Pukas The Link Surfboard Review

The Pukas The Link surfboard is a colab design from Pukas and Matt Biolos, head honcho of Lost surfboards and the Mayhem surfboard shaping set up.

Lost surfboards for the European market are shaped exclusively at the Olatu factory in the Basque country, Matt Biolos has been coming over to the factory for years and the concept of this board is born of the ‘link’ between Lost surfboards and Pukas surfboards the in house surfboard brand at Olatu. The aim was to create a surfboard shape designed to excel in European conditions, the kind of waves the average surfer surfs on a regular basis.

So what makes The Link such a good board? The Link is a shortboard designed to be fun to surf but with a performance edge. The Link isn’t just a board to cruise on, but a board with proper design features in its rocker and concaves and overall shape and proportion. This style of shorter fatter surfboard has been at the forefront of surfboard design for the last couple of years and both Pukas and Biolos have a great track record in producing boards that are easier to surf than a traditional shortboard and incorporate great wave catching with performance.  Have a look at the Lost Short Round surfboard and the Pukas El Loco and you can see the roots of the The Link. This is a board for a mid level to better surfer to throw around and generally surf more aggressively in a whole range of beach break conditions. The Link gives that surfer a board with a more foam and importantly more front foot drive to make those snaps and gouges a reality.

When Matt Biolos came to visit Boardshop just before Christmas he talked us through the design features of this board in some detail. The nose has been pulled in and more tail rocker added when compared to something like the Short Round this allows the board to be more responsive and fit into faster and more dumpy waves. Alongside the increased rocker, he added a lot more concave from the centre through the fins, the extra concave adds lift which equals speed, and when coupled with rail curve allows for quick radical direction changes.

We’ve sold  a good few Links now and the feedback is terrific, depending on how you want to surf it it’s great in waist to head high less than perfect waves. The slight revelation has been how well it goes in bigger conditions, we have customers who have surfed well overhead Moroccan beach breaks and points and have been surprised at how well it holds in these conditions. It’s not a groveler by design but as a one board quiver there aren’t many boards out there that are better.

You’re going to surf The Link at your normal volume tweaking the length up or down to suit the kind of waves you’re typically going to surf it in. On the fin set up it will work as either a quad or thruster, or even as a quad with a nubster fin for a little extra hold in bigger conditions. We’ve had a 5’ 8” demo and we’ve been surfing it in waist to shoulder high waves with a medium set of FCS II performance core Performer fins, they’ve been perfect, the right combination of drive and release. If you’re planning on heading overseas with The Link have a look at our range of travel surfboard bags, the 10mm Global surfboard bags are sourced exclusively for Boardshop, they are amazing quality at very competitive prices, we haven’t seen anything that can touch them from any of the big boys out there.  

The Link surfboard from Pukas and Lost is just about the best example of a hybrid surfboard that will keep your wave count up but not limit performance or progression.

 Watch Our Review:

Watch a short clip of The Link in action:

 

A video posted by Joan Duru (@joanduru) on Jan 4, 2016 at 3:11am PST

Don’t forget you can order a custom Link through our online custom surfboard service, its available in standard PU or the all new Carbon Wrap technology. Trading in and old board is also an option, all the details are available here. Can it get any better than that, well yes it can, Boardshop is also 0% finance on surfboards, find out more and get yourself a new surfboard with manageable monthly payments.