How John Pyzel Designed A New Surfboard With John Florence From Thousands Of Miles Away

In our Pyzel Phantom Joyride, Mikey C. described the board as “incredibly good in every way, without being extraordinary in a single one — except being ridiculously easy to ride.

These aren’t the words John Pyzel would use, but the sentiments are similar.

“This is a pure daily driver,” Pyzel said. “It’s made for an everyday kind of wave. This was the idea with the original Phantom, but now we’ve made two major changes —which turn out to just be two minor changes.”

What are those two changes? (1) A flat spot under your front foot and (2) about a quarter-inch more nose rocker. But there are also two bonus changes, two-time Stab In The Dark winner John Pyzel explained: A hip in the squash tail for pivot and added thickness throughout. These four changes, if you notice, serve opposite functions and act as checks and balances to create what is, hopefully, an even more “incredibly good board in every way” with maybe a splash of “extraordinary” this time.

The Phantom is one of Pyzel’s best-selling boards of all time. You have likely watched hours of John John surfing on this board over the years without knowing it.

Most recently, however, you might have seen JJF surfing extremely well at extremely remote surf locations in the middle of the Ocean. Not much was known about the boards he was riding until now. In the video above, John Pyzel describes sending a new quiver of boards to John across the ocean.

John Pyzel said, “I just sent him a little batch of boards, and one of them was his board. I didn’t write what it was. I like to keep him guessing, just trying new stuff with an open mind.”

About a month after I had sent it to him, I got some footage that I saw that was really impressive. He’s like, “What is this board? Is that a Phantom?” I’m like, “Yeah, it’s a Phantom 2.” He’s like, “Oh, I love this board. I’ve been riding it every day.”

“What’s different about this board is that there’s a nice little straight spot, a little speed between your feet, but then when you put the board on rail, it has this curve throughout,” Pyzel said. “The straight spot gives you a lot more glide, and the nose flip allows it to fit into cuppy, sucky, little small waves. That really allows you to do carved turns, tight turns, and snappy pocket surfing.”

If you want to see this sort of cuppy, scoopy, jammy (surfing needs a new adjective release) surfing, watch John John’s new video, “A Million Years Of Rain“. It’s hard to explain, but easy to see what Pyzel is explaining here in action.

Now we’ll see whether Pyzel decides to shape an iteration of the Phantom 2 for SITD 11.