Surfboards Buyers Guide Album Surfboards Back to blog Here at Boardshop we are stoked that we have received our winter shipment of Album Surfboards, fresh from Cali. We have all been drooling over Matt Parker’s stunning boards for years, admiring the dreamy colour combinations he conjures up and are of the view, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! So, when we decided to collab with Album, we decided to order the models and sizes we want and trust Matt to work his magic, making the colours a complete surprise!... You can imagine the excitement at Boardshop HQ when the shipment comes in! Matt Parker is the mastermind behind Album Surfboards, who has been creating innovative surfboards out of San Clemente since 2001. Matt has been working alongside surfers such as Josh Kerr, Asher Pacey and Crosby Colapinto to design a quiver of “alternative shaped” surfboards that will make you wonder why you’ve been only using a “tooth pick” shaped shortboard this whole time! The finish on these boards may be the best we have ever seen with an array of resin tints that will have everyone in the line up asking what are riding. Every board is hand shaped and finished in California and is then shipped directly to us at boardshop We are stoked to be stocking Album surfboards and finally bringing these incredible boards to Europe. Famous for their asymmetrical boards which you may have seen Dane Reynolds surf on Stabs Electric Acid Surfboard Test (if you haven’t go and watch it now!) you would of seen that it is out of this world. Almost every board has a swallow or some crazy tail that makes you wonder if it could ever work, but you only have to watch videos of Josh Kerr and you’ll see that he has never surfed better. If you are after a bespoke custom board, you can order your very own one of a kind board using our Album Boardbuilder and following the steps below:1) Head over to our Album Boardbuilder 2) Select your model. We can currently customise the following models: - Darkness- Fascination Goofy - Fascination Regular- Insanity- Lightbender- Plasmic - Social- Sunstone- Townsend Goofy- Townsend Regular- Twinsman If you are interested in ordering a model that does not appear on the board builder e.g. the Bullet, Disasym, Disorder, Moonstone, Kookalog, Whale Shark or their archived models, we can still order these for you upon request, please contact us for more information. 3) Select your desired length, width and thickness from the drop-down menus. If you are unsure on what dimensions to choose, then feel free to drop us a message or give us a call, we are happy to offer our advice. 4) Select your tail shape, fin set up, fin system (Album only offer Futures) and construction type from the drop-down menus. 5) Simply add this to basket and checkout to pay your £100 deposit and secure your board. 6) We will then email you for further details. This is the exciting part… when you get to confirm more details such as the colour of the board and any artwork. Please note, a single colour resin tint is included in the price, and all boards must have a coloured tint. We require photos of any artwork or more detailed designs, and these must be referenced from Album’s social media posts. We recommend heading over to Album’s Instagram to see some of the stunning customs they have recently created. 7) After you have confirmed the order form looks correct and everything is just how you want it, we will send the order over to the guys in California so that they can get started on creating your dream board. 8) The board is then shipped directly from Cali to Boardshop HQ in the UK where we will check your board before shipping it out to you. So, what are you waiting for?... Get ordering your own custom Album surfboard now. In need of some inspiration? Check out some of the customs we have received so far: Not sure which model to go for? Scroll down to find out what your quiver is missing out on. Sunstone The Album Sunstone is the ultimate twin fin fish for everyday surfing and travelling too. This is the board that every other “Classic Fish” should aim to be. It offers incredible wave catching and paddling ability whilst still producing heaps of performance that is normally lost with most “retro” looking fish boards. This is a staple model in Asher Paceys quiver. He takes it everywhere he travels and surfing it in anything from 2ft slop to lined up overhead sets. The double concave under the back foot combined with substantial vee off the tail give the board a really lively and responsive feel, don't be thinking this is some straight line surfing keel fin fish, it’s got way more to offer than that. Dims: 5ft 0 – 26 Litres 5ft 2 – 29 Litres 5ft 4 – 31 Litres 5ft 6 – 33 Litres 5ft 8 – 35 Litres Lightbender The Lightbender is the sleeker more performance sibling of the Sunstone. Ride this an inch or so longer than the sunstone and with a few more litres than your daily driver and you may never ride a short board