Kelly Slater, admiring his new baby. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
Kelly Slater is a man who knows surfboards. It’s impossible not to when you’re an 11-time world champion, but even with all his accolades, Kelly is incredibly invested in the creation of surfboards. Literally as well as figuratively, since he’s a majority owner of Firewire. His most recent addition to the Firewire lineup is a shape called the Mindcraft, and he had some help from Daniel Thomson, better known as Tomo.
“The Mindcraft was designed to connect the surfer to their equipment like never before,” reads the description. “A mind-surfing experience from the minds of two visionaries.”
Slater’s wants when it comes to surfboards are similar to anyone else’s. Basically, a board that connects with you and the wave so well that it feels like an extension of you. If you’re lucky, you might’ve had a taste of a truly magic board — one that seems to do what you want it to do as you’re thinking about doing it. It’s rare, but it’s possible. I’m not sure whether that would be harder or easier to find for someone like Slater, but he knows what he wants, and he’s constantly looking for it.
I want a board to get out of my way,” says Kelly. “I want to be able to feel like it can go anywhere on the face.”
It’s a bit of an odd duck, the Mindcraft, but surfboards, especially in the last decade or so, have become wildly more varied. Mid-lengths are everywhere. Asymmetricals too. Tomo has made a handful of strange-looking crafts, all to generally great feedback, but the Mindcraft is a little less obviously a Tomo shape.
“The bottom contours are smoother, more continuous, and more subtle compared to Tomo’s past models, offering plenty of speed and flow with a moderate performance rocker,” the description continues. “There’s a single to double concave that keeps the design engaged with the wave face while still offering lively response familiar to Tomo’s other designs.”
It’s not a board for bigger waves, but if we’re being honest with ourselves, bigger waves aren’t daily waves. This one apparently excels in waves in the 2-6 foot range. For an everyday rider, the Mindcraft looks like it might be a pretty good go-to.
