Double Agent

Double Agent

Firewire finally had a demo day nearby - I've been wanting to try a Sweet Potato ever since I saw Alice ripping on one in little waves at the Rincon Sharing the Stoke contest - so I got down to Mission Beach soon but not soon enough after they set up. Alas, the lone Sweet Potato was already claimed, but the man in the truck (almost) full of surfboards talked me into what he said was a higher performance board in the Potato line: a Double Agent. It was a 5'4" x 21 1/4" x 2 3/8" with a volume of 26.2L, compared to my Spitfire which is 5'4" x 19 1/4" x 2 1/4" and 25.7L.

It was a Firewire riding party off of Belmont Park, with the breaks along the beach clotted with surfers trying out the wares. I started at a less crowded peak near the Wavehouse and caught a fun right with a nice swish back to the peak at the end. Soon the lifeguards shooed us surfers out of the newly-flagged swim zone, pushing the crowd into a tighter clump farther south. Twice I had close calls, nearly running over surfers paddling out as I clutched the unfamiliar board through the whitewater, not daring to pop up immediately lest I lose control and collide.

Sweet Potato

Soon I realized the board wasn't for me; it had too much float so I couldn't duck-dive it, and it reminded me of my fish. Still, I wanted at least one more good ride to top the scraps I'd taken from the crowd since that first wave. I moved even farther south, tried the outside, and the inside, and the outside again, until I finally caught another fun right. It wasn't until I was in the shallows that I noticed the Double Agent was set up as a quad, making this my first time surfing with four fins.

Looking online, it seems the Double Agent may be a cousin to the Sweet Potato but they're surely not sisters. Firewire's Volume Calculator doesn't even suggest that model for me, and the Sweet Potato it recommends is 4'8" x 20" x 2 1/8" with 24.9L volume - another grom board.

I'll have to get to Demo Day earlier next time, or find a Sweet Potato tester board at a local surf shop. Till then, I'll get by with my friends Kat, Nemo and Rocket.