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Lost Black Dart Surfboard Review

For as long as shapers have been casting their eyes along the smooth lines of a surfboard’s rail, trends in board design and their manufacture have ebbed and flowed like an incoming tide. Yet whilst subtleties have remained fashionable for a few surfing seasons, more often than not the latest ‘must have’ features have faded into insignificance before you’ve even had time to settle the final payment on your new chunk of fibreglass.

Epoxy boards crashed and clattered their way into the mainstream, noisily announcing their arrival to the lineup, yet failing to change the world quite as radically as the hype suggested. All of which leads us to believe we’ll be happily riding polyurethane boards until the end of time. Although perhaps not.

Because in deepest Florida a new way is emerging. Drew Bagget of Inspired Surfboards has teamed up with the souls at Lost Surfboards to trademark an entirely unique method of shaping. A technique has developed that involves layering boards with a custom weave of carbon fibre. They’ve called it BlackDart Technology.

Starting with a virgin, stringerless core, the BlackDart process begins by carefully placing the carbon fibres to ensure they run ‘unidirectionally’ throughout the length of the blank. At the same time a blend of S-glass hybrid fibres intricately travel from rail-to-rail. And it’s this attention to detail that ensures the carbon weave is more forgiving, and almost unbelievably, even stronger than boards that are produced using the traditional bidirectional carbon fibre fabrics.

Most impressively it also means that the perceived stiffness often attributed to non PU boards ceases to be an issue. The ‘shaping’ process is completed by wrapping carbon/S-glass around the rails and adding a double layer of 4oz cloth to the underside of the board.

The end product is a surfboard that is part technological genius, part innovation in design, and part work of art. Not only do these boards smash the frontiers of surfboard design, they manage to look as brutish as they do beautiful. There’s always been something special about the fresh gleaming white surface of a new fiberglass deck waiting to be waxed for the first time, something that epoxy boards have never managed to rival.

Yet the BlackDart layers of carbon fibre seem to raise the bar in terms of desirability. The boards share more than a passing resemblance to the sleekest hulls of the ultra-modern sailing crafts that whip their way through the world’s deepest oceans. Even on dry land, a Black Dart board looks fast.

A quality in the water which it infinitely lives up too. One wave on this latest carbon fibre tech will leave all other boards in your quiver feeling bogged down. The burst of speed from take-off is as unique as the method of fabrication. The extra speed buys you time onthe wave.

You arrive early for a turn and are afforded a crucial extra few milliseconds to perfectly set the rail for the optimum arc. Charging down the line is effortless, and previously unmakeable sections become possible. It’s not too bold a claim to say that you will surf better on a BlackDart sled.

Add this to the fact that these boards are stronger, will last longer and almost indefinitely retain their ‘out of the box’ freshness, and you’d be hard pushed to find a reason to opt for conventional PU construction.To ensure maximum accessibility to the technology, Lost have worked hard to develop a range of boards to suit all styles and abilities of surfer.

 

Lost Black Dart Short Round

This BlackDart model bridges the void between your regular easy riding hybrid and your conventional high performance shortboard. Carrying a little extra volume through the nose, it will take off on the smallest of waves, or catapult you into the bigger sets earlier.

Pulled in tighter towards the tail the Short Round loses nothing in maneuverability, and with its FCS II 5 fin setup, caters for any particular preference of fins. This board would ride nicely as a traditionally glassed piece of kit, with its unidirectional carbon weave, it’s on a whole different level.

Lost Black Dart Short Round Surfboard

Sizes Available:

 Length (Feet)   Width (Inches)   Thickness (Inches)   Volume (Litres) 
5'3 18.50" 2.18" 24.00
5'5 18.75" 2.25" 25.95
5'7 19.25" 2.32" 28.20
5'9 19.75" 2.38" 30.70
5'11 20.25" 2.5" 34.00
6'0 20.50" 2.56" 35.60

 

Lost Black Dart V3 Rocket

The clue to this board’s party piece is in the name. The V3 Rocket is designed with one thing in mind: speed. Carrying less volume towards the nose of the board than the Black Dart Short Round, what this board sacrifices in volume, it more than makes up for in straight line speed.

