“Prepare For The Best Board Of Your Life,” Gary McNeill Told Dane Reynolds The First Time He Shaped Him A Board

About ten years ago, the ever curious Dane Reynolds sent an email to the man he understood to be responsible for the boards Dave Rastovich had been riding, and riding well. 

He told him he liked the way Rasta looked on his boards, and wanted to see about getting a few.

“Prepare for the best boards of your life,” Dane recalls being McNeill’s answer, whereupon a few weeks later a couple fishes arrived that, according to Dane “paddled shitty, felt slow, sluggish…”

“I think one of his friends spray painted all of them, and they sat in his garage,” McNeill admits. “So this is my second go ’round with Dane…”

While there were more than a few fishy options in the Acid Test’s mixed bags, the McNeill immediately caught Dane’s eye; he I.D.’d it almost immediately: “I’m guessing this is Rastovich’s shaper, right?”

“This looks a little more, like, high performance.”

Photography

Alan Van Gysen.

After a quick under-arm test, and an appraisal of what McNeill call’s “teeth”—the “Taurus” part of his Taurus Twin—a single channel running slightly convex to the board’s outline, Dane’s eye for detail drew him directly to the Futures boxes set against the channel…

“Little issue with the finning,” Dane mentioned offhandedly, drawing his finger around the box, before moving on.

Dane spotted the fin box’s weak point like ten seconds after he picked up the board.

Photography

Alan Van Gysen

5’7″ Gary McNeill Taurus Twin.

Photography

Alan Van Gysen.

Dane pushing through one of his first waves on the Gary McNeill.

Photography

Alan Van Gysen.

Two days later, after catching two or three average waves at Bomba, Dane got to his feet, let the zippy little EPS number get up and going before jamming on the gas, gunning towards a helpless section begging for a layback, leaned into a bottom turn and… ping. 

The tail went slipping towards shore, Dane went full yard sale, and when he surfaced, the fin, box, and about twelve inches of the bottom was missing, torn clean out. (You can watch him break down the cause in the clip above, it’s quite insightful.) 

And all on a one-foot wave…

Photography

Alan Van Gysen.

While we were sad the McNeill didn’t get its proper time in the Mexican sun, as fortune would have it, our friends at Corona, who helped make this project possible, had sent Stab filmer Dylan Roberts with a bonus whip in tow—one of Corona x Parley eco board collaborations with McNeill, and as luck would have it, literally an exact replica of the Acid Test board…