Kayaks that surf well tend to be on the shorter side (less bow to bury in the trough before the wave), have a lot of rocker and some component of hard chine to facilitate carved turns. Nick's petrel has a rounded cross section foreward transitioning into a hard chine aft. Surfing a kayak is a learned skill, but if you have a reliable roll the process can be fun. In general, steep wind chop is not as easy to surf as a nice rolling swell.

I used to paddle a boat with a fixed skeg and a wide shallow mid-hull with no defined keel. It tracked like a train until the stern was lifted out of the water by a wave, then it would immediately broach... In the end, no one design will be good for all conditions.

: I must qualify this by saying I live inland and surfing here is 2' waves so
: not what most would consider 'surfing' but fun none the less.

: Today I wanted to try Curlew in some big water and see how she performed.
: Very well pleased, but I after a while I had to return and riding some of
: those waves back I found the boat wanted to turn on the face of the waves
: and broach on me. have very little experince at this so I have no skills
: to speak of. But is this normal for most boats? Obviously some boats surf
: better than others and that's not a requirement here, but I was
: disappointed in that aspect of the boat. Especially when it finally dumped
: me. Of course it could be all my fault too.

: Surfing is not a requirement here but I would like to know how to improve the
: design so that it would behave better.