I have had my 6'5" JS Luke Egan for some time now and going from bigger boards to a typical short board I was a little hesitant. It had been many years since ridding a real short board and I had got used to the drive and ease of slightly longer 'short boards'
Cut to the chase, the board is very squirty through the tail and does not require much power in the wave to get on the plane. I am quite impressed with its small wave speed. The rails and stock fins are really grippy and I have had it in quite solid double overhead waves holding a tight line.
As it is small it does manoeuvre easily snapping back on reos and the like. after a cut back it will still have drive and power.
Its limitations is very weak small waves where mals thrive and that is only because all short boards are likely to be mushed out.
This board goes hand in hand with my fishcuit and the larger firewire series where you have a board for really weak small waves and The JS E for the other 80% of the waves I am surfing.
It has a great sweet spot for the feet and you don't need to move them. The board is 19" wide and therefore on the limit of width for rail to rail riding that does not require feet adjustment. But it really is very light and feels as small as I would need a short board.
Luke Egan is a slightly bigger rider and I think that he does ride the board in the larger sizes, I felt that for me this was a better option in deciding to pick a Luke Egan, rather than using another pro rider model when these guys are riding 5' - 6' versions and then trying to translate that into a 6'5" board - I am not sure that they actually translate. In this case the Luke E is likely to have the performance that Luke put into the board design as they are more around the size that he rides - that's my thesis anyhow.
The only real issue is that you have to wait a fair amount of time for custom boards from JS (as with most larger surf companies) but there's not much you can do about that. Unless you can find one on the shop floor.
Great board
Kitesurfing, the most amazing thing I have found with this board is that riding it unstrapped kitesurfing is really nice, the board is loose and with the extra squirt out of the tail it gets up wind really well and it really loose on the backside
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