Ok - a certain starboard dream-team member (he wishes) who shall remain nameless turned up my local beachy this morning with a bigarst trailer full of new starboard demos and was ever so kind to offer me a ride on whatever I wanted - so long as they were the smallest boards in the trailer (that sux)
The test team: myself (70kg wringing wet) Mr Starboard - AKA Scotty (about 75kg - all muscle) and Boofy (hmmmm - 90ish kg dry) oh and sepirott was there just laughing at us and proceeding to take every damn wave he wanted on the big pearson laird.
Just so you know, my everyday ride is a Starboard 9 x 30 Extremist. The conditions this morning were fairly clean 2ft (ish) and pretty much standard beach break conditions with numerous little sections and a mild but fun shorebreak.
First up I grabbed the pocket rocket, a board that I have been frothing to get on ever since I heard they were releasing it with a thruster setup at last.
First impressions: - nice looking shape, much fatter rails than I was expecting though and also fuller in the nose than I was expecting also.
First paddle out - it is one very very very stable board and I actually immediately felt like the board was too big for me volume wise, even though it was half a foot shorter than my extremist. Nice easy board to punch out through the shorey and although not a fast paddler, was ok for a short, fat board.
Caught maybe 8 or 10 waves on the board and found it a nice, fun board which really didn't do anything wrong, but I reckon it would have been much much better if I was maybe 15kg heavier - then I believe it would have really come alive. I reckon if you were a big dude or someone coming down to their first sub 9' board from say, a 10-11fter then you would really be comfortable on the pocket rocket and fall in love with the board instantly because it really is an easy and comfortable board to surf.
The next board I grabbed was the 8.2 Widepoint. First impression - ugly and fat and small and ugly ( oops covered that point) - I am not gunna like this board at all cos I really don't do to well on small boards and the last widepoint I rode tried to kill me !
Ok - jumped on in the shorey and started to paddle out - sh#t ! didn't fall off paddling out AND I reckon in some ways it was more stable than the pocket rocket - well it had a bit more front to back instability but side to side I reckon was better.
Got out the back DRY and paddled into the first wave - fattish wave so I was paddling my ring off to get on and didn't think I had a chance but the board kinda just catapulted me into the wave at the last second and I was in there and off like the proverbial shower of sh##. Not convinced of anything yet, paddled back out and got a couple more and paddled back past scotty and gave him and approving "yep" and then paddled off with absolutely no intention of giving this one back or wanting to try anything else today.
As a beachbreak board I would have no hesitation in owning this board - I really really liked it. Oh - and its quad only and I hate quads as a rule but it just didnt have any of the shortcomings that a very small quad can have and I really didnt miss the centre fin at all although it would have been smarter for starboard to have put the centre box in as well to give surfers the option of tuning it up to suit them cos very small sups seem to be quite drastically affected by small fin changes.
Anyway enough of my dribble. In short I reckon in all honesty the best starboards I have now ridden (other than my own extremist) would have to be last years 8.5 pro and this little current 8.2 - in beach break conditions at least. I dont know how I'd like them if I had to paddle back half a kilometre after a long point wave, but I don't surf points so I guess its not really an issue, for me at least.
Over the next coupla weeks I hope to try a few more outta the trailer so will let you know if something else catches my interest.
If anyone on the goldy or northern nsw wants to try these boards out pm tryfan and arrange a demo sesh - it's the only chance you will get to try out a good selection of the the new starboard range and I am sure scotty won't mind bringing the boards to you if you get a bit of a crew together and make a morning of it - jeez if you ask nicely I'll even come along 
Had a chance to play with some more of the starby toys this morning. Best part of the day was our cosy bbq breaky turning into a full on starboard takeover of the river when another family of starboard owners turned up and we had about 20 sups to share and demo - what a fantastic morning and everyone had a blast - especially the dozen or so kids who really showed up us oldies on the little boards - thanks so much scotty for bringing the trailer down and letting us loose on the rest of the boards.
The standout board for me today was the carbon 8fter - sooooo stable and a real suprise package for such a tiny board and every bit as easy board to ride as many 9.0+ boards that I have ridden. I also had a bit of a river paddle on the new 7.7 and managed to stay dry (in the river 
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