You know all those times when a new surfboard hits the market and the clips start hitting the internet? Most of the time, you’re going to see a professional riding it. Which is nice, because watching someone surf when they’re a world-class surfer is pleasing to the eye, but for the Average Joe, it might not be the best example of what a board will do for said Average Joe.
There are a lot of surfers who surf extremely well but haven’t got a board plastered in stickers, and when you’re an Average Joe and interested in what a board might do for you… well, those are the people to watch. Which is where Firewire’s new series comes in.
“Rippers Without Stickers is a new series that pairs the world’s most ripping (yet relatable) unsponsored surfers with Firewire’s most popular surfboards,” the folks at Firewire explained. “This is a series that shows you what talented surfers with down-to-earth talents look like when they ride shapes in Helium, LFT and otherwise.”
First in the series is the Mashup, a surfboard created from the minds and hands of Dan Mann and Rob Machado. We’ve seen Machado on it, and of course he makes it look great. But he’s Rob Machado, and as pleasing to the eye as his surfing is, no one else can do it like him. So Firewire enlisted James Harrah, the store manager of the Rip Curl shop in San Clemente, to give it a whirl.
Now, Harrah is a very good surfer. Much better than average, but he’s the type of surfer you’ll see often at a place like Lowers. He’s got a long history of riding different shapes with different build technologies — he’s been working around surfboards for years — and he knows the ins and outs of what makes a surfboard do certain things.
Harrah tried the Mashup out in a bunch of different conditions. “I really found that it’s most responsive and most natural on the shoulder,” he said. “Just outside of the pocket where you can really lay into the rail.”
The Mashup is a little more forgiving than a surfboard a tour surfer might pick. While it’s still a high-performance surfboard, it’s got a few little tweaks that make it slightly more user-friendly. The foam is distributed in such a way that you’ll get into waves easily, and the outline and rocker combine to make a surfboard that will go well in a whole bunch of different conditions.
Mann and Machado squashed together a handful of elements from two surfboards, the Seaside and the Spitfire, and in doing so they made something that goes fast in weak waves like the Seaside, but also drives vertically in good waves like the Spitfire.
“The Mashup is the ultimate groveler,” Firewire said. “And the ultimate everyday board as well.”
