Sage,

I don't see how it can hurt to nab the plans from Nick, knock that dude out and take it out past the lineup. After you wring it out you can have a few of the locals flog it and tell you how it performs against their machines. A bit of input to Nick and you build another with the mods.

As in any prototype product, it's going to take a few iterations to get the thing dialed-in. Even then it'll probably have to be set-up as a boat that works in a specific range of waves and speed potential, much like boards in your quiver.

Still, without seeing the whole hull I can only guess at the correctness of the form.

I grew up in Redondo and have surfed since 1959 but only some of that experience translates to surf yaks.

I say bang one out and go get wet.

Chris