A Board Only Krooky Could Love

The board Ryan Lovelace shaped for Shaun Manners on his Electric Acid Surfboard Test was pulled from a scan of a Magic Foot that Ari Browne had been riding for years.

That particular version was built from Varial foam (not the usual EPS) and featured in the series’ opening episode.

“I don’t think it’s for everybody,” Lovelace told Stab at the time. “It’s relearning how to surf — a new positioning on the board, a new rhythm on the wave, a new line you’re going to take.” The Santa Barbara shaper added that, to ride it properly, you have to “learn a new dance.”

“Just because something is hard to ride doesn’t mean it’s good,” Shaun said, after visibly struggling to find the board’s sweet spot in pumping surf at Winki. “It’s way harder to ride than I thought.”

“I feel a little bit dumber after surfing it.” He eliminated the board at the end of Ep. 1, before heading to New Zealand for the remainder of the test.

It was only fitting, then, that it would end up under Krooky’s arm, and onto a spirit quest through the Indonesian archipelago. 

In hindsight, Shaun’s experience is a strong indicator of how difficult the board is to ride, but most of all, how well it goes under Krooky’s ropey frame. Still dripping on the shores of Torquay, Shaun added: “I reckon I could’ve ridden a soft top out there and had more success.”

Funny he should say that. Krooky goes on to do exactly that, in exemplary form, on what is perhaps the most dumbed-down surfboard design in history.

Conducting his own independent EAST, the S.U.R.F. MVP still finds time to ride a twin and a twinzer through some of the least and most filmed waves across Nusantara.

This one comes with the Fun Boys treatment, just in case anyone’s forgotten how fun surfing is supposed to be.