Gloriously Pedestrian: Watch A Channel Islands Grunt Make Their New “Ultra Joe” Go

How much feedback can you really glean from taking in a few minutes of a World Tour surfer’s performance on a new model, in so far as it relates to what you, Joe Punter, will feel under your feet?

It’s debatable, but surely less than you probably imagine.

With the release of their new souped-up-if-still-pedestrian daily driver, the Ultra Joe, it’s rumored the Channel Islands factory crew drew straws for some necessary R&D work, and in-house “Production Assistant,” Pat Beckley seemed to have drawn the short one.

Channel Islands factory grunt, Pat Beckley. Photo courtesy Channel Islands

“The edit is supposed to show an Average Joe—OK, maybe an Above Average Joe, but you get the point… Not a pro bro,” says CI’s Devon Howard. “Pat’s an employee, works here on making/installing the Spines in our SpineTek boards, and surfs great, like many of ours do.”

There’s little a brand can do to win over the core than continuing the long, often frustrating tradition of Surfer Labor, and we applaud the Santa Babylon crew on their hiring.

Here’s heir to the CI throne, Britt Merrick on the model:

“A few years back, we built the Average Joe to be a fun, simple, easy-to-ride board and it became one of our top sellers,” says Britt. “For 2019, after rounds of customer feedback and team testing, we’ve created a souped-up, sleeker version…the Ultra Joe. The Ultra Joe boasts foiled rails, a double-bump squash tail, narrower nose with an updated rocker profile, and additional exit rocker. The result is a progressive step forward for beginner/intermediate surfers while at the same time is an inviting step down for average to good surfers seeking something fun and cruisy on the smaller, weaker days. Despite all these changes, one thing remains the same: the fun factor.

We’ve head great feedback that it works really well as a quad, but if you are used to riding trip fins that may be your jam.”