Jon Pyzel is one of the world’s best surfboard shapers. He’s known for working alongside John John Florence since the start of JJF’s career — Pyzel shaped him his very first surfboard, according to lore — but he’s also gained a reputation for making boards the everyman can rip as well.
As all shapers do, Pyzel has a variety of designs. Most lean toward the performance end of the spectrum; surfboards made for Hawaiian waves in particular, but he’s not adverse to carving out a shape that’ll work in a variety of conditions. Which is what the Precious, his latest addition to the quiver, is made for.
Working alongside Jai Glindeman, the Precious came into being after Pyzel was asked to build the ever-elusive one-board quiver. It’s step-railed and has a concave deck, and its DNA comes from an older model called the Gremlin.
“I based it off of the Gremlin, since that board is so fast, versatile and fun, but we wanted it to be sleeker, more towards a performance feel with less width and less chunky rails,” Pyzel explained. “In order to do that and still keep a fair bit of volume in the board, we decided to make it a step-deck.”
That decision allowed Pyzel to keep the volume about the same, but gives it a rail that’s more designed for performance turns. The concave deck adds stability to the overall board, and makes paddling just a little bit easier.
“The outline is narrower and more pulled in than the Gremlin,” Pyzel said, “but it still carries speed through slower, weaker sections, allowing improved flow and effortless glide. The Precious is an easy paddler that gets up and goes fast, and still has a snappy, drivy, high-performance feel to get you the most out of every kind of wave.”