again. Designed to break the speed of light as you try to race through barrels or get above and through the lip the lightbender is an extremely versatile and fun board. This is exclusively a twin which features a modern single to double concave too vee out the exit. Asher Pacey grabs this when he wants to step it up a little and see if he can fly. Dims: 5ft 1 – 26 Litres 5ft 3 – 28 Litres 5ft 5 – 30 Litres 5ft 7 – 32 Litres 5ft 9 – 33 Litres Twinsman Take an every-day fish and add more control and smoother directional change and you get the Twinsman a board bordering on genius. It is as close as you can get to skating on a wave. Designed to be loose and responsive. Offering a fuller outline with a winged swallow tail paired with a concave deck and low entry rocker for instant speed! Josh Kerr spent a month in Indo at the end of 2019 and the majority of the footage that came out of that trip was him on the Twinsman, apparently he couldn’t get off it! Ride the Twinsman a couple inches longer than your fish and 1-3 liters more than your traditional shortboard. Dims: 5ft 2 – 24 Litres 5ft 4 – 27 Litres 5ft 6 – 29 Litres 5ft 8 – 32 Litres 5ft 10 – 34 Litres Plasmic The Plasmic is a little pocket rocket. A lot of people may be put off from this because it is smaller than anything else you’ve ever ridden. But this is absolutely incredible! One of the owners here “Roger” has been using midlengths and longboards for the last year, until he got one of these. And now he won’t ride anything else! Originally made to see if they could make sub 5ft that you could rip on, they gave it to Josh and Asher and they could get off them. It features a fishy rocker, twin fin setup and a wild double barrel bonzer style deep channel concave running almost the full length of the bottom of the board. Dims: 5ft 0 – 29 Litres 5ft 2 – 30 Litres 5ft 4 – 33 Litres 5ft 6 – 35 Litres 5ft 8 – 38 Litres Darkness The Album Darkness surfboard is a nimble, mid-length trim machine with a low, fast rocker. This beauty flows and trims like a dream, while still allowing a loose, carvy feel in the pocket. This board will literally catch anything but with the sleek outline it will perform incredibly well when its pumping! If you set it up with a big single fin you can surf more forward with easier glide and trim and smooth flow down the line. If you set it up as a 2 + 1 you can ride the board with your stance farther back and get more drive. If you look at the Darkness outline, you can see it’s probably best suited for trimming and gliding with your weight at about the middle point or possible forward. Dims: 6ft 6 – 42 Litres 6ft 8 – 46 Litres 6ft 10 – 48 Litres 7ft 0 – 51 Litres 7ft 2 – 53 Litres Insanity The Insanity is the only performance style shortboard Josh Kerr uses. Its the most versatile, modern-style performance board in the Album line. Ride it with a twin + stabiliser for the smaller waves or throw in some quad fins if you’re looking to shoot some barrels. The magic is in the low-entry rocker, hidden foam under your chest, beak nose with a little retro sensibility combined with high-performance rails, bottom contour and exit rocker. It’s like you’re cheating. Dims: 5ft 6 – 26 Litres 5ft 8 – 27 Litres 5ft 10 – 30 Litres 6ft 0 – 32 Litres 6ft 2 – 35 Litres The Social A crowd pleaser for sure, well the crowd won’t be pleased when you paddle out on one of these because everyone else is going to get fewer waves! A stubby mid length which looks and feels like a longboard alternative. The Social glides and flows with style but with a quad set up can feel skatey too, a really versatile board. Fin choice is all important with this board, depending on choice it can be more drivey or feel looser the choice is yours. Dims: 6ft 6 – 47.1 litres 6ft 8 – 51.4 litres 6ft 10 – 53.7 litres 7ft 0 – 57.1 litres Soft tops They have released 3 of their favourite models as foamies. These are incredible and perfect for your first surfboard, a grom who wants to catch everything or an avid surfer who wants to get the most amount of fun out of every wave, catch everything you paddle for and not worry about any dings or people dropping in on you. Made from a copolymer foam, inset stringers and our 100% Recyclable! They come with Futures fins and feature a super grippy pad across the length of the deck so do not require any wax allowing you to get in the water straight away. The Presto Surfboard is a fish that comes in at 5ft 7 with over 40 litres of volume perfect for almost any wave you could encounter. The Seaskate a super fun surfboard for a grom or avid shortboarder. finally the Kookapinto a mid length surfboard for everyone to enjoy. All Album boards are made for us and sent directly from California. With this being the case you can custom order your dream surfboard, choosing colour, dimensions and even tail shapes etc.. Head to our board builder to create yours now! if you need anything get us on 0044 (0)1243 674250 or email on info@boardshop.co.uk Back to blog