Bonzer BumbleBee Ride Report

I ditched work yesterday to catch the offshore winds. I surfed VFWs for a few hours from around 7-10am. Waves were shoulder to head-high with offshore winds and beautiful partly cloudy skies. The air started cold at 7:00 but warmed up to t-shirt and shorts weather by 10am. I started by trying the Bee at Lincoln where the waves were barreling with some make-ables mixed in. After a blown take-off and missing the first section on another I was getting exhausted trying to paddle back out through the heavy waves. I gave up, deciding I felt more like riding more waves for longer rather than burning out in 45 min of pounding.

Moving up a peak was better for me and the board. The waves were breaking softer but still steep with the off-shores holding them up. Mixed in were short peaks and longer, softer walls, and a few hard breaking waves too. For the most part I was able to survive on the Bee without being excited by it. It feels looser than I would expect a single fin of that dims to be, but not much faster. It holds speeds through turns, as I said before, and feels alright once I found the right spot to stand. I picked a high line on one and then dug the rail trying to drop off the high line and down around the section. Pumping the high line felt like the board wasn't really responding with speed like a quad would. The board actually feels similar to what I remember of a thruster. I've heard the term "neutral handling" used to describe a board that only goes where you make it go, but will sit in one place on the wave if you don't tell it to go anywhere. I feel like this board is like that. I did stall a steep wall to see how it might feel in the barrel and it held comfortably. I also pulled into one closeout and it held a line for awhile without pulling too high, or maybe it's just me getting used to which line to pick.

The board has plenty of float but wasn't feeling all that great when trying to catch waves. It may have been the offshore winds, but I felt more struggle to drop in, and less control getting in later.

So I think I'll give this board a few more tries to see if I can find the right wave for it, but I would be willing to sell it if I could avoid a loss on the deal.