For many years, the course of of creating a surfboard has roughly been the identical: Lower a chunk of froth. Put a picket stringer down the center to offer construction and power. Form it, then wrap it in fiberglass, sand it, and go away holes for the leash and fins. That was till Firewire Surfboards got here alongside. Now the corporate makes use of a 21-step development course of and a dizzying assortment of aerospace-grade foams, carbon fiber, and bio-resins to supply a board that appears straight out of science fiction.
The surf world tends to favor the tried and true, however in Firewire’s case, each new materials and design serves a objective. A lot to each Luddite wave-rider’s chagrin, the boards work actually rattling properly. I spent a lot of the fall and winter testing out three new boards from Firewire—the Neutrino, the Machado, and the Revo Max. Every makes use of totally different supplies and totally different designs made for various wave varieties (and surfers). Right here’s what I discovered.
A Little bit of Backstory
Firewire Surfboards
Machadocado (2026)
In December 2005, Clark Foam abruptly closed its doorways in an occasion that grew to become often called “Clean Monday.” Clark made roughly 90 p.c of the standard polyurethane (PU) surfboard blanks that have been being offered, and all of a sudden board makers have been compelled to scramble for different core supplies. Many within the business turned to expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam, which additionally required using epoxy resins, as a result of conventional PU resins soften EPS.
Nonetheless, EPS offered some important efficiency points. First, it possessed roughly 8 p.c extra buoyancy than PU, leading to a “corky” trip that left surfers feeling like they have been floating awkwardly on prime of the water somewhat than digging into it. It additionally didn’t flex the identical manner, which modified the best way a board turns.
Across the similar time, Australian shapers Nev Hyman and Bert Burger have been collaborating on a radically totally different design. A deck pores and skin was affixed to the highest and the underside of the EPS foam core, in what grew to become colloquially known as “sandwich development.” These skins have been manufactured from 3-mm thick aerospace composite materials that added structural integrity and vibration dampening, in addition to dent resistance. The entire sandwich is vacuum-bagged collectively.
Essentially the most noticeable change, although, was the removing of the central picket stringer that ran down the board from nostril to tail. As an alternative, it was changed with two parabolic rails that run down both sides of the board. Not solely did these two picket rails present extra management, however they pop you out of your turns with slightly extra velocity. This development would turn out to be often called Future Shapes Expertise (FST).
