in terms of flotation and paddle but it works. It works because that's how I wanted this board: thin. I needed to get onto something that I could throw around; bury a rail and change direction on a dime. This board accomplishes that with ease.

All my boards are quite thick and wide. I felt that I needed the float and paddle that a wider/thicker board would give me as I push 200+ pounds and not the most talented surfer in the lineup (just being honest). Turns out, I might be wrong. The way the rail engages during a turn with this board is sick. Floating ON TOP of the water with the aforementioned boards works great, for the right board and right conditions; has a fun/different feel to it. But, is it worth it to have a board that sacrifices performance for a little extra "oopmh" in the paddle and float department? I'm not so sure, anymore...

In a perfect world this board would be 2.5" and maybe 19.25" but as-is, it works fine. I'm back on my workout and healthy diet kick and when I lose those pesky 10-lbs from a holiday season of gluttony and laziness, I'll be back to my fighting weight of 195 from last summer. Then, I think this board will be magic.

There's still a lot of courting that will happen in the weeks to come but I caught the wave of the year on that board and I'm still amping on it! Stay tuned for more news and some photos of the Stretch quad...