Is This Dogtown-Inspired Sled CI’s Most Well-Rounded Board? 

“You’d be hard-pressed to find another industry or craft that has progressed as little as surfboards have in the last almost 80 years,” Channel Islands Surfboards head shaper Britt Merrick explained in Ep. 2 of the Electric Acid Surfboard Test with Shaun Manners. 

Britt said those words before Shaun rode CI’s 2023 G-Skate model at a head-high beach break on the south coast of New Zealand. While Shaun didn’t exactly sing its praises, a select crew of CI and Vans team riders appear to love it in Hawaiian juice. 

Britt crafted the model through collaboration with Tanner, Pat and Dane Gudauskas. It was the latter who first approached Britt with the idea of creating a surfboard based on what emerging surf-skate culture from the Santa Monica and Venice Beach area (dubbed Dogtown) in the 1970s. 

“There’s your innovation, going back to skateboarding in the ‘70s,” Britt chuckled. 

They first traced the skateboard’s outline on paper, but the initial iteration was “terrible,” so the team refined the outline and pulled in the tail to give it some hold. I have not confirmed this, but I suspect Dane wanted a board that could smack a lip like Jay Adams on a pool coping. Much to their surprise, the G-Skate that was designed to flow through everyday mush worked well in solid overhead surf. Above, Dane, Charly Quivront and Sam Piter offer evidence in the form of cutbacks, snaps and pits (frontside and backside) on conditions ranging from mush burgers and pretty damn hollow French beachies.

“We built it around small waves,” Britt said. “And we went to test it and it worked good in big waves. I don’t know why it works good in waves like that. I have no idea why it goes in waves like that.”