Set the rail, hold your line, and you’ll be thundering down the face of any wave that takes your fancy. The double wing rocket tail ensures you’ll stay as deep in the pocket as the wave will allow, but bust the fins free and you’ll find the board happy to swing and pivot. A supreme high performance hybrid board that is suitable for surfers of just about any ability.

Lost Black Dart V3 Rocket Surfboard

Sizes Available:

 Length (Feet)   Width (Inches)   Thickness (Inches)   Volume (Litres) 
5'3 18.5" 2.13" 23.3
5'5 19.00" 2.25" 25.86
5'7 19.38" 2.32" 27.90
5'9 19.75" 2.38" 30.00
6'1 20.38" 2.63" 36.20

 

 

Lost Black Dart Puddle Jumper RP

Designed to allow the rider to have the maximum amount of fun in the water, the Lost Black Dart Puddle Jumper means very few waves will pass unridden. The wider and thicker dimensions make these boards the most buoyant in Lost’s current carbon fibre range, and as a result they will take off on the smallest hint of a wave.

Whilst the Puddle Jumper might have the ability to take off like a 9-foot log, the squash tail means that it performs at a different end of the spectrum to a longboard, handling more like a performance shortboard, you’ll find the Puddle Jumper offers plenty of scope for chucking around fast punchy waves.

Lost Black Dart Puddle Jumper RP Surfboard

Sizes Available:

 Length (Feet)   Width (Inches)   Thickness (Inches)   Volume (Litres) 
5'0 19.00" 2.25" 23.65
5'1 19.25" 2.25" 24.5
5'2 19.5" 2.28" 25.50
5'3 19.75" 2.32" 26.8
5'4 20.00" 2.32" 27.50
5'5 20.25" 2.35" 28.75
5'6 20.5" 2.40" 30.0
5'7 20.75" 2.45" 31.5
5'8 21.00" 2.50" 33.0
5'9 21.25" 2.56" 34.50
5'10 21.50" 2.63" 36.5
5'11 21.75" 2.70" 38.65
6'0 22.00" 2.75" 40.25
6'1 22.13" 2.75" 41
6'2 22.25" 2.82" 42.75
6'3 22.50" 2.88" 45.75
6'6 22.50" 2.88" 47.35
6'8 23.00" 3.00" 51.00

 

Lost Black Dart Bean Bag

One of the benefits of using a Carbon Fibre finish is the ability to go much shorter than when using a more conventional material. In its shortest form the Lost Black Dart Bean Bag is available as a 5’3”. It’s the ultimate small wave toy. Designed to provide the rider with the maximum surface area for lift and stability, this board will guarantee you waves, regardless
of the conditions.

Days when it previously wouldn’t have been worth entering the water become fewer, on the Bean Bag, there’s always fun to be had.

Lost Black Dart Bean Bag Surfboard

Sizes Available:

 Length (Feet)   Width (Inches)   Thickness (Inches)   Volume (Litres) 
5'3 21.25" 2.5" 33.40"
5'5 21.75" 2.56" 36.16"
5'7 22.25" 2.63" 39.11"
5'9 22.75" 2.75" 42.66"

 

 

Why buy a Lost Black Dart surfboard?

The Lost Black Dart is the most exciting tech to hit surfboard construction in years.

That's right, just when we thought surfboards couldn't get any better looking, Lost have worked with Drew Bagget of Inspired surfboards to tweak, fine-tune and subsequently licence his awesome looking and performing tech.

View the full range of Lost Black Dart surfboards at Boardshop, if you need any more info, advice on sizing get in touch on info@boardshop.co.uk or call us on 0044 (0)1243 674250 .