Daniel “Tomo” Thomson is one of the most innovative shapers in the world. He, along with Kelly Slater, just released the first look at a new craft shaped for Slater Designs. It’s called the Cymatic.
“Cymatic(s) is the study of wave phenomena, especially sound, and their visual representations,” Slater said. “Daniel Thomson and I had this idea to make a board that fits the ‘vibration’ of a wave in our minds. The minimal amount of board to do the maximum amount of surfing.”
It can be said with some assuredness that Kelly Slater is one of the most influential surfers ever. When it comes to board design, he is single-handedly responsible for a generation of surfers riding boards that were too small for them. Tiny, razor thin, and rockered-out, the only person who could make them go like Kelly was Kelly. That didn’t stop Joe Average, though, and for years lineups were full of people maniacally chop-hopping down the line on the foam equivalent of a piece of salami.
That’s why when Kelly partnered up with Firewire for Slater Designs, it was a big deal. Weird boards showed up under Kelly’s feet, and as usual, Kelly surfed them very well. The difference this time around, though? Joe Average could surf them, too. Not as well as Kelly, but you get the idea. Models like the Sci-Fi and the Omni turned heads with a straighter rail line, a flatter rocker, and a tail from the future.
So what’s the deal with the Cymatic? Well, it’s a hybrid of the Sci Fi and the Omni. “We chopped the nose off ahead of the rail line you need and went with a pretty wide bat tail (like the SciFi model),” Slater explained. “With the added bite of the channels the tail still holds while giving plenty of lift.”
The edit you see above is from one single session at Haleiwa in January. Riding a quad setup 5’3” X 18-5/8 X 2-5/16” X 25.5L, Slater initially thought the day was too big for the board. As it turned out, though, he was wrong. “I don’t want to ride anything else right now,” he said, “and everyone who rides it wants to take it off my hands.”
See more about the Cymatic over at Firewire.
