Saturday, March 27, 2010

Von Sol Surfboards...very stoke-inducing

So over the past few years, I've owned 3 Hynson fish designs (twinzer,
Black Knight quad,and Black Knight quad II), and all three of them have
been unreal surfboards. Surfing 90% of the time here in Oceanside,
I ocassionally run into Sean Mattison, a former pro surfer, former
'board czar' for SurfRide surf shop, current US Surf Team coach, and
co-designer of the 3 board models mentioned above. Since he knew the
boards better than anyone, he would always offer me suggestions about
fins, positioning, etc. in order to maximize the performance of my
boards, even though none of them had been purchased from him and
he hadn't made a dime off me. Pretty cool, I thought.
Fast forward a bit and I run into Sean at N. Jetty one day after getting
out of the water, with BKQII under arm. He has 2 new boards with
him and is very stoked to show me that these are the first two in a
new line of surfboards he's starting up, Von Sol. Both boards look
insane and, knowing how well his other designs work for me, I ordered
one of each within a few days. They ended up being named the
'Moonfish' and 'Double Black Diamond'. Both end up being great boards...
the Moonfish as an ideal day-to-day fish shape for the local waves and
the DBD as a great board in better waves.
What I love about Mattison's designs is that they catch waves well, get
up to speed almost instantly, and are still able to be surfed more
aggressively than most traditional fish shapes. In his quest to find
the 'what's next?' after the fish, he shaped himself a board shortly after
with a fish front-end, but a round-pin tail with a single, elevated wing
to provide some release. Since he's not really a 'shaper' himself
(but instead, a designer), he was nervous about how it would work.
Once he surfed it, he couldn't wipe the grin off his face and ended up
saying he surfed in almost exclusively on trips to Nica and New
Zealand. So, I ordered one of these too! Dubbed the 'Shadow' I
got it from him recently and have surfed it only a couple times so
far in pretty sloppy surf. True to form, it has the paddle, wave catching,
and speed of a fish, but a much different feel through turns...almost
a more buttery smooth shortboard-esque feel. I really look forward to
getting this one into some better waves to suss it out.
The bottom line is this: Mattison knows his shit when it comes to
designing fun and functional fish designs for all types of conditions and
all types of surfers. I'm pretty stoked to be able to benefit from
these designs.

2 comments:

  1. any new feedback or review of the shadow now that you have had it for a bit? i am considering ordering one to replace my fish. it looks sick!

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  2. I have both the 7-6 shadow and the 8-0. If you want a longboard paddle with a shortboard turning ability, the 8-0 is it. If you want a little more vertical and still have some good paddle speed, the 7-6 is the bomb.

    I love both these boards and the way they turn. I am thinking about buying Sean's new Galaxy long board. I canT say enough about the quality, construction and design of these boards. I have own many different brands and these by far top them all.

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