A much anticipated board - the Pukas Space Oddity from master shaper David Santos has landed. A bit of back story for you, for years Axel Lorentz shaped great boards for Pukas, recently the Pukas factory and Axel went their seperate ways and in doing so retired some of the legendary Pukas models, the 69er in all its iterations amongst them. The Pukas 69er Evo was one of the best selling boards of all time and this new model takes all the good parts of that board and with a couple of little tweaks takes it to a whole new level. A little narrower and a little less thickness resulting in a slightly lower volume, the Space Oddity delivers in the same way the 69er Evo always did.

The Pukas Space Oddity surfboardis that true do it all board, it paddles well, has a forgiving edge and a big wave range, size it right and pretty much anyone can surf this board and enjoy it.

Design wise it has a forward wide point and healthy nose width, this combined with a little extra thickness under the chest gives it great paddle power. The narrower round pin tail delivers excellent control and hold when surfing the board rail to rail. The rails are fairly low and have a performance feel, which makes the board feel lively inspite of the volume packed in. The tail rocker is a little more pronouced than on the 69er Evo to help with turns and steeper take offs. The medium nose rocker works well with the width and hidden volume to give smooth take offs, you can feel the glide when you paddle into the wave. On the base there is a single concave which runs into a double through the fins and V through the tail. Having tried the board in various set ups it works best as a thruster to give the best mix of control and performance in anything from thigh high to overhead waves.

Axel Lorentz and Pukas going their seperate ways is the end of a great era but in David Santos the Pukas brand and all its heritage is in safe hands. The Space Oddity kicks off this new era in a great way, this board is going to dominate for years to come.

You can of course order a customised version of this board choosing your own preferred dims, fin set up and system (check out our 'Custom Board Builder' on the Boardshop home page). All you need to do is pump in the details and pay a £150 deposit with the balance due when we send you the board, average build time is 6-8 weeks. We aim to trial every board we stock so why not give us a ring on (44) 01243 674250 or drop us an email for some 'hands-on' feedback.