Watch: ‘Lost Rails,’ A Noughties Board Test Starring Luke Griffin

Well, this is really impressive.

I’m of the belief that ‘surf content’ should be informative, entertaining, or ideally both. Always nice when there’s a bit of substance behind a web clip.

This one kills two birds with one stone.

Luke Griffo’s done the legwork here, trading beers for iconic boards (or moving pot plants, in Greg Webber’s case), and tracking down interviews with Taj, Webber, Steph and DH in his ‘Scary Shed.’

Essentially, Luke’s applied a lo-fi Stab in the Dark formula to eight noughties relics. Minus the winner.

It goes without saying that board design has converged as much as it has progressed. According to DH, it’s the shapers’ appetite for risk that’s dwindling. Nobody wants to get done dirty. “Like I did with the Flyer in Kelly’s Stab in the Dark,” he cracks.

Anywho, Luke Griffo, loosely named after Luke Egan, and whose big bro Jordan knows his way around a planer, has been experimenting with longer, pointier, rockered-out boards. Salvaging the baby from the bathwater, so to speak, and blending some forgotten design principles with more modern, hi-fi thinking.

There’s something refreshing about periodically digging up discarded ideas, dusting them off, and seeing how far they can be pushed.