Collaboration Cleanline EVO5 bonzer

Mark from Glass Tiger’s own 6’5” Cleanline EVO5 bonzer –  wood  by Mark, shape by yours truly. Mark will have this board and my Mentawais Cleanline 6’8” at Paddle Round the Pier this weekend.

 

Malcolm Campbell shaping blur

You know Guy has Malcolm working hard when you can’t even get him in focus!

That’s Malcolm (front) shaping Guy’s (rear) new post-lunch Egg… Sorry to see Malcolm go so soon, but on the plus side I can get in the shaping bay again.

Get plugged

FCS rears for the EVO6 set up going in tomorrow…

BoardJam 24th July

Come along and try out some boards if you are in the area.

6’8” Cleanline EVO5 bonzer review

  

This was designed for the Mentawais trip this March – it was the board i took out if i was feeling a little insecure. It was so stable and confidence inspiring and did exactly what it said on the box… smooth clean lines, no dramas. It got in early and drove down the face nicely. What i hadn’t expected was for it to go as well as it did this morning at Nettles, (my nickname for this great A frame beachbreak with a 30 minute walk and a little goat tracking). Head high set A frames, shoulder high walls, with the lefts being the better option. The board was, as usual, beautifully stable and unflappable even over the odd bit of chop. I don’t know how much of this is to do with the wood and the parabolics (thanks Mark) vs. the shape, but as a package it all works beautifully. The robustness is also impressive, especially as it is the same weight as a comparable PU board even with all the wood.

Today the board excelled in the small stuff driving calmly but quickly across the faces and yet being able to come hard off the bottom and the top. I was playing around a bit as well, trying to put some of Russell Winter’s tips from the trip into action… and one one wave it worked so sweetly I couldn’t quite believe it was possible on a 6’8 board. Half way along the wave I set up for a section with a really hard bottom turn and then drove acutely back up the face, and instead of rotating too early (and not getting vertical) I kept low, delayed the turn, keeping on the rail  and came right up onto the lip, pivoted round hard a fast and back into the face and onto the next section… thanks Russ! 

So i guess my conclusion is if you wanted only one board, and it needed to be strong, light, would go in small and large waves, with enough float and glide to make surfing a bit easier… then this would be at the top of my list. Oh, and the wood also feels as good as it looks.

fresh foam

5’8” New Sprat Keelfish bonzer | 6’0” Porpoise Tubercle bonzer | 6’4” Atlantic POD EVO6 bonzer ready for shaping…

more fin…