He has been riding strapless now for 4 years in some great spots around the world, Ponta Preta Cabo Verde, Whitesands and Big Bay Cape Town South Africa, Encuentro Dominican Republic,Guincho Portugal but his homespot is Tynemouth Longsands.
Here is his review of the new board:
The 2012 Prisma is very different to the 2011 model, not to say that the 2011 wasn't a sweet board, I loved it and had some really memorable waves with it. What the guys at Xenon have done is taken a sick board and made it even better. I tested the Prisma at the famous spot of Guincho Portugal in some challenging conditions, cross on from the right 20knots wind with double over head dumpers coming in and it did not let me down.
Let's start with the over all shape of the board. The rails have been made much more sharper than the 2011 Prisma, enabling you to make really tight turns at high speeds with out loosing your edge. you can come off the bottom of the wave with so much speed and you know it's not going to skip out and leave you face down with a wave crashing on your head.
They have kept the width of the board the same as the 2011 Prisma [19 inches wide], which I love. This makes the board so stable under your feet when you pop strapless airs and turn it into the wind. This is due to the greater surface area that the wind has to hit and push the board onto your feet. A lot of boards that I have ridden that are thinner in width than this, are really twitchy in the air and the slightest movement of your feet and they are gone.
They have made the depth of the board a lot thinner this year, in doing this the board is lighter but with out compromising the strength of it, this is due to a different construction method. This hasn’t affected how the board gets up and planing, which I was surprised about. I am a little heavier than usual at the moment and I still found it really easy to get up and riding, so no danger there. Bigger guys and girls should maybe think about the 6.0 model depending on what type of wind and size of waves you like to ride in.
The tail is the same as the 2011, being a swallow it's really snappy and you can throw it around supper easy.
Again they have stayed with the quad set up, awesome, love it. You can recover from way more critical situations than you would be able to on a thruster.Also this gives you allot more up wind potential and controle at high speeds.
They have changed the material the fins are made of,making them way tougher and durable,the fins also have a really nice springy flex to them giving you that extra bit of power to smack the lip with.
And finally the graphics are really slik,they have gone with the real wood top deck and black tail with an all white bottom.Keep it simple is the best am not into a these fancy colours on boards but that's just me.
All in all it's an amazing ride and I do not have a bad thing to say about it. I can not wait to get out again on it.
Jonathan Slater
CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE XENON PRISMA 2012