I've seen the light, and it's a Wave-ski!!

It seems that there has been a recent upswing in the amount of interest in wave skis'. First off Circle One, the Devon based wetsuit and surfboard company made some Epoxy wave skis, aimed at beginner/intermediate paddlers, rather than being more full-on custom skis aimed at more experienced paddlers. There was much more interest in them than Circle One, or us at AS, had expected. As if that was enough, Atlantic based in North Devon, have started working on another beginner/intermediate wave ski.
We had one of the Atlantic skis dropped into the shop for us to cast an eye over, and I've been keen to give it a try out since it arrived. I first attempted to give it a whirl at Harlyn in North Cornwall last week. But unfortunately a broken fin and no replacement finished that attempt before it had even started. But this week I was able to give it two days solid use at Saunton, in some great 2-3ft waves.

Soft full rails and plenty of volume make it stable and forgiving

The waves couldn't have been better if I tried. A really good 2-3ft swell, and a perfect light off-shore wind, produced well lined up waves with faces upto five feet high and great walls and lips that held up for what felt like forever!
I was a little anxious when I first set out on the ski, tales of terror about unstable and unforgiving wave skis having tempered my thoughts. But it couldn't have been further from the truth. Once used to the sitting position, rather than being sat in a kayak being sat on the ski, it turned out to be stable and easy to paddle. It was a dream to paddle out, it literally skipped over broken waves no matter what size, and with a healthy dose of volume in the tail even when pushed hard on steep breaking waves it refused to back loop.
When taking off it was quick and easy to paddle in and quickly took off even on smaller inside waves. Once on a wave it would do anything you wanted with barely any effort needed. If you wanted to cruise down the line, just climbing and falling down the face, then just point it and go, hardly needing a paddle stroke. If you wanted to make some cut backs, push it into a few lips or cut loose with a tail slash then you just had to put a bit more aggression into it.
But at the same time when you needed that bit of forgivingness, when things went a little pear shaped then it was there. Several times I got caught high on a wave as it finally broke, thinking oh no, the ski just broke away, skidded down the wave and then put me back in control.

I want one now!

Well all in all, I can't fault it. It did everything I wanted as and when I wanted it. It was cruisey when I wanted a casual wave, it ripped when I wanted to push it a bit more, it paddled out easily through all conditions.
I have seen the light and it IS Ski shaped. Forget surf boards and surf boats, this is it, this is all you need.