I got a bargain 2nd hand North Rocket Fish a few weeks back and hadn't been able to try it out until yesterday. I've was really keen to get into kite 'surfing' a while back seeing as I've been surfing for years and thought it might be something I'd get the hang off pretty quickly. I had bought an Airush Converse 6ft 2" which I hoped to use for both surfing and kitesurfing. As a normal surf board, it was just too thin compared to my day to day fish so I found it difficult to paddle into the mushy stuff that's all too common in the North East. With a kite, I found the board too large, I really struggled to hold it in the chop at speed (since found out from Roly I shouldn't have had my foot in the back foot strap but just in front, apparently makes a big difference, Roly loves he's)

Anyway, the Converse was sold and I gave serious kite 'surfing' a miss until now when I found the cheap Rocket Fish. Went out on it at Blyth and it with the 11m Waroo and it was awesome. You will need to be quite powered to get the 5ft going (not disimiliar to a twin tip) but being shorter, I immediately felt much more at home. I didn't attempt gybing but found cruising around toeside to be easy in the flat stuff, and was slowly getting use to getting over the waves toeside although I'll need a lot more practise. The directly onshore wind didn't help with wave riding but on the odd occassion it was all lined up it was amazing, very close the real sensation although I did need a small amount of kite power to stay on it.

Anyone got any tips on getting over waves toeside on a surf style board (or twin tip). I found, with the large surface area of the rocket fish that when I went over, the wave would run over the front and causing me to stall and perform a great face plant. Guess I've got to learn back more but find that hard toeside.

Recommend it to anyone with an interest in wave riding. Not too difficult to get use to and a ton of fun . I just need a ton more practise at it but looking forward to trying.