Firewire FST Chubby Chedda

The Firewire FST Chubby Chedda. Designed by Luke Short, the Chubby Chedda is a fine tuned version of the original Chubby Checker, a favorite of many a pro, including Julian Wilson when he's free surfing or pushing the bubble in expression sessions.

Luke gave it a little more width while adding a subtle hip behind the front fins, breaking them out early and creating more whip in the turns. The concaves are also a little deeper, creating more 'get up and go', and the tail rocker has been slightly increased for the perfect blend of speed and responsiveness.

The Chubby Chedda is best described as a 'performance-hybrid', and should be ridden at least two inches shorter than your regular performance short board. Designed to perform on the smaller days and if push comes to shove, the Chubby Chedda can hold its own in overhead surf as well.

The rapid response flex memory in the Future Shapes Technology used in these boards yields great speed through the turns whilst the parabolic rail configuration guarantees 100% return memory for years.

Firewire surfboards feature some very distinct construction traits that set them aside form other boards currently available:

1) parabolic balsa rails
2) dual density EPS and advanced composite core

The parabolic balsa rails flex at the start of a turn storing energy and rebound through the turn releasing built up energy in the form of speed. The spring back of the parabolic rails to the original rocker triggers rapid acceleration, like an arrow shot from a bow. The construction materials, a unique formulation of hi-tech epoxy resins and advanced composites mean that these boards maintain the lively feel you get with brand new polyurethane boards, but are up to 20% lighter and will last 5+ times longer.

This manufacturing process has won environmental awards and has created a range of lightweight and durable custom boards that are quickly being recognised for their awesome performance, just ask Taj Burrow!

What this all means for surfers is a step forward in the age old trade off of performance versus durability that has traditionally limited polyurethane boards. The nature of the core technology in these boards allows them to rebound in and out of turns with little loss of speed. The secret to improved surfing is maintaining and using this speed to go higher, bigger, longer or whatever does it for you!