Boards - Premier's Brother?

I've ridden a 2001 Premier for the past 4 years and really liked the shape. Well, I broke the board and now I'm looking at the 2005 market. I think I'm ready for a change from the old Premier shape but I didn't much care for the new Premier shape. That being said and knowing that I haven't had a chance to demo anything else yet:

What boards would be a similar ride to the old Premier shape? Substance? Absolute? Gonzalez?

Yes, I will demo some boards this summer but I at least wanted to narrow down the field based on what has worked for me in the past.

Thanks!

(Message edited by eubanks01 on March 08, 2005)

The Gonzales is the old Premier mold.

Yeah, I knew the Gonzales board was very similar. I guess I didn't know it was the exact same board.

I guess I would also be open to shapes like the new Murray board which I haven't ridden yet.

I'd definately go with the Absolute. It rides similar, but is a bit faster and has much smoother landings. I ride it finless & it is pretty slow on the water but once on edge it charges withthe best of them. The center spine makes landings extremely soft. It also has a bunch more rocker and really boots you up. The other difference is there is no channels in the midsection so all the tracking is done off the tail. Good luck, try it out you will not be disappointed.

I'd look at the Gonzales and maybe the Lyman board too... I used to ride the Premier (old shape) and went away from it, but tried the Gonzales and remember why I loved the shape before. Really would like to try the Lyman though - it seems like it would be another similar ride to the original Premier...

Another good board to look at is the Substance