The Stab Caddy: The Dumpster Diver (Mach II)

Don’t it just make the world of difference when the world’s best surfer gets his lips wet for board design. Dane Reynolds. Channel Islands. Now there’s a relationship that yelps awesome.

Dane lives in a white-washed home almost on the same dirt as the CI factory. He even keeps a shaping bay to work in when inspiration strikes. It’s a relationship that goes beyond turning out market-specific models.

Their most enduring creation so far has been the Dumpster Diver, a surfboard fashioned from an EPS blank (for epoxy boards) that was retrieved from the factory’s Dumpster. A board that was tested in Mexico, had the hell refined out of it, then nearly ridden to victory at the 2009 Hurley Pro in a rare moment of competitive synchronicity by Reynolds.

“I’d asked the production guys if they had any EPS blanks around ’cause we needed to get a board shaped ASAP for Dane,” says CI’s Trav Lee. “He knew pretty much what he wanted for his Mex trip so just needed to find a blank, real fast. They mentioned one had been tossed earlier that day but it was really beat up. I grabbed this pitted and yellow blank from the dumpster and we got the board made in time. I remember the first time I saw that slow-mo Phantom footage of Dane doing airs in Mex in the Quik short. That blew my mind. You could literally see the board flexing when he landed his airs in the lip.”

At the time, Dane texted back: “Just flew in. Dumpster Diver is pretty sick but we need to pull in the tail a bit, catchy on cutbacks. Only board I’ve ridden. So good on airs, just catches on rail.”

Four years later, Dane says: “I’d seen quite a few people riding really short, squatty boards like the (Lost) Rocket… and I had boards kinda like that with the Flyer but they were more short-board-y or like the Pod that was more like an old-guy cruiser style board. I wanted something that was high-performance. The first one was pretty raw, like a chunk of foam, with just a little flip in the tail and that straight big blocky square tail. And as I was coming back Trestles was going to start and I was really digging that board down there but I wanted to do some refinements because there’s a stigma of riding a fish in heats. So we made a narrower nose, pulled-in the tail, made it more shortboard looking. That ended up being the one that we now call the Dumpster Diver.

“I’d seen quite a few people riding really short, squatty boards like the (Lost) Rocket… and I had boards kinda like that with the Flyer but they were more short-board-y or like the Pod that was more like an old-guy cruiser style board. I wanted something that was high-performance.” – Dane Reynolds

Dumpster Diver 1: 5’7″x 13 5/8″x 19 1/2″x 15 1/4″x 2 5/16″ – 28 L. Dumpster Diver 2: 5’7″x 13″x 19 1/2″x 15″x 2 5/16″ – 27.8 L.

Travis Lee: We needed this board to look like a shortboard even if it was 5’7” and 19 ½” wide. It was a whole 5/8” narrower in the nose and 1/4″ narrower in the tail with a narrower tail block as well. Both of these were shaped from EPS raw blanks and were glassed with epoxy. The DD1 had Al’s ’98 squash-tail template and the M-TF template for the nose. The DD2 used the Sashimi template for the nose and the Rookie template for the tail.

What was the journey toward each name?
Travis: When doing boards for Dane we find writing some sort of name on the stringer to give the board some character really helps him remember more about which board he rode. When it comes time for us to get feedback this has been key in helping keep things organised versus asking him for a seven-digit board number each time. The Dumpster Diver name came about, as you can guess, from trying to salvage that ratty-eared block of yellow foam from the dumpster out behind the factory. Dane loves that stuff – if we can reuse something rather than throw it away he is that much more pumped. The logo for this board came from Dane scribbling the name in a notebook and us tearing it out and scanning it.

How have the designs changed since the first examples? And what other models were built on their platforms? Travis: If you order a Dumpster Diver it is still an exact scan of Dane’s magic Trestles board at 5’7” – and scaled to your specific dims if you go shorter or longer.

Dane: I still like the original one with the big wide blocky tail. It had more drive. That needed up being the Neck Beard, the original Dumpster Diver, the one we didn’t modify.

What was the signature design element?
Travis: The signature design element for the Dumpster Diver is the “shortboard look” on a small, wide 5’7″ as well as the ability of the board to maintain speed over flat sections and still perform really tight arcs in the pocket.

Tell me something a little crazy about the DD.
Travis: Crazy thing is, literally no one thought he was on a 5’7”. His arcs and rail surfing were sick and those new nose and tail changes eliminated the catchiness on cutbacks. This definitely took away anyone (especially the judges) noticing that he was riding such a wide, short board. That board instantly became a public favourite. It is definitely one of our best selling models to date.