Noa Deane And Matt Biolos Have A Complicated Relationship, And Why Trailer Fins Are Sometimes Game Changers

Matt Biolos and Noa Deane have a complicated relationship. 

Somewhat passive-aggressively, the two have been at heads with one another on a number of subjects, not least of which Noa’s win at the first Stab High in 2018.

According to Matt, the skate-inspired tricks Noa was putting down weren’t a freshly baked as the judges had believed. Matt’s argument: Justin Matteson and Joe Crimo were doing the very same varials and shuv-its on the Lowers left 25 years ago, whereas Eli Hanneman’s corked out flip-variations represented the true progressive vanguard. 

But the feud runs deeper than that, to the point where we were nervous Noa would ID the Mayhem and write it off out of principle. So we threw a little smokescreen and had Matt work with his longtime collaborator, Paul Lefevre aka The Son Of Cobra, on an updated Cobra Killer Twin, adding in a stabilizing trailer fin option. 

Photography

Sam Moody.

Photography

Sam Moody.

Well, there was no fooling Noa, who after a quick second-guess (confusing the Pyzel for a Mayhem, actually), figured out what the electric pink and fluorescent yellow swirled little double-ender was—which if we’re being honest, influenced Noa’s choice of conditions to ride the board in. 

So on the crappiest afternoons, Noa would wax up the Cobra Killer Twin (w/ Optional Trailer) and dick around at Sandbar with Acid Test co-director Dylan Roberts on last year’s Mayhem x CK model from Stephanie Gilmore’s Acid Test. 

Stubbornly, Noz rode it first without the trailer fin, though he did take the time to slide in his favorite fire engine red True Ames TA1 Twins. Predictably, the board looked dog shit in bumpy, lurchy, backwash-y sandbar. But the second Noz hit the water with a complimentary trailer fin the board was instantly electric under his feet, even in the sloppiest of North Shore offerings. 

There might not be a more radical laminator operating than Paul “Son of Cobra” Lefevre.

Photography

Sam Moody.

Last year, the No Contest crew shared a down day Teahupoo session with Strider Wasilewski, who was on a stock Cobra Killer Twin that he’d grabbed off the rack of a South African surf shop en route to Skeleton Bay. If his surfing at Chopes wasn’t enough to convince us of the design’s validity, this clip from his Namibia mission was the nail in the coffin.

Matt considers the Cobra Killer a “Post Modern Twin-fin.” It’s most notable design feature? A deep concave to curved channel through the tail’s rail’s hard edge.  

“It’s designed around Paul’s unique, and exceedingly deep, double concave bottom,” says Mayhem. “It really piqued my interest to pair it with one of our proven models.  We effectively merged his bottom contours into the outline, foil, rails and primary rocker of the time tested QuiverKiller. Thus, the name “COBRA KILLER”—due to the relatively pulled-in rounded pin being paired with the deep concave behind the fins.

“It’s really fast. Gives lots of drive,” says Son of Cobra. “Makes sharp turns (with great responsiveness) and is not so loose, even for a twin fin. It rides very lively under-foot, yet surprisingly solid and firm. It can be ridden with confidence, without fear of sliding out, or drifting.”

Initially, the model was built as a twin fin exclusively, but we were glad Matt took the Acid Test opportunity to tweak the design for Noa, because the update, err, um, Redux, is a damned fun and rippable groveler, though it has enough hidden volume—and enough hold with the fin set up and aggressive concave bottom and rail channel—to handle waves of reasonable consequence.