How Do The Gudangs, Coffins, Eithan Osborne And More Go On The Stab In The Dark Winning Model?

During our annual blind test starring one of surfing’s top talents, 11 unlabeled, indistinguishable surfboards, Mick Fanning picked the Channel Islands Fever model in Spine-Tek technology as the fourth Stab in the Dark winner. As comes with the territory of liking to surf, we very much love a good sled. The Fever is CI’s go-to board for high-performance surfing; it’s the one most their team riders use in competition. And, as can be seen above via the surfing of Dane, Tanner, Pat Gudang, Conner and Parker Coffin, Eithan Osborne, Michael Dunphy, Seabass, and Kiron Jabour, the board lives up to Mick’s claim as one of the finest in the world. 

We’ll let Channel Islands explain the rest from here:

The story behind the Fever starts in the design legacy and philosophies of Al Merrick, as passed on to the Channel Islands Surfboards team of shapers today that includes Lead Designer (and son) Britt Merrick, Mike Andrews and Mike Walter, among others. Pat Gudauskas was looking for a really good all-around board for the tour to slim down his travel bag and minimize having a different sled for every wave type and stop. He worked closely with Andrews on that model, and using a rocker and bottom (aka the “engine room”) Al had used for years on some earlier models Pat liked, but made some tweaks in entry rocker, curve, volume and rails to came up with the all-around shred stick they dubbed the Fever. Both the CI Team and our customers alike have raved about the Fever being one of the easiest and most accessible performance shortboard designs they’ve ever ridden.