magic surfboards

Some surfboards contain magic.
I have one of these but had totally forgotten much it contained. Yesterday I rode for the first time in 5years.
And had one of the best surfs of my life.

Have you ever owned or ridden a magic surfboard?

I have had boards I really really liked, some boards helped progress my surfing far more than others while others still probably hampered it.  When I was younger every board was a magic board as it was my only board and lack of funds meant it had to be magic or else ha ha! 

In my later years with more cash and way more boards I have found varying degrees of magic.  Before one surf trip I ordered 4 boards, two 6’4” rounded square and two 6’5” rounded pins, for whatever reason two of them went better than the others and of those two one of them was truly amazing, just goes to show how difficult it can be to get that board.  Strangely enough when I broke the amazing board I jumped on one of the other what I thought was a lesser board but after a couple of surfs found things about that board I appreciated more than the others.

A fair bit of it can be psychological as well, I had an ok board that I didn’t mind at one stage, my friends and I went down to the hardware and bought some spray cans and proceeded to give some of our boards new spray jobs, for some reason that same board seemed to go a lot better after that, weird.

I believe the “magic” comes from an unexplainable element - like the shaper having a positive vibe and emotional connection to the board. It might have to do with the whole process from forming of the blank through to the glassing of the board.

I know with my TripleM (Magic-Mini-Mal) the shaper knew it was special. It wasn’t intended to be a special board, just something for my gf to learn on was what I asked for but with heavy glass 6bottom - 6/6top, but on delivery the way he handled it was different. He was particular to tell me it’s story instead of focusing on the custom 6’2” that was delivered at the same time.
- He was going to shape it from a mini-mal blank but had a gun blank he had reserved to try something with and it called to him.
- Used a mini-mal template and through every cut and plane everything went right and no corrections were needed.
- The glasser felt the same way and it all came together in record time.
- He took charge and refined it to a 4/6 top.
- And almost 7 years later the shaper (Dylan Perese - DPshapes) still remembers that board, just a few weeks ago I spoke to him while he was drinking in my bar, a certain glint was in his eye as he recalled the board.

Psychology does play a great role - I recall picking up the advice of before purchasing a board of the rack to pick one that “speaks” to you - one that you have a connection to, caress and handle it, feel it, listen to it.