Do you see a selling point compared to the dozens of other identical shapes on the market?

News shared by Chas today that Kelly Slater has released a new board under his Slater Design label. This time collaborating with shaper Mark Woo. A performance twin.

Online purchases available just in time for Black Friday.

The hook?

This one mimics the outline of a Great White shark. Kelly Slater’s not the first to turn to nature for surfboard design. Greenough’s original revolutionary fin templates were of course copied from the dorsal of a tuna fish. While the Meyerhoffer was modeled off a merman’s dick.*

I find the performance twin-fish genre to be a lazy reach. Forgiving rails, wide point forward and carried through the middle. Refined, pulled in tail to allow responsiveness and tighter arcs in turns. Business at the front and party at the back, as they say. It’s about as ground-breaking as a Toyota saloon.

Every major shaping label offers its own iteration. You could argue Lost built its empire around it.

Lazy reach, maybe.

But, as with a Toyota, fuck it if they don’t work.

Like my latest vehicle of choice. It’s another $50 special from FB Marketplace. An older performance twin. 6’3″ x 19 1/2 x 2 1/2 or thereabouts. Full volume through the front, low rocker, beaked nose. Pulled right in through the tail. A subtle swallow. Fixed twin fins. Upright, toed in.

The thing hooks. I’ve surfed it in everything from weak one-foot point breaks to slabbing four-to-six-foot beachies. Speed, drive, hold, but with the right amount of release when you want it. Usual caveats on your backhand in the pocket. But all in all, worth every dollar I spent on it.

Fun fact: the fiberglass is breaking away around the tail, which cut my knees up everytime I surf it. Sort of like a self-flagellation for riding such a user-friendly shape. I don’t mind.

It’s shaped by Darren Symes, master of the holy SDV trinity. Single concave into double into vee through the tail. He’s responsible for one of the best boards I’ve ever owned, a mid noughties thruster that still holds pride of place in my mum’s back shed. One of those ones I can’t bring myself to throw away, even if I couldn’t ride the thing now.

Will this twinny end up in the same realm?

Probably not. But it’s fun as a fuck on an onshore day out the Point.

Back to Kelly Slater’s board, though.

Man’s certainly not scared to put his name to a product. Fins. Tail pads. Sports drinks. Wave pools. Sandals. Though to be fair, when it comes to boards, he’s usually focusing on high-performance at all costs. Seeing him enter the fish market might be the subtlest of concessions to his legacy. Of course there’s a Slater twist: this one has more nose rocker than your standard twin/fish.

Does it tickle your fancy at all?

Do you see a selling point compared to the dozens of other identical shapes on the market?

For me, it highlights the vacuous model system that underpins the entire board industry. Constantly tweaked iterations of the same three or four designs pumped out year after year. There’s a reason some of the top pros ride the same shape over and over, just with different sticker covering it up. They’re all the same in the end. Especially for us plebs.

My take?

The board looks like it would be fun as fuck too. And a fresh stick off the rack every now and then is alright to see what’s out there, while supporting your local retailer.

But find a design you like then go work with a trusted shaper to dial it in. Think globally, surf locally.

Or just be a povvo and buy them third hand like me.

*yeah ok not really

"It was pretty heavy, and she was going at a very fast pace.”

North Shore locals are furious after a cop on a quad-bike almost took out a couple of little girls playing on the beach a couple of days back. 

Here’s the scene.

Three Honolulu Police Department cops on quad bikes are stymied in their progress by two little girls playing in the middle of the beach. 

Instead of, say, asking the kids to move or taking a different line, the head cop, just…drops it… and flies around the kids, missing ‘em by a couple of feet. 

The former pro turned surf coach Kahea Hart posted the video on his account yesterday.

And, after apologising for the quality of the footage, the filmer freaked out when he thought he was going to see a kid squashed, Hart narrates the vision as it switches to slow-mo: 

“These two little girls are lying on the beach, no clue to what’s behind them…she decides to gun it and comes to within two feet of these children. It was pretty heavy, and she was going at a very fast pace.”

 

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A post shared by Hawaii Surf and Performance (@hawaiisurfandperformance)

Filling in a little background he writes

From what I understand… (the quad-bike patrols) are to prevent those popup influencers parties and holiday drinking on the beach but these patrols are out every weekend in the mornings speeding down the beach. 

Now, if an incident like this happens while on patrol how would these officers perform when there’s an actual emergency or some thing that needs to be addressed.

Like I said in the video, I felt very sorry for this officer clearly out of her element not enough training and experience on the machine or in the sand was done prior to the situation. I would not like her to lose her job, but a lot more time needs to be spent training a lot more time needs to be spent wisely with our taxpayers money. 

If these guys are in a patrol, it needs to be in the late afternoon, and when the sun goes down and the Chronic come out two case the vacant luxury second home along the beach. 

We who LIVE here know that but where is the thinking from the law enforcement and city of Honolulu?

As you might imagine, North Shore locals were unfavourably disposed towards the cops’ behaviour.

Why are they patrolling the beach so intensely? 3 officers needed for monitoring of families hanging out? So much for quiet peaceful time. Go away cops.

Whoever approved this nonsense of law enforcement atvs zooming on the beach should be held accountable. Where is the justification? I’ve seen them going so fast down the beach at crozier that I’ve been scared I’d be run over. Thank you for bringing this issue up. We the people, the law abiding tax payers are not having our money used in a way that is logical or providing safety to us.

Her expression while almost running over these kids is concerning, why the fuck is she smiling?

This is effing nuts! The police have absolutely no place on the beach, especially with our phenomenal lifeguards. During covid at the end of summer, I watched from a beachfront house as two cops, obviously answering a “concerned citizen” report, schlepped in closed shoes and street uniforms all the way out almost to the shoreline in the midday heat at Ke Iki, to issue tickets to a couple. These two had only been there for five minutes and were sitting, looking at the water to assess ocean conditions before getting in. There was not a single other person on the vast beach to “infect”. What a waste of taxpayer money, then and…still?! Fish out of water

Maybe would be better if they was patrolling at night when theives and chronics are on the hunt .. not to much crime during the day time on the beach. kinda just harassing and irritating.

They were also ripping right next to the surfers on Jet Skis this morning. Don’t know why we need police literally in the water with us while we surf.

And so on.

Have you ever had a nice experience with police?

And do you like the idea of cops banging down the beach on four-wheelers in the middle of the day while the thieves and vagabonds sleep in their lairs?