7’2 Surftech Al Merrick Water Hog: 7′2 x 21″ x 2.63″

I usually don’t ride fun boards being that I rather surf a shortboard or longboard but I had heard great things about the Channel Islands Water Hog that I decided to give it a go during a recent south swell. I took the Water Hog to one of the better waves in town, Number 3’s.

The wave at 3’s (or Trees as the locals would say) is like a machine spitting outperfect long peeling rights and decent but shorter lefts. It’s a great wave to ride a small board on but because the regulars all ride longboards, you’re forced to ride a longboard or barely catch any waves. The problem with riding a longboard at 3’s is that when its pumping it’s a really fast wave and quite tough to get turns in on that wave as you’re always trying to outrun the wave which is why I thought it would be a perfect chance to try the fun board out.

The Water Hog features a pretty narrow outline for a funboard and pulled in tail featuring a squash tail. It utilizes Merrick’s own FCS templates in a tri fin setup. It’s pretty thin through out the length of the board and felt like a pretty high performance board…unlike most eggy shaped funboards out there.

I scored a bunch of good rights on the Water Hog and was amazed at its speed and maneuverability. It rode down the line like a shortboard, gripping the big walls of each right at 3’s allowing me to take a high line on the steep face and drive down for incredible speed. The turning ability of this board was extremely good allowing for lip smacks and nice full round house cutbacks into foam bounces.

I managed a few lefts at 3’s and the Water Hog surprised me at how well it rode backhand. I was able to drop into the flats making hard backhand bottoms turns followed by nice carves at the top of the face. This board seemed to ride like a shortboard allowing for the best of both worlds; great paddling and remarkable turning for a board of its size.

This board works extremely well on long peeling waves both big and small. I did take it out to another spot which is a quick right and it didn’t perform as well. The board generates heaps of speed as long as you have enough time to generate speed…it didn’t respond as quickly on a shorter waves probably because of its length (7’2). I would recommend the Water Hog for better surfers looking to get more performance out of a bigger board…I think inexperienced surfers will do better with a larger funboard that offers more forgiveness and paddling ability.

The Water Hog is also featured in a 7’10 x 22″ x 2″ 3/4 model for even more paddling ability.