The wait is finally over! The Seaglass Project Albacore has finally landed on USA and AUS shores.

Heaps of people have made purchase of this awesome piece of surf equipment and recently Jake Perdana was lucky enough to take one on his recent trip to Bali.

Bali based surf photographer, Nicole Gozzer beautifully captured a few sessions of Jake and the Albacore. We were all blown away by the shots and Tom Wegener was completely stoked to see the board performing almost better than he could have ever perceived.

We caught up with Jake to find out a bit about him and his trip to Bali…

JP: In early August my girlfriend Morgen and I booked our tickets to Bali to break up the Sydney winter, I have been travelling to Bali since I was 18 and I feel a great connection with the place along with every other Aussie surfer. Before I departed I got in contact with my mate Tom Wegener, we chatted, and we both agreed that the Albacore would work really well on the hollow reef breaks of Bali.

I spent two weeks in Bali with the Albacore surfing a bunch of different waves including Bingin and Canggu. Tom organised Nicole Gozzer , a surf photographer in Bali to document a few sessions surfing the Albacore. Flying up to the Bukit Peninsula on my scooter to meet Nicole for the early session was a regular occurrence, the board had a lot of people talking in the line up. Most of the time we had great swell, which I thought was good to test how a board works and its durability.

GSI: What’s your local break at home in Australia?
JP: Morgen and myself reside in a beach shack in the arty suburb of Tamarama [NSW, Australia]. Tamarama is great, we have south and north facing swell options and if you are patient in crowds, you will find some fun waves. If the factors are right then you will find me surfing the most crowded left in the world at South Bondi. The rip in the south end sometimes pushes the sand around, turning it into a really fun left running into the pool. But due to lack of sand movement on the beach, Bondi can’t handle swell over 4 foot. In that case we hit the road south. I have a fairly extensive quiver of boards which makes it possible for me to surf most days .

GSI: How long have i been surfing?
JP: I have been riding waves since I was ten years old on a variety of different surf craft. Lucky for me growing up in Noosa Heads meant that I could surf most of the time after school. I also studied surfing at high school; I learned how to ride a wave on a bodyboard then slowly evolved onto a surfboard ‘you have to crawl before you walk’. Being labelled and esky lidder was pretty funny, but at the end of the day its all surfing. We are all just riding waves and having fun, aren’t we?

GSI: How long have you been riding finless and what Inspired you to ride finless boards?
JP: I started surfing finless boards about 5 years ago. My main inspiration for surfing finless boards came from watching Dave Rastovich surf Alaias on the points at Noosa. I think it all came from Tom Wegener’s trip to Hawaii and the rebirth of the Alaia. When I was a kid I also looked up to surfers such as Chris won and Cavin Yap, they were the pioneers of stand up bodyboarding.

GSI: What are the differences between Albacore and other finless boards you have ridden?
JP: I find a lot of similarities in riding a bodyboard and riding the Albacore. Besides the obvious reasons of them both being made of foam, the Albacore seems to react really nicely in the pocket and produces a great amount of speed on a high line. I spent a few committed years riding the wooden Alaias, I was lucky enough to get a crash coarse with Tom Wegener on how to shape them. The Alaia is not for everyone. On and alia you need patience and you need to be a strong swimmer in order to enter the wave earlier to draw your line. The best thing about the Albacore is the volume, you can get into the wave earlier and because if its subtle rolled rails it is a lot more forgiving. I think one of the biggest differences and best factors about the Albacore is flex. I find the Albacore has the right amount of flex to allow the board to spring though bottom turns and rail slides.

GSI: The photos of your sessions on the Albacore in Bali are amazing. How did it perform on the reef breaks?
JP: The Albacore worked really well on reef breaks but equally well on beach breaks. I was surprised with how much speed I gathered from the take off, which gave me a ‘magic carpet’ feeling around sections and floaters. I also managed to find a bit of shade on a few waves, but due to the rail contours the shockwave felt minimal. Reef breaks and the Albacore are great companions and I can’t wait for the next marriage.

GSI: Were you surprised that a finless board could hold into a steep face and drive bottom turns in the bali waves?
JP:I personally wasn’t surprised at all that the board could hold into steep waves, nor was I surprised that it would bottom turn well. But I can understand why other people would be surprised. On a finless board you are drawing different lines on the wave. Rather than driving your back foot off the bottom, you are setting your rail and sliding down the face. All the restrictions are gone and you are open to more opportunities on the wave. I remember when I was a toddler and my parents took the training wheels off the side of my bike, that’s the best way I can describe finless surfing.

GSI: Had you ridden the Albacore much before your trip to Bali?
JP:Prior to Bali I was surfing the Albacore alot, in a variety of different waves just kinda getting a feel for it. The first session I had on the Albacore was out at Bilgola Wedge [NSW, Australia] about 2 months before the trip. It was a pulsing easterly swell building through the day and no one could wipe the smile off my face. One of those surfs you remember.

GSI: One of the best things about the Albacore it that it can be ridden by everyone – beginners to advanced level surfers. What would be a couple of things people should keep in mind when riding a finless board for the first time?
JP: If you have an open mind and are willing to experiment with what you ride, then the Albacore would be a great addition to your quiver. I don’t consider myself a novice nor a pro, but one thing that has kept me in the water is experimentation. A new board can give you the same rush of your first bottom turn or first barrel ride. Finless surfing is a great way of fine tuning your surfing and feeling more in tune with the wave rather than trying to fight the wave. Be patient and committed when you ride a finless board and you will find yourself improving through every session. Furthermore just have fun! We are not all out there needing a 9.5 to win a final.

GSI: At GSI our mantra is ‘Life is Better When you Surf’ – how does this statement resonate with you?
JP: I believe surfing creates a perfect balance in life. It only takes one good wave to put everything back into perspective.

You can find boards specs, watch videos and view the action shots from Jake’s trip on The Seaglass Project Albacore page of our web site.