What's New At Boardshop Spring 2019

It’s been a roller coaster of a month in surf terms, perfect at times, howling gales for days on end and now small clean waves bathed in Spring sun shine.

As always we’ll start off this month’s review by having a look at what everyone here has been surfing.

• Squeak AKA Matt has so far this month surfed his new secret weapon, a one off Mark Phipps Twinny designed just for him by the man himself. He’s also been playing around on the new Softech Mason Ho model on the big chunky windy days, apparently it’s the business.
• Clive has been pushing the limits on a Lib Tech Pick Up Stick and on his custom Yo.
• Roger as always has an array of new boards to try, most notably a new take on the One Bad Egg which remains top secret for now – all will be revealed soon. He’s also got a Christiaan Bradley One model as surfed by Leo and Jesse Mendes in the Oz contests this month.
• Ian has surfed the brand spanking new Evil Twin from Matt Biolos, after a bit of playing around with the fin set up he’s loving it.

Exciting new boards and other stuff

Channel Islands Fish

In coloured PU and the excellent Spinetek construction this board is going to kill it this summer.

The shape is that perfect balance of paddle power, glide and performance. In waves from around thigh to a little overhead it’s a huge amount of fun.

Whack in a set of keel fins and its fast and drivey but unlike a lot of retro fish shapes it feels like it wants to turn, when you get it rocking is fast and smooth and full of performance.

The Spinetek construction has been a real revelation, after the previous and best now forgotten epoxy range from CI Spinetek really hits the mark in terms of longevity and performance, we are firm fans.

See the full range of Channel Islands Fish surfboards here

Lib Tech

The 2019 range dropped this month and with two new models this brand goes from strength to strength.

The new Lost colab model is the Puddle Jumper HP, a real coup for Lib Tech in that it was one of the best selling Lost boards of 2018 and struck a real chord with intermediate everyday surfers around the world.

This model gives the performance you want in a board but with the DNA of the original Puddle Jumper model and all its exceptional wave catching ability and speed.

The second new model is the Funnelator, a shape created by Lib Tech themselves – what we can say is that it surfs better than it looks!

It's really fast, we mean really really fast in all conditions. If you demo this board and surf in standard UK conditions you would undoubtedly buy one.

The rest of the range is as it was for 2018, the exepcetional stand outs for us being the original Puddle Jumper, Puddle Fish and the Pickup Stick.

Environmentally aware and tough as you like whilst surfing better than ever, these boards make a lost of sens for a lot of people.

Lost Evil Twin

One of the most anticipated boards of the year so far, and looks wise as well as surf wise it doesn’t disappoint.

This freakish take on a twinny x fish x who knows what id a heap of fun to surf and with this fin set up its like owning 5 boards in one.

We’ve tried the Lost Evil Twin with every conceivable set up, if you look online you’ll see a lot of people surfing it with standard side and a small trailer style fin in the fin box – as yet Futures fins haven’t sent us stock of the specific fin that is meant to be used with this set up but we have improvised (with a hacksaw) to replicate as best we could.

Having ridden the beast it feels like going with a bit more volume than you normally ride in a shortboard is the way to go, especially if you intend to ride it as a single fin.

The video review will be online very soon!

Dakine Friendly Foam

Hot on the heels (well kind of) the Slater pads come these fully bio degradable pads from Dakine including the John John Florence signature line.

Working in partnership with EcoLogic®, Dakine has developed Friendly Foam; EVA traction with EcoOne® additives to accelerate biodegradation.

It’s really good news to see a brand like Dakine taking this seriously – we all know that making surfboards and surfing is pretty harming for the longterm wellbeing of planet earth so doing little things like putting a bio degradable pad on your board goes a little way to getting the balance back.

We’re not kidding ourselves that this is an amazing development but it is at least a start that every company should be considering.

FCS Neo Glass fins make over!

New colour ways in the most popular fin range on the planet.

The Performer, Reactor, Carver and Accelerator get a 2019 make over and they look good for it too.

The Neo Glass fin range suits most surfers really well, especially average/intermediate guys surfing average waves.

These FCS II fins give a more springy feel to your surfing, the increased flex springs back and importantly if you push too hard the fins generally don’t stall like a much stiffer carbon fin would.

The Performer is the single best selling fin we do with the Reactor template a close second.

The Carver is hot on its heels and the Accelerator is preferred for better days (or someone that wants a red fin!!)

The O’Neill wetsuits Hyperfreak range

Well here it is, our best selling 4/3mm and 3/2mm wetsuit for anyone who is passionate about their surfing.

These suits are pound or pound the best suits on the market, the are super comfortable, ridiculously flexible, warm and really do feel like a second skin.

O’Neill have nailed it with these suits, there is very little resistance when you’re paddling so you don’t get knackered anywhere near as fast as when wearing a heavier or less flexible suit.

O’Neill are innovators in the wetsuit world, not on gimmicks though, on stuff that actually works, Technobutter neoprene may sound stupid but it really is so flexible without getting thined down to 0.5mm when you’re paddling like some neoprenes do.

Attention to detail is king here.

Had the first outing in a 4/3mm one of these yesterday after months in a hooded 5mm suit and it felt sooo good.

There is an option for everyone from zipless to chest zip and the Hyperfreak comes in a decent range of colours too.

They are not the cheapest wetsuits in the world but after your surfboard its the most important bit of kit you’ll invest in so save up for a bit longer and get a Hyperfreak.

Euroglass Factory Visit

The first week of April saw "Squeak" or Matt as some people call him, head down to the South West of France to meet with the team at Euroglass.

These are the wonderful people responsible for housing Christiaan Bradley, Mark Phipps and Phil Grace.

Walking the lower floor of the factory, you just see trophy and winning heat jerseys from Kelly Slater, back from the days when Christiaan was his chief shaper at CI.

You also get a view of old Jeremy Flores boards, shaped by Mark Phipps.

It is hard to ignore the large prints of the shapers and Euroglass manager charging big waves.

These boys are serious surfers, and this is where the success comes from.

Going up a level to the shaping bays, you find the three master craftsmen hard at work, hand finishing all the boards they ship out, over seeing the shaping machine to make sure the boards are perfect and refining and perfecting the boards you lot purchase!

You can feel the pride and passion that all the shapers put in every board and it's obvious that the reason the boards work so well, comes from this drive in the shapers.

After spending the morning touring the factory, this just left Matt and the boys to head to the beach to surf.

Luckily the conditions where perfect to get some board testing done and to have a lot of fun.

Head high beach breaks with no one other than the 5 of them.

New boards from Bradley and Phipps are being fine tuned now and will be landing on the shores very soon!

Custom Of The Month: FORM Flow Stik Pro

The industrial look chosen for the board looked incredible with the cut lap rails being a darker grey and the art work really showing off the channels that make this board the wonder it is.

We worked with the custom, Alan Stokes himself and the main shaper and FORM to nail the sizing of the board and the custom single handily choose a perfect spray job!

Check this beauty out!

The Boardshop Round Up

This is such a joyful time of year with sunny days and cleaner but still cold swells we all love it. There has never been better kit to help you get the most out of your surfing, as always we’re on hand to answer any questions you might have so drop us a line at info@boardshop.co.uk or alternatively call us on 01243 674250 and we'll be happy to help.

Happy Spring!