While posting on a thread at one of the surfing related forums, one of the members didn’t like something I had to say, so they tossed a remark meant to be an insult about …producing knock off fun boards. I have always thought it funny that some find the term fun an insult to board design, but it did spur my curiosity to see if some of the other larger so called “ performance “ oriented board companies were producing similar boards.
The first thing I happened upon was something called a Firewire Dominator and I must say, as usual, the mass producers are still behind in the creativity department and making major claims they would have called ridiculous just a few years ago.
I heard our local big surf shop doing the sales pitch about the board on his surf report today. I remember when he was just saying, like many of the board companies and shapers; too many fin boxes….too much drag……customers don’t care about expanding their choices of fin configurations on one board…customers don’t’ care about changing the cant of their fins or moving them at all.
Boy, Pro box Larry, Lok box Jimmy and others were way off with their unique fin configurations and box systems where you can adjust your fins weren’t they? Geoff Mccoy was just plain whacky to keep talking about wider outlines, fuller thickness and wider tails for the last 30 years huh? Greg Griffin is out there for the five fins he has been designing. Just fun boards. Not for real surfers bent on performance. Who knew? Firewire had the right idea all along.
Boy, the more I look at the supposed leaders with regards to “ modern” surfboard design, the more it becomes obvious how these companies must rely on the creativity of custom board builders and designers who have solid reputations for producing quality unique surf designs for their ideas. Ideas they later claim in their advertising as their own and unique. While the magazines ready themselves to give their company best board idea of the year and exclude the real designers of the product.
In the words of Firewire: “ Perhaps the most versatile board in the Firewire quiver to date, The Dominator combines a full outline with a thick foil from nose to tail and a 5, 4, 3, fin configuration. Never heard that before have we?
Wow…Where can I get something new like that? Add this to the fact that Kelly Slater has been seen riding a wider outline than normal and other notable pros as well. Could it be that we are now redefining what modern actually is? Or is modern a relative term?
I think popular and well marketed are better descriptions rather than “ modern” for today’s thruster given some of the surfing being done by pros on designs that were considered bloated just a short time ago and the fact that more and more surfers are having…” fun “ now on “ boards” that actually float them well, catch waves easy, and perform. Also it should be considered today’s thruster is itself also a refined knock off.
Hey…it’s not my claim…it’s Firewire and some of the rest that have discovered this new phenomenon of wider measurements and thicker foils. Better get down and reserve you one today before they discover something else and force you to sell your dominator.
Next thing you know they will discover a surfboard you can ride as a single, twin, thruster, quad, bonzer and can change fin cants or a board with an even wider tail and single fin and call it modern instead of fun.
Ha Ha.