Had a blast on the green wave at the Bend Whitewater Park, but boy was it harder than I thought it would be. Coming from ocean surfing and wakesurfing I figured it would be very easy to pick up but was I wrong. The water rushing past you super fast is very disorienting and has the double tendency to pull you off the back of the wave and suck your nose under and pearl.
My main problem though was lack of a 5 or 6 foot leash. All mine are 8 foot or longer for ocean surfing. They also discourage using leashes there because if it catches you'll be held under and drown and that's probably a legit concern with an 8 foot leash but with a short one it's pretty safe I think.
So without a leash you have to chase your board down every time you fall and that means going down 1 or 2 extra rapids, swimming like hell and a 5 minute walk back up. With a leash on you can just swim to the side when you fall dragging your board and be back on the wave in 15 seconds.
By the time I finally got the hang of the wave it was 8:00 PM on the last day in Bend so I surfed it until pretty much pitch dark. Lots of fun ripping on my son's
Wave Bandit 4-10. Really impressed with this board can't wait to try it behind the boat. We beat the crap out of it on the tuber channel though, gotta get the hot glue gun out.