Editor’s Note: The following piece first appeared on SurfersVillage.
The Cornice by Firewire works. It just works differently. Photo: Firewire
There comes a point where one realizes that their doorway to the surfing experience is extremely narrow. In my case, I’ve grown so focused on performance surfing each session that counting the number of hacks, tube dips and cutbacks is how I validate each go out. The rule of thumb: If I come out of a session with three memorable waves or maneuvers, I consider that session a success.
The downside to this is that if I choose to surf, say a fish or longboard, I’m not gonna get a solid hack, tube or rail-burying cutback. In short, the session won’t register as a success to me. Consequently, I don’t wander far from traditional equipment. This is a shame because there’s a whole lot of innovation out there – The Cornice by Firewire, for example.
The design of The Cornice was initiated by Trinity Technologies with the help of supercomputers designed to crunch data for wind turbines. It was then further refined by longtime Firewire shaper, Dan Mann. The Cornice out now is the fifth or sixth work-through by the team. The design is based on side cut principles. From the designs of Y (Tom Morey) to Meyerhoffer, forward-thinking shapers have been borrowing from the snowboard for a while now.
The premise is that without a traditional eliptical outward-bulging rail line, water will flow more smoothly around the middle part of the board while the fastest planing, widest parts of a board’s template are kept under your front and back. When the board is set into a turn, because of this sidecut, there is less resistance to water when the board is laid into a bottom turn or cutback. In video clips you can see a quicker direction change when a surfer leans into a turn on The Cornice.
While the template of The Cornice is otherworldly for a surfboard, the rocker and bottom contour are consistent with other Dan Mann and Firewire designs. “The bottom contour is a cross between the Baked Potato and the UniBrow,” says Mann. “It’s just updated a bit with some small changes I’ve found to make the bottom contours flow a little better for the Cornice.”
The Cornice’s super wide tail has a step rail (thinner edge) to help it knife through the water. The fin cluster is way out on the rail and way back on the tail. Mann says it’s one of the widest fin cluster setups he’s done.
More adventures in sidecut design by CatchSurf and Meyerhoffer.
What we discovered is that it’s a very different feeling. How? Well, let’s break it down.
What we rode:
The Cornice in Future Shapes Technology measuring 5’11” X 17 13/16” X 2 5/8” with 32.8 cubic liters. Ridden as a quad and as a thruster. It performed best with a thruster setup. Rider’s weight 190 lbs, 40 years of experience, intermediate to sometimes advanced.
Foot placing:
Right out of the gate you have to ride this board with your rear foot all the way back. With such a wide tail it’s important to be on the very back. I tend to scoot forward in trim when generating speed to pump down the line which doesn’t work well with The Cornice. In this regard, the board is like its snowboarding brethren (and many modern thrusters) in that it works best with feet planted firmly in the same sweet spots the entire ride.
Performance:
The board comes alive in good surf. It performs best when the rider keeps it turning and moving on edge. However, I learned you can’t lean hard into your turn the same way you can on a traditional high performance shortboards (HPS).
On the Cornice, there isn’t the same amount of rail between your feet to provide resistance to the pressure exerted during a turn. Consequently, The Cornice turns very abruptly (without much effort). This was the hardest part of the design to wrap my head around. I’m used to pushing against the resistance of a traditional rail line between my feet to generate torque and a longer arc during turns. However, once you readjust the approach and lean into a turn in such a way that The Cornice will respond, then all sorts of doors open up and the board works in new and amazing ways.
When you aim toward the lip and snap the board down, it will get back under your center of gravity very quickly because you don’t have all that mid-section of the board to get in the way. So, in some instances, you can push the board more than a traditional HPS when you execute snaps.
The Cornice is incredibly fast, but what you do with all this speed is tricky. If you have a big, open shoulder you can go way out into the flats, do a cutback and maintain drive all the way back to the foam. But in order to do this you need to have learned how to initiate turns on sidecut rails. Just remember: less torque when leaning into a turn.
One of our assistant editors, Ashton Goggans, was an amateur longboard champ and has spent heaps of time on fishes and alternative crafts. He’s also a very good surfer on your standard HPS. He had a much easier time with the Cornice’s learning curve. “It flew out of a drawn out bottom turn with speed and projection to burn. The wide tail offered a platform from which you could just slam through turns in a strange, foreign, on-rail type of way,” explained Goggans. “It made utter gutless shoulders into open corners on which to bank cutbacks, and returned to full speed with real kick after bouncing a roundhouse into the whitewater, putting you back onto the shoulder for a second turn almost before you could register the first turn’s success.”
Like Cheyne Horan’s Lazer Zap, The Cornice gains speed from a very wide tail.
Float:
The Cornice will feel more buoyant than your normal volume number because, in this shape, all the float is under your chest, which means it paddles well. You can go down a tad in volume because, with a traditional HPS, a liter of volume in the tip of the nose doesn’t count when you’re paddling. The board felt like it gained momentum as you paddled into a wave. Goggans found that it paddled better getting into waves than it did just paddling straight out the back.
Tubes:
The board worked surprisingly well in hollow surf. Because the mid-width is so narrow and the edges are so thin, it holds very well when a steep section presents itself. You also have more control in the tube, as the board knifes through the water better than a board with full rails. However, it is easy to overcorrect when making subtle adjustments to your line. On a couple hollow waves I felt a really slippery kind of forward “scoot” sensation underfoot. It was very fast, glidey and unlike a traditional HPS. The board worked. But, it worked very differently. The motions used to make the board come alive had to be learned and are very different from the way many of us are used to surfing.
What we liked:
It’s totally unlike anything we’ve surfed. Sensationally fast and glidey feel underfoot. It holds an edge in hollow waves because it’s narrow. It maintains speed through turns in flat, open parts of the wave and it changes direction quick due to lack of rail between your feet. When turning on your toe side or heel side, the board cuts a very tight arc. Plus, the thing paddles like a dream.
What we didn’t like:
It’s totally unlike anything we’ve surfed. We couldn’t figure out how to lean in and burry the rail. It needs to be kept moving rail-to-rail through the slower parts of the wave and the turns need to be nursed with a sort of lift-and-pivot motion rather than Occy-esque full rail line. It really comes alive in good waves. However, a standard HPS would work well in these conditions, too.
Who would like this board:
Anyone willing to mix up their high performance shortboard game. Beginner surfers who would benefit from a fast and an easy to turn board. Someone coming from a different board sport to surfing would really like this board – like a skateboarder or snowboarder. Also, people that are wanting to get away from the non-functional, primitive equipment aspects of the “ride anything” movement.
The Take Away:
The Cornice surfs very, very differently from 95 percent of the boards out there. We suggest demoing one for a solid session before buying it. The Cornice has many great performance qualities and traits in a variety of waves. It’s built to go fast, turn quick, and hold in hollow waves. However, I found it is missing in that hard, off the rail turning sensation. That said, you can watch power surfer Chuy Reyna riding The Cornice video below. He has no trouble throwing gouges and setting the board on rail.
Firewire’s aim is to make a non-traditional, high performance shortboards. And they’ve succeeded, to say the least. The board works. It’s fast, loose and holds an edge (albeit in a very different sensation).
We all know surfers are reluctant to step away from their high performance thrusters, but right now is a fantastic time in surfboard design, as experimentation is (thankfully) once again socially acceptable. So maybe it’s time for the sidecut design to stick around. It could open doors to new surfing sensations to stuck-in-a-rut surfers like myself.
