Getting Jones to give us a shuttle run to the top wasn't to hard and we'd all got changed in the warmth of his place so it wasn't until we were heading down the various flights of stairs that we realized just how freezing it was. Never mind we had a super new toy to play in and the fact that the road gritting lorries were out, meaning the temperature was only going to drop, did not stop our enthusiasm.
Getting on was a bit hard, but our kid helped get the boats down the bank to the waters edge and within no time we headed out into the back eddy. Straight off I missed out on the warm up stage and headed straight for the end swapping. 1, 2, 3 7, 8, split, 1, 3 etc - nice ends - let a few role through without the blades and I'm thinking flat magic.
Paddle off and get down to the first set of waves by the riverside hotel. Catch the edge of the shoulder, load the nose, the angle increases and the tail comes through.
Sweet, pull across the face and punch out hard onto the green heading for a sucked up part of the wave slightly upstream. 225 and it's still fast, real fast, uncannily fast. I make the attainment and then carry on past and swing it back with a nice round house.
Carry on down stream, my feet are tight, but then I've been told that chickens have better legs than me. Thing is though, it's like you get in a squirt boat just a firm contact. Instead of the flesh to metal catching your feet on the edge of a footrest kind of pain I'd expected! Elsewhere my ass is comfortable and my legs are pulling well on the aggressive thigh grips, the XR backrest supporting me in whatever position I chose.
Get down above the next rapid, nice rail into the eddy a bit like when you used to be in a Blade or RPM, but a sharper turn. Again fly out of the eddy onto the wave start to plane. I put a backstroke in and sure as the boat spins through 180 me in a stable back surf, I let this go a while before pulling back though to forward. Its nice and loose for sure, definitely looser than anything else I've tried this year.
We move on faster now, feeling the cold. Our kid is starting to hassle me-he wants a go. He's lighter than me, more suited to the size of this model. A few more runs I him. We are at the best play wave on the section and I want to get some more fun. In the hole the hull is stable when I'm down in the pit. I'm sitting pretty high don't feel nervous about the edge. That's a good thing. It's too cold for hyper wipers.
This waves tricky. Spins are easy and you can get some elevation on the ends if you keep high on the pile - I can do all these without to much hassle, but the real hard bit is to try and blunt. The shoulder runs off at an odd angle and although it's not that big it's steep without that much depth. I can't usually manage the move well in my Ina Zone and so don't really bother, but this boat is new so I try. I come out fast again and surf along the lip, leaning back ready for the initiation, I realize the nose is pulling up really well so when I throw my body over the deck and my paddles, the hull just lifts out of the water and fly's around just how it should be. I land on the tail and it drops in and starts to elevate the nose in that perfect kind of way when you know just going to be able carry on cart wheeling and cart wheeling and cart wheeling. Times up, my brother wants a try. We change over and the Ina Zone feels sort of similar but slightly further down the line. I have a few goes and then we paddle off leaving our kid slightly behind as he tries to flat wheel the rest of the way down.
After we get off we start talking. We are both stoked the boat is cool and so was our paddle. Not bad for a 7pm night run after work in the dark.

Here is the spec on the Pro Zone 225:
Overall Length: 7'4"
Width: 2'1"
Volume: 45 gallons
Cockpit Length: 2'6"
Cockpit Width: 1'3"
Weight: 35 lbs

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