Deafening Silence

There was new attention paid to the flexspoon concept around 2006. A few people (Bob McTavish, Ryan Lovelace) have posted bits of info in the last few years. However, in the ~10 years since a fresh look was given to these types of boards, I've seen only sparse evidence that they are being ridden. The most well know proof (to me) of actual riding of these boards revolves around a person who made a few of his own and rode them. He goes by Man O' War, lives in Florida, and is no longer pursuing the craft. He visited in California branch of his family years back and I managed a few waves on one of his boards. For me, the board had obvious merits and I decided I wanted one.
They were and are expensive, but through patience I tracked one down for a reasonable price. My first session on it I got my barrel, but also broke a rail. I decided to overbuild the board with many layers of glass so that it wouldn't break again. In retrospect, I feel that was an overreaction. I also think the reason I never rode the board much was because of the lack of flotation. I never gave the board a try in softer waves, and the one time I tried it mid-winter my session was shorter than usual due to full body exhaustion from swimming around the surf pushing a neutrally buoyant spoon, and being cold from setting up to my chin in the water. These feelings were relived recently when I took the HPD out for it's first surf. The flexspoon and the HPD have very similar rocker profiles and, with the exception of foam nose-rails, are very similar for the first 1/2 or so. The HPD continues the rail template line and has a wide point very near the tail, the flexspoon has a more surfboard styled template.
The first two sessions on the HPD have been in summer surf. Warm, easy, but also somewhat soft. If the HPD works in these conditions, maybe the flexspoon would also. It's time to give it another try. I think my best bet is to do what I did with the HPD and bring it down to mi4le.