Con Surfboards was founded by Con Colburn in 1958. His first surf shop, originally called the Surf House, was located in Santa Monica, California. A year later, two other retail shops were opened and Con changed the name of his surf shops to Con Surfboards.

Con Surfboards’ two most popular models were the ‘Ugly Surfboard’ and the ‘C.C. Rider Surfboard’. The Ugly model was created during the noseriding craze of the 60’s and showcased a ridiculously blunt nose perfect for long noserides. The C.C. Rider, designed by Claude Codgen helped Con Surfboards enter the growing East Coast surfing market and featured classic rocker and superb noseriding.

The company offers a variety of longboard designs from the original ‘Ugly Surfboard’, modern performance noserider, to the classic pin.

Glenn Pang has been Town & Country Surfboard’s lead shaper for quite some time now. Born in San Francisco, California, he began shaping for T&C in the 1980’s learning the art of shaping under the wings of Glenn Minami , Dick Brewer, Ben Aipa, and T&C founder Craig Sugihara.

Glenn’s shortboard and hybrid fish shapes are the most popular out in Oahu’s vast line-ups and the majority of boards in T&C shops have the G.Pang label on them. He believes that everyone has a unique surfing style and rhythm and the goal of a shaper is to match the surfer with the correct type of board and then fine tune things.

Glenn Pang’s shortboard designs leads T&C’s Surftech epoxy lineup offering his top designs in a stronger and more durable form.

He’s shaped for many top pros including Martin Potter, Marvin Foster and Jason Shibata to name a few with Rocky Point local Mikala Jones headlining the T&C team.

I just recently tested Surfco’s 9″ Proteck Powerflex longboard fin in our Kimo Greene 9’0 x 22″ x 3″ Honolulu model. I had been using a regular flex 9″ Proteck center fin as a single in the Honolulu model but we had a few days of pretty small/slower surf so I decided to give the flexible Powerflex fin a go. The main feature about the Powerflex fin is that it actually flexes in your turns and releases coming out. I have to say that this fin worked extremely well in the smaller/slower surf and gave the Honolulu model a smooth feel to it. Turns and cutbacks felt like butter and I could really feel the fin flexing just the right amount helping to smooth out my turns. The regular flex proteck fin felt a little too stiff in the slower waves and was slightly less forgiving in the smaller surf.

The only downside to this fin is that it only works well in shoulder/chest high surf and under. I found that in head to overhead plus surf the fin flexed too much and lacked enough drive to really generate sufficient speed but in the smaller surf it provided the perfect blend of flex and drive.

Surf Safer

The other great feature of the Powerflex fin along with all Proteck fins is that they protect you from nasty fin cuts. The Powerflex fin features a flexible core along with softer urethane edges which can save you and your fellow surfers a trip to the emergency room. Proteck fins perform just as well if not better than carbon and fiberglass fins. Research has shown that 66% of all surfing injuries are caused by the ultra sharp leading and trailing edges of carbon and fiberglass fins. Using Protecks gives me the confidence to attempt maneuvers without worrying about getting skegged. I’ve been hit by my Protecks numerous times and the worst I’ve received was a minor bruise. Had I been using fiberglass fins, I probably would have had 20 stitches in my leg. Many surfers have been making the switch and surfing smarter.

One of my Dave Parmenter fishes originally came with FCS triple plug keel fins. I’ve never seen keel fins on modern/hybrid fishes before so when I saw the fins on my fish I was somewhat skeptical. I’ve heard a few shapers say that keel fins are needed for retro fishes with wide tails. That being said, the FCS keel fins looked like a bit too much fin for my narrow tailed 5’9 fish. Another note worth mentioning is that the FCS keel fins are quite heavy and made my fish feel extremely tail heavy. I’m not exactly sure if that has any negative effects on performance but I think that lighter fins work better.

These fins weren’t working very well and the board was totally unresponsive without any speed. It was basically a dead duck in the water and a total dud! I decided to replace the heavy keel fins with the FCS MR Twin fins iand all of a sudden, the board had life again. The MR Twin fins created a unique blend of drive and looseness inn the turns which made this board a terror in smaller surf. The MR’s trailer fin (included in the MR twin set) created more drive in the Parmenter fish in larger surf. The MR fin with trailer is a very versatile system which allows you to change the dynamics of your board for a variety of conditions.

