Moving in a different direction
It’s been a good week here in Cornwall for waves, and I’ve been surfing my new 5’10″ Keel Fin Fish to death, nothing will keep me off this board, unless it’s really small and then I might be on my surf matt, camera strapped to the front riding the tiny curl.
However it got me thinking… I’ve been surfing now for 10 years plus and up until fairly recently always on a 3 Fin 6’6″ Thruster, always – never dipping into other craft, then I watched ‘Morning of the earth’ and everything changed.
I shaped my first board, a Single Fin based on what I saw Michael Peterson riding in MOTE. For a first effort it wasn’t bad, maybe lacking foam but all the same I had dropped 2 Fins and discovered what surfing a Single Fin was all about, my intrigue quickly gained pace and a few years later I took my boards down to 6ft, added more foam and 4 Fins. Made by local shaper Will Eastham of surfboards UK the Quad has been a joy to surf, solid and fast, totally different to anything I had tried before, this was a different kind of surf again.
For a few years the Quad was swapped with my Single Fin, 3 Fin Thrusters a distant memory of the past… when I started to get intrigued by Twin Fins, particularly Keel Finns, so I went back to the shaper and gave him an idea of what I was after, old school back mixed with a modern pulled in nose, wide through the centre only with less volume than traditional Fishes. The result is a really fast, loose hybrid board, that is hard to leave out when the surf’s on.
I still have my old Thruster; I’ll ride it again, sometime. For now its all about variety and how much more fun surfing is with an open mind, whether its my single fin, quad, mat or twinnie, I’ll always be stoked, always loving trying different boards, always glad of MOTE.
Words & Images by Karl Mackie
