We frequently receive emails from readers asking about beginner's surfskis, and until recently we haven't been able to reply with the benefit of personal experience...  but in the last couple of weeks I've had the opportunity to paddle some new skis aimed directly at the beginner's end of the market.

(All photos by Rob Mousley, www.surfski.info, unless otherwise indicated)

Naming a surf-ski after a mass executioner from Bolivia might seem a bit weird. Once the Cuban revolution was won he ordered the execution-without-trial of hundreds of prisoners at the La Cabaña Fortress prison in Havana as Castro's "Supreme Prosecutor". But almost everyone who celebrates the freedom fighter seems to have forgotten that.

... So Honcho may as well cash in on Che's famous mugshot-in-a-beret too.

It's not often that a totally new ski from a new manufacturer is released onto the market - but we were lucky enough to lay hands on just such a one in the form of the Oceans Pro ski from Honcho Surfskis. 

Here's what we found.