FCS MR Twin Fin with Trailer

The immense popularity of old school/retro style fishes has made the twin fin cool again. Surfers were so fixated on thruster fin setups for years but currently, it’s cool to have twins.

Most retro twin fin fishes utilize a fin of the past, also known as the keel fin. While most surfers probably don’t know the difference between the various types of keel fins, my own experience has shown me that the board being equal, different keel fins have different characteristics.

Old School Keel Fins

One of my favorite fish boards utilized a very old keel fin design without much rake in the fin (see photo below). When I first saw this board, I thought “Wow, that is an old school fin…it must be very hi-performance.” I was quite surprised at my first go out with the board. Most of the fishes I had ridden prior to that board were quite slippy and too loose for my liking. This board however, had tremendous drive and felt more like a thruster than a loose twin fin fish. If you’re looking for a twin fin with a good amount of drive yet still loose enough to throw your tail around, the old school keel fin is for you.

The only negative I have about these retro low rake keel fins is that they make it more difficult to release the fins than a fin with more rake. The low rake gives these keel fins an extremely wide base which is great for drive but less than great for turns and snaps. You can still throw your weight around with these fins, just not as easily as modern keel fins.

Keel fins with very low rake

Modern Keel Fins

If you’re a surfer who’s ridden a thruster fin setup for most of your life, a modern keel fin with moderate rake may be what you’re looking for. These fins make retro fishes extremely loose, almost to the point where you feel like you can push a turn hard enough and disengage the fins into a 360. I would say that these fins are perfect for the surfer who really wants to feel a significant difference from their standard thruster shortboard.

Moderate raked keel fin

Personally, I like my fishes to be slightly more drivey. That way, I can surf it like a thruster but with the wave catching ability and insane down the line speed of a fish. To summarize, if you want your fish to feel more like a thruster, go with the low rake keel fins. If you want an extremely loose and slippy board with the potential for 360’s in the pocket, get a moderate/high raked twin fin.

While taking a look at Firewire Surfboards, I also noticed Surtech’s new TL2 skinned surfboards. The intriguing aspect of these boards was that they looked and felt like a traditional fiberglass board. My gripe with Surftech boards has always been that they feel extremely stiff and dead. The company has been promoting the TL2 skin as their next advancement in epoxy technology which offers performance improving flex.

Technology

Each board features a Techlite blank which is hand finished. The board is then vacuum bagged where it is wrapped in epoxy, fiberglass, and Acrylite which ensures a superior glass job. The Acrylite provides durability while providing ‘Variable Flex Engineering’ which the company claims to produce “desired flex and drive.” The boards are then processed by finishing shapers for last minute fine tuning and then glassed with clear epoxy glass and hot coated.

What separates the new TL2 boards from the older Tuflite surfboards is that TL2 boards go through the scrutiny of a hand shaper where as the Tuflite boards were mass produced pop outs. I couldn’t believe how different the new TL2 boards felt and if they do provide greater flex and drive, these boards could prove to be a great improvement over the Tuflite boards of old. These boards only appear to be available in an off white color…a big change from the colorful epoxy boards of the past.

We will be testing a bunch of Surftech boards including TL2 boards in the new future…our Hawaii Surftech rep has been cool enough to hook it up. Read our Surftech reviews.

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Firewire Surfboards have finally hit Hawaii surf shops and the hype has been building. These boards have a Rolls Royce like price tag at over $700 a pop…I went into Hawaiian Island Creations and saw boards selling for $800! There’s been so much hype surrounding these boards and all I’ve been hearing is how Taj Burrow claims these boards are insane. For the steep price tag, I hope he’s right.

Firewire Technology

Firewire Surfboards feature their ‘Future Shapes Technology’ which produces flex memory and rapid rebound. Most of the hype surrounding these boards lie in the rails which utilize a parabolic balsa wood rail (not new technology). These boards have no center stringer and according to Firewire Surfboards, the wood rails flex and store energy (compress) throughout the turn and spring back to the original rocker (decompress) thereby releasing the energy in the form of speed which triggers rapid acceleration. All Firewire Surfboards are made with epoxy resin which ensures that these boards maintain their long lasting flex patterns unlike traditional fiberglass boards which lose their flex as they age.

