The funky new board that just might change surfing as we know it.
When Thomas Meyerhoffer quit his posh gig designing for Apple in 1998, he found himself surfing. A lot. And as designers do, he started to tinker with his gear. “I wanted to build a longboard that turns with the speed of a shorty,” he says. Some dozens of prototypes and thousands of waves later, the result of Meyerhoffer’s work is arriving in surf shops this summer.
Purists may scoff at its revolutionary look—it’s a surfing Frankenstein, with the narrow back end of a sleek performance board, a trimmed-down midsection, and the long, flat snout of a longboard. Frankly, we think it looks a little like a pregnancy test kit for a whale. But after riding the thing, we’re hooked. In the choppy surf off Montauk, New York, the “Meyer-hoffer” had us catching waves earlier than any shortboarder could, and the superbuoyant, stable design made standing up, pivoting the 9'6" stick, and cruising through the inside break a cinch.
Our favorite part? Girls on the beach with hourglass shapes asking us about our board’s hourglass shape. Looking to go from beach zero to surf hero? This is your board.
From $645, surfindustries.com/modern