Steph Gilmore loves her DHDs. Photo: Cestari/WSL

Less Nose

“I was paying attention to everything [at the Founders’ Cup], and a lot of the mistakes and wipeouts were caused by catching the nose and losing control, whether through a turn or the bottom of the wave. So, let’s eliminate that point in the nose that doesn’t really need to be there, even if it’s just a couple inches. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a full chop nose, maybe just two or three inches off might help them fit the curve of the wave a little bit better.”
— Daniel “Tomo” Thomson, Firewire

Epoxy vs. Poly

“Kolohe [Andino] was locked in on a regular foam board, and he put his knee through it. He got on the epoxy for the second wind, and it just… I don’t know. I think we can do really good deals with the EPS foam here, but we’d have to adjust them. Lay them down and thin them out. It’ll be an evolution, a process, but we can definitely make better boards for the pool.”
— Matt Biolos, …Lost

“I think epoxy is good gear. Everyone’s talking about it — it’s freshwater, there’s not as much buoyancy — but that doesn’t seem to come into play that much. Some of the riders I’ve been talking to are liking epoxies out here. Others are not. I think that’s more of a preference. Once I rode both, I was surprised at how little of an issue it was.”
— Britt Merrick, Channel Islands

“Across the team [we brought to the Surf Ranch], none of the surfers preferred their epoxy models and stuck to PU.”
— Darren Handley, DHD