Customization

While the majority of these stock surfboards are sold off the rack, the company’s website states that Firewire boards with custom dimensions can be ordered. However, I would expect the custom boards to take quite a while to get back to you.

Durability

One thing I noticed while looking at Firewire boards was that they lacked thickness. The company claims that their epoxy/composite surfboards are up to 20% lighter than traditional fiberglass surfboards which is why they can offer a shorter and thinner board. However, these boards last 5-10 times longer than tradition PU boards and the composite materials ensure that these boards do not loose their flex and ‘liveliness’.

Models

Flexfire – Standard shortboard outline with performance in mind and is designed for maximum speed and quick turning. The website claims “Flexfire series explodes through turns while the parabolic rail configuration guarantees 100% return memory for years.”

Alternator – Slightly more forgiving shortboard outline geared for the intermediate surfer designed to paddle well but still turn in a tight radius. Probably the most all around shortboard shape for average to intermediate surfers.

Quadraflex – Combines the control of the Alternator with the speed of a twin fin fish. This board basically looks like a shortboard with a wider swallow tail…board also features quad fin setup. This is Firewire Surfboard’s stab at the increasingly popular quad fin surfboard.

Futura – Somewhat of a modern fish outline and design. High top-end speed with tight turning ability in a thruster fin setup.

Fishtail – Retro twin fin fish design and in my opinion the most fun looking board in the Firewire quiver. Old school design meets new school composite materials and construction. A twin fin fish with parabolic rails means the fastest fish ever built? I find it hard to believe but if you see the regulars at your spot running circles around you with this board, the myth must be true.

Skeptic

I’m somewhat skeptical that these boards really explode out of turns with a greater amount of speed than traditional surfboards. The one aspect that has me questioning the worth of these boards is their epoxy construction. I’ve yet to find an epoxy surfboard that has really worked well in choppy, windy, or sub-par conditions. The company claims that these boards perform well in windy conditions but I’ll let you be the judge.

Perhaps the local rep here may let us test drive a few boards. We’ll let you know as soon as we ride one of these boards. Stay tuned for our conclusion.

Mike Hynson rose to fame in surfing’s iconic film ‘The Endless Summer’. His stylish surfing helped him become one of San Diego’s top surfers and he become one of the first surfers to surf the Banzai Pipeline on the North Shore of Oahu. A short time later, filmmaker Bruce Brown asked Hynson to star in his upcoming surf movie ‘The Endless Summer’. He went full time into shaping in 1959 and joined the Hobie Surfboard’s team in 1963. After filming ‘The Endless Summer’, he shaped for Gordon and Smith Surfboards and unveiled the triple stringer Hynson model, also known as the ‘red fin’ for its red skeg. He was also instrumental in creating the ‘tucked-under edge’ surfboard rail and invented the ‘DolFin’. The surfer turned shaper now shapes out of his studio in San Diego, California under his own label ‘Hynson and Company’ shaping “one-of-a-kind masterpieces” from balsa to foam.

Get it: www.michaelhynsonsurfboards.com

Edge Core Surf is a direct wholesaler based in San Diego, CA offering traditional fiberglass, epoxy, and carbon fiber boards direct to the public at discounted prices. Their current shapers include Tom Eberly, Wayne Rich, Joe Blair and Dennis Murphy (12’2″ Standup). Edge Core Surfboards can be shipped to any destination in the world. Our main warehouse is in Carlsbad, CA where we have our entire line of products from boards, board bags, and rash guards all at wholesale pricing! You can view their websites at www.bisect.com and www.edgecoresurf.com

Pope Bisect in action!

Keola Rapoza was born and raised in Makaha on Oahu’s west side. An accomplished surfer as well as shaper, Rapoza had been working for Town & Country Surfboards for several years and shaped T&C ‘s only Surftech epoxy longboard, dubbed the K Star. His progressive longboards have been tested to their limits from Pipeline to Ala Moana Bowls by top Hawaii surfers including Kekoa Uemura, one of Hawaii’s top up and coming pro longboarders.

Rumor has it that T&C cut the majority of their surfboard shapers and Rapoza has since started a new surfboard company called Home Grown. The company claims to be the only surfboard manufacturer producing environmentally friendly surfboards.