Dane Bites The “Bullet”: “This Thing Is NOT A Performance-Oriented Board”

Like anyone who grabbed the thick, bulky, plug-y, thoroughly twin-keeled Tyler Warren while it was in our Los Angeles office, the logic behind the “Bullet,”—as Warren refers to the new model, named for its broad moon tail, gradual sloping outline, and snubbed beaked—confounded Dane Reynolds. 

“This thing is not a performance oriented board,” Dane said, more or less to himself, as he pulled the resin-striped 5’7 out of the Santa Monica Surf Case. 

Photography

AVG

Photography

AVG

While his longboarding as a teenager might have turned heads at Coalition events up and down the coast, it was Tyler Warren’s own surfing on very small equipment that drew attention to his curious sleds. Inspired by Richard Kevin’s exploration of Bob Simmons’ design with EPS blanks and twin-keeled equipment, Tyler carved himself what he coined the “Bar of Soap,” a snubbed-nose, pizza-boxed tail, with incredibly long, dual-foiled keel fins. With Warren’s loose, liberated surfing capturing a certain demographic of the surfing world, and the “Mini-Simmons” design developed a cult following, and remains one of Tyler’s most requested models. 

But Warren had another idea in mind for the Acid Test. Instead he offered his newest take on keel, the Bullet, a moon-tailed mix between a Mini-Simmons and a traditional Hobie-style fish, a design he learned to shape first hand growing up in San Juan Capistrano and hanging in the bay of his longtime mentor, the late, great Terry Martin. 

“It’s meant to go really fast…” Tyler Warren.

Photography

AVG

While Dane noted the board’s heavy weight and density, the board built solid as a fucking tank, he was willing to give it the old college try, admitting however that he had really loved the look of a lot of Tyler’s boards, and was taken back by the Bullet’s seeming crudeness. 

“I’ve seen a lot of really beautiful boars from Tyler, like really refined looking equipment, so this one’s a little confusing to me,” Dane said. 

But on a radically clear and bright afternoon midway through the trip, with chest-high chip shot wedges pinballing across one of the right coves north of Salina Cruz, and a cooler full of Coronas thoroughly on ice, Dane paddled out and shredded the stocky, pluggy little fucker to bits, paddling out the back after a handful of frontside hacks and a blowtail finisher, saying, “Well, I think I’ve done pretty much all I can do on this thing at this point. I really don’t know what else I got for it. Turns better than I thought, and it’s super fast down the line.”

And with that the TW slipped back into the Santa Monica Surf Case. Head south for photographic evidence of Dane’s thorough have at it, shot by Alan Van Gysen, with a few gems from Sam Moody. 

Finners mean something when we’re talking about 10+ inches of moontail and 9+ inches of keel.

Photography

Alan Van Gsen

Not the tightest turning radius, but anything’s possible with enough torque.

Photography

Alan Van Gysen

Photography

Alan Van Gysen

Photography

Alan Van Gysen

Photography

Alan Van Gysen

Photography

Alan Van Gysen

Photography

Alan Van Gysen

Photography

Alan Van Gysen

Photography

Alan Van Gysen

Photography

Alan Van Gysen

“I think I’ve done all I’m gonna do on this thing,” Dane Reynolds hitting the fiberglass ceiling.

Photography

Alan Van Gysen