Stab’s 5 favourite summer rides (A Havaianas Summer Guide!)

Summer has lit the flames in Oz and it’s time to acquire the right surfboard, or surfboards, for slicing through slop or dealing out speed over the slowest spots or milking the maximum juice out of a shorebreak. If you want to maintain performance then maybe you don’t want to scoop an all-out fish, because fun as they are they’re not real good for your surfing. The boards we’ve listed below are boards that we ride because they’re the right mix of performance shortboard and small wave fish. And by no means should you ever put limitations on a quiver. Or, think we’re suggesting these are the only boards out there (they’re not). This is just a collection of newish models we dig, that happen to be best applied to the warmer months.

****

The Fred Stubble, by Channel Islands

The Fred Stubble, as you may well have already read, is Conner Coffin’s newest piece of foam. The award-winning and wildly popular Fred Rubble was Conner’s slightly stepped-down everyday shortboard, and it’s been such a hit that since it landed, Kelly Slater has rarely zipped up a board bag that didn’t contain at least one. The Fred Stubble, as you may gather from the name, is a more stubby version of the Rubble – kinda squashed down. It loses no foam; it’s just redistributed. So, it’s shorter and fatter… and that screams summer. Less length to throw around, more thickness to push through slop.

“The Fred Stubble is a slight spin-off of the Fred Rubble,” says Conner. An inch or so off each end, slightly wider outline, and tweaked concave in the bottom created an epic board for the every day beach mission, regardless of the conditions. It’s one of those boards that works in the smallest of waves but is fun up to head high. It’s the board that keeps me in the water every day at home, even when it’s near flat. Super fast, super skatey, yet still carvey.”

More here.

****

The Love Buzz, by HaydenShapes

The Love Buzz is Creed McTaggart’s first signature surfboard model with HaydenShapes. A performance shortboard design described as the ‘love child’ of the Hypto Krypto and The Ando model. Hayden tells us: “The Love Buzz design blends surface area, rocker and performance curves to create a very all-round, fast and flowing shortboard. It will always carry speed yet give you that sensitivity to surf in all areas of the wave.”

“It has a medium/flat entry rocker for easy paddling and plenty of speed down the line or through flatter sections. It has the signature HS flatter rocker through the centre of the board for flow and speed, similar to the Hypto Krypto. Out the back end it has a medium lift to allow the board to fit into critical turns. It starts with a slight single concave in the entry through to medium single in the centre of the board. This blends into a deep double within the single, with a medium vee double out the last 3.5” of the tail.”

More here.

****

The Peri Peri, by Chilli

Chilli have made a lot of the right kinda noise lately, and two board models that’ve helped them do that have been The Spawn, a high performance shortboard, and the Rare Bird, a small wave summer lover. But Chilli’s newest model lands right between those two. This is the board you’ll ride 80 percent of the time during the warmer months. And it’s called The Peri Peri. There’s nothing Portuguese here but it is damn spicy; The Peri Peri is designed for two-to-five feet surf, but its smooth outline with no bumps or hips allows for hold in surf that’s a little heavier, contrasted with a unique single concave to ‘vee’ bottom in the tail area which makes for speed and drive, with looseness. “This is a high performance small/medium wave board,” says Chilli. “A must have. We recommend dropping one-to-two inches from your Spawn model or choose the litreage closest to your current fav.”

All boards come with a small tail-dip colour and Chilli’s newest vibe is a range of pastels, which look real nice.

More here.

****

The Inflatable Mattress, by Vampirate

Designed by Andrew ‘Droid’ Doheny for extreme speed and loose surfing in small to medium waves to express your inner freak! What a tag line that is. Vampirate is a board company inspired by Ozzie Wright and shaped by Mark Gnech, with guest appearances Droid. Did you know Droid’s a pretty handy foam sculptor? A good majority of the boards he rides, he’s shaped himself. The Inflatable Mattress should in fact be called The Magician, because it is so wildly fast over the smallest, flattest spots of waves that you’ll probably fall off from surprise. As Vampirate say themselves, these boards are so fast you will be trying to slow yourself down. We usually take board breakdowns with a grain of salt but there’s no word of lie there. So if you like going fast, this is worth looking into. The Inflatable Mattress can be ridden well short too, because of the flat deck and bevelled rails which allow for maximum flotation. This is a board designed to give you maximum enjoyment in mediocre conditions. And they’re available all the way from 4’10” down to 6’0”.

More here.

****

The V2 Shortboard, by Mayhem (Lost)

You’ve probably seen a little bit about this craft on Stab before. But it’s worth the repeated airtime, and worth a reminder at the start of summer for those in the market. And because Mr Matt Biolos is so articulate when speaking about his boards, we’ll pass the mic to him early in the piece:

“This highly anticipated new Shortboard has proven to be as suited to the domesticated surfer as to the travelling pro, so we make it in both Pro-formance and Domesticated dimensions. Initially a board created for myself, after being harassed by Team Riders to “get off those fun-boards of yours, and ride a real board.” I set about building an HP shortboard that would allow me to compete for waves in crowds and also let me surf as easily (and hopefully more radically) as on my most trusted hybrids. Starting with what I considered to be our best hybrid, the V2 Rocket, I stretched the outline into a pointy, yet conservative nose and blended the “Rocket” tail into a wide-ish, smooth squash. The exceedingly low entry rocker, coupled with continuous and generous tail lift, made for a board that both paddled and caught waves well, but turned tight and precise in the pocket. It features a similar foil and rails as its predecessor and continues to have slight double concave deck under the rear foot (which really ‘locks’ the surfer into place). My initial results on the first Domesticated version were so positive that I ended up surfing these boards, daily, for months straight… without reverting back to any ‘cheater’ boards. Assuming it would work for the team also, we instantly began downsizing the design to ‘pro’ volume and got them out to the boys. Positive feedback followed with instant success (Alejo Muniz won the US Open on one of these). With nearly every athlete we work with carrying a V2 Shortboard in their travel bag, it was evident the time had come to release the board to the public.”

More here.