Superior Surf Shorts: Rip Curl

(For all of 2019’s Superior Surf Shorts, head here!)

One of the longest running (still privately owned) surf co’s, still operating out of their spiritual home in Torquay, Australia, Rip Curl’s constructed their nest around the core principle of having fun. Think about it: The Search, Mase, Micktory 2.0. Fun! Their summer ’19 trunks are fun too, with a little more colour than you see around the rest of the park, and all the tech to go along with it.

Mason wears his signature short, Mirage Mason Haze.

The feature that the Curl are most proud of with their most recent offering is a curious new thread known as “Cordura.” “Getting a new fabric into the market with Cordura yarn in the Mirage 321 short was a big accomplishment,” says Rip Curl boardshort designer Michael Lonson. “The Cordura fabric is really durable and has a great soft hand feel.”

Mason floats in the Mirage 321 Ultimate.

“We took the concept of a 3/2 wetsuit and applied it to a boardshort,” Lonson continues on the subject of the 321. “Instead of using two different thicknesses of neoprene, we used three different fabrics to enhance the performance of the short. The front panel is ES6 marled stretch fabric, the side panels are ES6 neoprene, and the back panel is the Mirage Cordura stretch fabric. This short is probably the most durable high performance short out there.”

Mr. Ho skies in the Mirage Sundrenched Rays.

One of the livelier elements of Rippy’s latest release, unsurprisingly, is the trunks designed by surfing’s court jester Mason Ho. “Working with Mason on the Mirage Mason Haze was really fun,” Michael says. “He’s really into pop colours being grounded by black. So we took a floral really distorted it. Almost pushing it to where the flowers are unrecognizable and making it look like a texture. He said it reminded him of Hawaii which was an added bonus.”

Getting the crux of where one of surfing’s most iconic brands sits on making shorts for surfing, Michael says that function always takes president over design. “If a boardshort falls apart or is constantly rashing you, you’ll never wear them no matter what they look like,” he said. And hey, who are we to argue with that.

Get the job done in a fresh pair of Rippy trunks.