Croyde 1998

From ICCC

The Prijon Alien is a planing-hulled surf playboat. Its most striking (read "ugly") features are its "duck-billed platypus" nose and tail, totally flat hull and very fetching "bum-cheeks" in the deck behind the seat. It looks like the bastard son of a 1970s surf-kayak and a snowboard. It is not for "the larger paddler" so Garth, N*****e and others with fat arses in the club will find it a painfully tight fit. Colin had to push the footrest right to the end of the boat so that he could get in. After only a few minutes he was complaining of numb legs and being "crippled for life".

[1] The Alien

Saunton Sands had 2-3 feet of surf on Saturday. I'd heard about the incredible flat-spins possible in the Alien, but wasn't prepared for how easy or fast they were. Immediately after taking off on the green wave, accelerating across the face away from the shoulder: lift the edge, quick pry, 360 degree spin! I was so surprised not to have dropped off the wave after finishing the spin, that I caught an edge and flipped.

The Alien surfs incredibly, spins with ease (I even managed the odd 720° spin) on the green part of the wave, and capsizes at the drop of a hat. I'm not sure how well it will perform as a playboat, none of us (even Ali, seasoned Vertigo wavewheeler) could manage anything resembling a cartwheel. The drawbacks are that it is very slow, very edgy and not very stiff; the flat hull "ripples" as you plane over the wave face. It is certainly not a boat for the inept, or the faint-hearted. I think it should be left as a toy for surf, Hurley, and maybe Nottingham; as soon as anyone paddles it on a rocky river then the hull will get wrecked and it won't be anywhere near as fun. Just my $0.02.

On Sunday morning, we found messy 4-5 feet waves at Putsborough, with a strong onshore wind. It was high tide, the rocks on the foreshore were in the water and, annoyingly, the usual rip by Putsborough Head wasn't working. Ali was suffering after a heavy night in "The Thatch" and sat in the carpark looking like the Reaper himself. Colin (in a Blade) and I (in the Alien) tried paddling out through the mush.

We both had a thorough kicking. It took 20 minutes of backlooping in the soup before either of us got past the break-line, not helped by the Alien's lack of speed.

On my second foray "out the back" I sat on the water, seemingly miles from the beach, suffering from The Fear. Colin was nowhere to be seen, and there were no other surfers on the water. I waited a while, getting my breath back after the paddle out and looking for a big wave to ride in.

And there it was, a steep green monster. PLF, catch the very top of the wave, drop forwards off the lip, freefall into the trough, ohshiiiiiiit….! 360° spin, regain the shoulder, another 360°, ohmygoditsgoingtobreak, whiteout, the wave re-forms, sprint for the shoulder, 180° spin, the wave breaks again, back-surfing tail-grab for the crowd in the carpark, look over my shoulder, what's that rock doing there? Nowhere to run, whycan'tIgetoffthisbloodywave, bang…

Half a dozen people were waiting on the rocks, having run down from the carpark. "Are your nuts all right, mate?" Yes thanks, they're fine, but the duck-billed platypus has got a dented nose. Luckily it's Prijon plastic and so nothing a kettle-full of hot water won't fix.

I wandered up to the carpark to get my helmet out of the car. Ali was starting to get changed. "That was amazing!", said his girlfriend. "Cheesy rail grab," said Ali. "I'm going to paddle my Kendo for a bit," I generously announced, "fancy paddling the Alien?"

"You can [censored] off," Ali replied, and we left it in the carpark.

(We didn't take it out until later, when the surf had dropped a bit and the tide was far enough out so that the rocks weren't in the water and the rip had started to work).