Nick

Everyone was wary of the Bushrat; most of 'em hadn’t seen a full flextail, but I’d seen Jed’s work before and knew it was quality, so I thought bugger it, I’m going it first up. Sure enough the board felt beautifully balanced and moved fluidly off the mark, building speed easily down the line and distributing it evenly through turns. Some shapers are backing away from quads these days, but in the Rat’s case the quad and flextail worked perfectly with each other. This thing is stylish, but the opposite of retro; it’s hand cut and it’s innovative.

Tim

My favourite board of the Test. It’s such a fun board! I couldn’t stop smiling while surfing it. It’s such a different board compared with all the others. That tail, you look at it and go “urgh, I’m not sure”, but then you ride it and it hooks you. Vertically it’s not one of the best boards, but it’s got a lot of speed – it feels like riding a high-performance, old-school single-fin, but with way more acceleration. If you put your foot down it’ll go, then it’s happy heading straight into a nice big carve, or a swoopy out on the face cutback, with the odd look-back thrown in. I’d like to give it a go out at Snapper for sure.

Bushrat Surfboards

Jed Done

PH: (02) 6495 9900

WEB: www.bushrat.com

EMAIL: jed@bushrat.com

Jed Done,
Ulladulla, NSW

Jed’s call: “This board was made for Tom Curren. Tom had ridden one of my boards down at Bells this year and he wanted a custom. 191/2” has been my standard wide-point measure, but he wanted 181/2” to fit Santa Barbara waves. I couldn’t quite do it with my normal outlines so I pulled the nose and tail widths in to compensate and it looks like a regular surfboard! I’ve just made one like this for myself as a result. I’m really liking the quad right now – I should bring it back to three fins to test (the outline), but the quad seems to be working. The fin flare is designed to help swing the board off the top a bit, as it seemed to need a little bit of encouragement. There’s a small twist on the back fin too.”