More Evidence Of Mick Fanning’s Entrepreneurial (And Frontside) Flair

If Mick can ride these softies like a regular shortboard, you can probs surf them like a quality soft top! But, that doesn’t matter; you’re not shooting for six-to-midnight stabs at the lip, you just wanna catch waves, soak rays, perpetuate the lifestyle promoted by Hollister Surf Co. So, here’s Mick tossing his hat into the ever-growing ring of surfer’s entrepreneurial efforts: MF Soft Boards. His portfolio already boasts Balter Beer, Creatures of Leisure, and now, with the help of Mark Mathews, Mick’s going soft—not soft spaceman soft, but summer fun soft, like margarine on sourdough.

“Just before Christmas, while Mark Mathews was laid up in bed (recovering from his mutilated leg), I went down to Sydney and checked in on him,” Mick tells Stab. “He had this soft board laying around his house. I was like, ‘Ah, how sick is this thing?’ He asked me if I wanted one. He was throwing around the idea of selling soft tops, but at that point, he didn’t have a major plan and asked if I wanted to get involved. That’s how MF Soft Boards was born, by going to see Mark.”

Soft tops, by definition, don’t really work well. In the past ten years, companies have been striving to create a foamie that’s manoeuvrable in decent surf and shorebreak. So, last summer in Oz, we conducted an experiment: Stab’s Definitive Guide To Softboards, to analyse this exact issue. But, Mick’s high-performance, and it comes as no surprise that he wants his name attached to a foamie that rival the best in the biz. 

“So, we started working with the guys that do all the epoxy’s for Haydenshapes and Chilli,” Mick continues. “They were originally doing it under their own label; once we met they gave me a couple protos to try. They went well and it started to evolve. They asked me if I wanted to call it MF Soft Boards; I was psyched. I surfed on one at Snapper, in proper waves, and it went really good. You can actually turn them like a normal board.”

“My favourite model? Probably the Beastie or the Eugene, but the Little Marley is fun when it’s shitty. They all have FCS II plugs in them too. Which is nice, a soft top goes so much better with real fins.” 

These aren’t available until September (just a few short days!), but browse their selection on Facebook, Instagram, and, if it pleases you, enter your info here for everything MF Soft Boards.