Review: Hydrus Blisscuit 5′
Summary: The Hydrus Blisscuit 5′ is an excellent small wave/hole river surfboard that can handle shallow conditions. Continue reading for the full review…
While I love to surf perfect, green waves in deep, large rivers, most often I find myself surfing small, foamy holes in shallow rivers and creeks. For these less than ideal conditions, I prefer to surf a durable board with just enough volume to easily stay on these small waves/holes, but not so much that it feels like a slow to turn barge of a board.
The Hydrus Blisscuit is a good balance of these attributes. The high volume built into the 3.5 inch thick board allows it to catch foamy holes and small waves. Once surfing, the Blisscuit is able to make great turns and makes a small wave that looks barely surfable into something fun.
At nearly $1000, the Blisscuit is the most expensive river surfboard in my quiver (not including SUPs). The price is steep, but the durable Hydrus construction I believe makes up for it. My Hydrus Scud took tons of rock hits over several years, and never got a single ding. The high durability pairs perfectly with a board designed for surfing small waves that are often found on shallow rivers.
While I found that the Blisscuit could surf large waves like Glenwood and adjustable shortboard features like RRP, it’s not ideal. On large waves the Blisscuit felt too slow. On adjustable shortboard waves the high volume is not needed and caused the board to make sluggish turns compared to lower volume boards.
The Blisscuit feels like it would work well for any skill level of river surfer. It has enough volume for most beginners to learn on. It’s also a great small wave or shallow water board for experts who want to avoid dings.
The couple issues I had with the Blisscuit were around the traction. The high volume nature of the board makes it difficult to sink the tail and harder to engage the rails. I would have preferred the kick pad to be positioned as far back as possible. This would allow me to get maximum weight over the tail for making hard turns while engaging the rails.
The other issue I had with the Blisscuit was holding the board while jumping onto my belly to catch a wave. Holding onto the rails of this thick board is pretty difficult. Because of the full length drop rails, the deck padding doesn’t extend all the way to the rails where my thumbs could reach. I ended up adding extra strips of deck pad to help with gripping the board.
Similar boards to the Blisscuit that you might consider are the Badfish SK8 and the inflatable Badfish Wavo. If you’re an intermediate or better river surfer and don’t plan on surfing shallow waves, worrying about dings and want more performance, then the Badfish SK8 is worth looking at. If you want a higher volume board that can surf even smaller waves/holes or if you’re looking for an even easier board to learn on, then the Badfish Wavo should be a consideration.
I definitely enjoyed the Hydrus Blisscuit and will be keeping it in my quiver for low water surfing during the early and late part of the river surf season. If you’re looking for a durable, high volume, river surfboard for surfing holes and less than ideal waves, I’d recommend the Blissuit.