Shovel
Overview
It was a board the team asked for, so a very organic evolution of boards that we have already worked on. The idea is: performance made easy in less than average waves.A stable platform that’s a great paddler. The shovel offers speed, mobility and hold on rail, this thing is unrivalled in terms of an all round performance board. Just ask our team…
Tech Concept
Well, this thing was originally based on a wide template Mad Fresh to offer a better turning radius and more of a platform for landing airs.The last thing I wanted to do was lose the drive of the Mad Fresh so we tried to keep everything geared up for grind on rail and performance in any type of wave, I guess this thing is a further evolution to make performance surfing easier whilst the limits of what is possible expand.The team are really singing this boards praises, in fact I would go as far as to say we haven’t had a reaction like this to a new model across the whole team since the Doofer.
The outline was taken from a Mad Fresh. Straight away we added curve through the middle of the plan shape, to get the board turning easier and feeling a little more free when the waves are weak, to combat the loss of drive from this we straightened out the tail rocker line and deepened the single concave slightly, as well as maintaining the straighter rail line of the back end with a wider tail.
The tail pulls into squash/thumb combo, this means the base width is pretty wide so the board is very stable when flat but its pulled around softly into a thumb edge which gives the board a little more hold when driving the tail through a big hack.
The double straight through the back end offers rail to rail sensitivity you wont find on another board of this width and volume, rails are the boxy shortboard type, this is to keep the board planing on top of the water, they are lower than you would expect on a board of this volume, this is to enable the rails to cut water at speed so you do still maintain that shortboard feel to it on the face of the wave.
The nose rockers are again straightened and lowered a touch to engage more board in the water, this helps keep the board fast in weaker waves, when paddling and when you’re gaining momentum, by no means is this thing flat though, it still holds in a pocket in indo.
Due to the decreased length you can get away with, this board just loves the pocket. every now and then as a shaper you hit a design that you know defines a time in your career, this board for me is my new take on the progressive shortboard, we have hit the ground running and will be looking to improve and refine shapes from this model for years to come, excited is an understatement.
All the team have them and all the team have told me its the best board they have ever had, that just hasn’t happened before, usually the different styles prefer different boards and shapes but this thing has brought everyone to the same conclusion. we are on to something…