2xs are now the official UK distributor and a stockist for Galaxy of New Generations (GONG) stand up paddle boarding kit.

As you may have noticed I have been intrigued by these boards, as the company is European and produces a really large range of 17 different boards (as well as a recently introduced childs board) from the website it appears that they will even do you a custom board if you require it. The boards come in three different finishes at three different price points. The cheapest finish is called proteck and is an epoxy sandwich construction, the mid-range is called highteck and is a more advanced epoxy sandwich (which lowers the weight and makes the boards stiffer) and at the top end is carbonteck which is 100% carbon on the sandwich, making the boards alot lighter and very stiff.

This weekend we hit the beach at West Wittering and Simon from 2xs let me try out one of the 12ft boards made using the highteck finish, I will put a full review together later, but here are my quick views.

Its light, really light,  much lighter than my C4 10′ 6 or my Jimmy Lweis 11ft.  It took me a while to get used to it because it was so much longer than I normally surf, but once I got the hang I loved it.  The deck grip that comes with the board is lush and comfortable under your feet, I found that it surfed better in slightly bigger waves (2ft plus), its easy to turn and very easy to get to the nose on.  I managed to spin the fin out doing this and it felt really good, a bigger fin might solve that problem, but I quite like spinning out on a wave, with a bit of practice I might be able to pull off some 360’s.  Well I can dream.

Neal Gent was also out on his brand new 9ft 11 GONG board, which was going really well, it looked really loose and I think Neal is pleased with his new toy !  I hope to get out on some more of these boards (well I am actually going to put my money where my mouth is and buy one I was so impressed), so expect to hear more about GONG SUP.