What overall width have you got on the board and can you duckdive it?........ 22/23wide and 2 7/8 or 3 thick,yes i can duckdive it.

And if you can duckdive it, is it a proper duckdive or kind of damage limitation? .......proper duckdive

And also if you can duckdive it, are you a fat bastard!?!............no,not yet but working on it.

Do you still attempt to noseride on these boards on solid waves?.........yes,shur ya have to its all part of the fun.nothing like getting on that nose when your high up the wall.

It's fun taking a big drop on a small board, you do get used to it. The secret is plenty of thickness and a good bit of width in the board to help you get in relatively early. I do get launched head first a few times.

My HPL is 9'1" x 3" x 23".

No I cant duck dive it properly, I would be able to get maybe 2ft below the surface which in most cases is not good enough. I can punch it through the face of a wave or pop over white water (8 times out of 10), that combined with a good bit of paddling speed usually see's me out back pretty quickly. I normally get drilled a few times on the inside, but for me thats the trade off for being able to catch waves easily.