So bros, I was lucky enough to get this board out in the water at a stretched out point break in SC on an average south swell a couple of days ago so now I can give you all a solid preliminary ride report. But before we get into that, the surf conditions were average but fun, shoulder to head high plus with a good amount of face chop and some warble but nothing rendering it unsurfable.
Before I dive into the review, it’s worth noting that the only other midlength board that I've surfed in the last couple of years is a Christenson Flat Tracker so that is my basis for comparison.
I'll start with the feel of the board. It's quite nice all around. It's light, feels strong, the finish is very solid and the tint looks great in person. There's nothing to complain about on that front - if you can wrap your head around riding a board that’s built in Thailand - the board is downright nice.
The first thing I noticed once I got in the water is how the board paddles and glides and I was a little bit surprised by the lack thereof. The Flat Tracker is an absolute paddle machine so I’m not sure if my basis is off, but if it isn’t, then I’m not sure whether it’s the construction, the shape, or some other factor. Either way, the board definitely gets around but doesn’t exactly have the smooth midlength glide factor I was hoping for. It was a bit choppy, however, so I’m interested to get the board into some smoother conditions to see if that
On the construction front, I've never ridden a Firewire LFT before, but it definitely doesn't feel like a PU/PE board as you might imagine. I'd say the closest comparison I can come up with is XTR’s SL-CK construction. The board definitely has that unique, non-wood stringer flex pattern that works but requires some adjustments in thinking and riding. Between those two things, the board paddles and catches waves ok but not as well as I would expect from the 7'0 x 213/8 x 2 11/16 dims.
Once you get into the wave, however, the story is pretty different it really gets going. When the wave stands up and gives you a nice shoulder, the thing is an absolute rocket down the line. With the rocker and the quad setup you can push it down the line and cover some serious distance. But where it maybe seems to lack some glide in paddling, that definitely isn’t the case on the face of the wave. You can also just sort of point the board down the line and it seems to just motor through sections effortlessly.
I’m not surprised, but I’m definitely impressed by how fast, fluid, and fun the board is when the wave conditions are conducive. Where I found the board to really shine is when the wave would shrink down to 2 - 4 feet and the board would just loosen up and fly all over the place (in a good way) with very little effort.
I’d say the board is at least as fast or slightly less fast down the line as my Flat Tracker but certainly not noticeable. What it may lack in speed it definitely makes up for in the leverage you get from the quad setup and the ability to aggressively high lines. The other place where the board pleasantly surprised me is when taking off from behind a section and just rocketing through the collapsing face or whitewater like a slingshot.
The board is pretty maneuverable for a 7-footer but it’s also going to take some time to get used to. I’m using the suggested split keel Rob Machado future quads and they definitely seem to work. The board is definitely happy to rip cutbacks, do light floaters, and even some off the tops with some light coaxing but I also found that the board could get a bit locked into turns, start tracking and be tough to make directional changes on.
One of the cool things about the board is that you can trim up and down it for really different feals. You can step towards the front and it trims like a longer midlength or even a longboard. But then you can also step back towards the tail and drive it hard like a high-performance quad fish so it’s nice and versatile in that sense.
It doesn’t take long to tell that it’s definitely a strong all-around shape. This is now the second Rob Machado shape that I’ve surfed and I’m really impressed with how he builds high-performance capabilities into retro(ish) shapes. I’m definitely looking forward to getting it into some cleaner, punchier surf and also seeing how it handles small, soft surf at OB.
Here are some more photos so you can avoid the psycho garage pics.
