Luke Short Breaks Down Noa Deane’s Stab High-Winning Stick

Luke Short’s been making Noa Deane’s boards for a while now, since his departure from Rusty and the arrival of the Volcom Stone on the nose of the tall, girthy, towheaded Australian’s whips. 

During both warm-ups and the main event, Noa looked so comfortable and confident, punting lofty airs throughout the three days on some very refined, robust shortboards shaped by his longtime friend and co-conspirator over at LSD Surfboards. 

“Noa buzzed me a couple of days before I came away to order a couple of boards for the pool event, I think he got the late call up, so I set the alarm and got in the bay the early the next morning,” Luke tells Stab of building Noa’s freshwater steeds.  

“Shaped him a 5’10” and 5’11” slightly shorter, wider, and thicker than his regular boards—that’s all he requested. Noa never gets super specific, pretty much leaves it up to me, which is kinda cool.” 

Noa started his Stab High run with two meat and potatoes straight airs, to get some points on the board and shake off the nerves still left after a few Modelos. By the final, he was digging deep into his bag of technical trickery.

Photography

Photo by Corey Wilson

Noa Deane, backside shuv-it to revert.

Photography

Corey Wilson.

“I usually base a new design off Noa’s last boards, and use a combination of numbers and my gut feeling,” Luke continues. “When drawing [Noa’s Waco quiver] up, I watched some clips of both Noa and Dane [Reynolds] to kinda get me tuned in to what these guys are doing and needing when flying down the line. The final dims were 5’10” x 19 3/8” x 2 1/2+” 30.3L, and a 5’11” with the same dims. I’m pretty sure he rode the 5’11. No epoxy or anything, just PU /Poly. stock glass 4oz x 4oz deck, 4oz bottom; I reckon it’s hard to beat the momentum and rhythm of a standard PU board, especially for Noa’s power—gives him more stability for landing big punts, too.”

Noa Deane, frontside shuv-it to revert.

Photography

Corey Wilson