Naish Odysseus feedback?

[dabigkahuna]

Anyone have any experience with this board?  Good first board for a very big guy?  Saw a video posted on the seabreeze forum, looks like it might work for me.  Price is about 40% less than a Starboard Whopper Extra  (6'5", 250 lbs, 58 yrs old, long time surfer)

[dabigkahuna]

I got to take a look at an Odysseus yesterday at a local shop.  Overall, it's not a bad looking board and the dimensions / volume is spot on.  My biggest concern is that "keel" like ridge that follows the centerline of the board's bottom all the way to the nose.  I've been told that the Odysseus is very slow / hard to turn in waves and I suspect that ridge may be the culprit.  My other concern is that these boards, unlike the Mana and others, is made in China, not the Cobra factory in Thailand.  I've had mixed experiences with Chinese made boards.  I took a couple photos in case these might help someone else who is considering this board.