Derrick Disney is a rare type of surfer. He has his own unique style. Style is hard to define, but when someone’s got it, it’s obvious. For my money, one of the most stylish surfers around these days is Disney, and it’s because he knows exactly how he wants to surf and has the talent both on the water and in the shaping bay to create surfboards that ride in such a way.
The way he wants to surf is made a little easier by riding boards that aren’t your standard thruster. Disney’s a twin-fin aficionado, a guy who surfs with the wave instead of on the wave.
He’s not attacking it. He’s taking what the wave gives him and adding to it. He doesn’t force something the wave doesn’t want to give. He simply accepts that each wave offers something a little different, then builds off that.
Jack Coleman, purveyor of some of the finest surf films in existence, caught up with Disney to chat about his recent obsession with shaping and surfing high-performance twinzers.
“From rail design to asymmetrical outlines and new approaches to fin setups,” the description reads, “Diz dives into what makes this board work so well.”
And while it certainly does work well, it wouldn’t work nearly as well with someone other than Disney surfing it. “The board I’ve been riding in those kinds of conditions — good waves — is kind of a twinzer with a narrower tail,” Disney explained. “I’m trying to connect both of those and make one board that has the twinzer fin setups but bring it to the high-performance shortboard realm.”
