We took a trip down to Golden on Saturday to check out the Library Hole on Clear Creek. The water was pretty low (70 CFS), probably the lowest that’s still surfable, but we still found the conditions to be plenty fun!

Bodhi Harrison paddling his 6’11” River Surfer

We had a huge quiver to choose from. Between five of us, we had a 6’11” Badfish River Surfer, an 8′ Badfish River Surfer, a 7’6″ Badfish MVP-S, a 7′ Glide Sesh, and a 7’11” Hala Peno. This gave us the ability to swap boards and compare which surfed the wave the best. Here’s some GoPro footage from our session:

The Hala Peno did better than last week at Boulder Creek. It seems that the Peno needs fast enough water to get it planing on top of the water. If the water is too slow, it has a tendency to just get flushed off the wave. On Library Hole the Peno surfed well, but only was able to stay on the wave in one particular place. It didn’t allow for any carving and required quick precise adjustments to keep it surfing.

The Glide Sesh, and both of the Badfish River Surfers faired a bit better. They were able to stay on the wave with less effort than the Peno and allowed for some small turns, but in general were limited to only surfing one part of the wave.

The Badfish MVP-S was the clear winner of the day. The wave wasn’t the cleanest. It had a few ripples and bumps breaking up its face. While other boards struggled with these features, the MVP-S was able to surf right over them. The extreme rocker and forgiving rails smoothed out all the inconsistencies of the wave, making the wave feel much cleaner than it was. It also allowed us to surf the entire wave rather than just one spot.

Richard Harrison ripping on the MVP-S

Overall, it was a great day on the river. It gave us all a good taste of what’s to come this season!

Written by | Benjamin

Benjamin Smith is a land locked surfer living in Colorado. He gets his surfing fix on the local rivers, where he SUP surfs standing waves.