I feel like my longboards and fishes are some of the best riding boards you will find anywhere on the planet. Even thou my shortboards ride as good as any boards out there I am working on making them even better.
With the help of pro team riders David Aubrey, Brian Hewitson and rising star Lee Roth and others I am making changes in some of my better designs. They’re feedback is critical in keeping these shapes current, fresh and really on the cutting edge of performance. We are trying new shapes with these riders as well working on hybrid designs that literally kill it even on some of our weaker days.
Right now thou I am focusing on outlines, tail designs, rocker, concaves, rail graphs and thickness flows in my short boards.
Here are some positive tweaks in just two of these designs in the last week.
The 3X PRO is the go to board for high perfomance in a shortboard. This is really reserved for the surfer who is in really good shape and wants to push his surfing to the next level. They have lighter glass jobs 4/4 and a four bottom. So they are not going to last forever. Be prepared for more flex and snap in your turns as a result. This is the trade off for strength you get Pro level performance. This design due to feedback is tweaked by making the rails more forgiving for landing big airs and pulling out reverses with no hang ups. The sections that require more edge are still sharp and crisp. The bottom has been dialed up another notch by increasing the depth and contour of the double concaves in the last third of the board. This will help keep your speed up even thou the tail has a really exciting curve and increase in tail rocker for super vertical snaps and tail kicking snaps off the top. The tail outline has gone away from a square squash to a more rounded squash outline for flow into and out of turns and good tube riding ability. These boards will be noted with a plus symbol behind the 3XPRO writing on the bottom of the board. Ride these in our better surf waist high or bigger.
The “Super Fly” is a great all around design with a wider template design in tail and nose to give you more speed over slow sections and to create speed no matter what section of the wave your on. It features a slightly rounded squash that is good for coming square off the bottom and still give you good gliding characteristics across flatter sections and keep your speed up in round house cutbacks. Borrowing from some of my advances in the 3x pro I have recently added more rocker in the tail sections and increased the double concave in the tail. This should help the board go more vertical off the bottom and allow you to do more instant snaps off the top or any part of the wave. Balancing the trade off in flat driving speed with the increase in the double concaves to maintain this models great speed. Ride these boards in any surf from knee high to overhead.
I think it is important to remember that our area demands that boards go really fast regardless of the conditions. I want all my boards to feel like your riding on ball bearings and literally “fly” you down the line. This tweak will be noted by the plus symbol behind the “superfly” notation on the bottom of these shapes. Check them out as they will be available in middle October in our store and select dealers around the State.
The Neilson team riders are giving me really good feedback and with their help you will be able to get some of the most insane state of the art boards you will find anywhere on the planet right here, right now!
Happy Surfing, Tom
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Cafe Surfinista
Saturday morning surf report. Looks really fun, glassy and offshore behind the shop this morning. Knee to waist high with some bigger sets coming through. Grab your fish or your longboard and get on it. (This featured board is a 5′8 x 21 x 2.75 single wing round pin with fcs pc 3’s composite fins). 