Jah Bless Jai Glindeman & The New Four-Channel Pyzel Wildcat

Jai Glindeman won the junior Stab Surfer Of The Year poll back-to-back in 2020 and 2021 as decided by the top 50 most influential voices in surfing. 

Stab was first acquainted with Jai back in 2018 after his mind-melting rail surfing at Lennox caught the attention of Stab’s staff, sealing his place on the Innocents trip with Craig Anderson and five of the world’s most promising U-16 blossoming surf talents. Since then Jai has released a handful of clips that have only confirmed his surfing is only maturing with his development, and he is certainly developing quickly.

 “He’s a chunky boy now,” filmmaker Georde ‘Grigs’ Grigor told Stab. “He was never as big as me and now I reckon he’d flog me in a fight. Since the injury he’s been training heaps and eating heaps and he’s just blowing up. I think now he will just be throwing more spray and smoother lines.” The injury, a torn MCL sustained at the Burleigh Single Fin Classic on the 8th Jan from an awkward fall on a floater, required Jai going under the knife and three months of intense rehab. “He stood up on a softboard maybe  a fortnight ago. Then he told me he went out Snapper last week and got called into a really good one behind the rock. He said his knee was feeling really good and that he was starting to feel confident pushing his surfing again”. 

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In this clip shot almost 10 months ago, Jai is riding the Wildcat model from Jon Pyzel’s velocity collection. Jon, a two-time SITD winner told Stab, “The Wildcat channel bottom twin was inspired by beautiful twin-fin designs of the past, built with my refined curves and contours. The boards look and feel timeless, yet allow the type of modern performance that we strive to bring to all our boards. The bottom curve is clean, and relatively flat, offering great paddle speed and easy acceleration from the moment you get to your feet.  A single/double concave runs throughout the bottom, blending into a moderate V and 4 channels running off the tail. All of this is designed to help the board roll from rail to rail, add a little extra bite off the bottom and quickly respond to weight shifts while easily flowing over softer sections of a wave. This helps increase your speed as you push it through turns.”

“The outline is a blend of traditional and modern as well, with the wide point just up from center, moderately wide nose and a classic single wing rounded pintail. The wing and the pin work in conjunction with the channels to provide both drive and maneuverability, allowing for snappy, pivoted turns and sweeping carves. The nose is a refined beak , which lets us run a touch more thickness up under the chest area, keeping you more on top of the water while you paddle. The rails have a modern shortboard feel, but with extra foam taken off to aid in sensitivity and bite.”

“I almost think he looks his best on twins. I was pretty blown away. I love seeing him ride different boards,” Grigs told us. Amen. 

You can watch his microdose here.