Bobby, about to blast off. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
The mark of a great surfer isn’t what they can do in perfect waves. Sure, that’s part of it, but you can’t do amazing things in perfect waves without getting a solid foundation in average ones. Bobby Martinez, a guy who stopped surfing perfect waves on the tour, still surfs perfect waves incredibly well, but average waves are just that: the waves that most of us not on tour see every day. And Bobby Martinez, who is not on tour, sees the same kind of thing every day. He just surfs them a little better than most.
Bobby, who generally rides a shortboard in the 5’8″ range, got a custom quad with his name on it. It’s aptly named the “Bobby Quad,” but for this clip, shot in Bobby’s backyard around Santa Barbara, he decided to take it down to the 5’2” or 5’3″ range.
“By shortening the rail line and distributing the volume into the width throughout the plan shape,” the Channel Islands team wrote, “he said he’d be able to skate over the flats and carry enough speed to still fit in his signature gouges.”
Those signature gouges, one would imagine, would be easier when there is more than a two-foot wave to do them on, but Bobby does just fine. The model he’s on, you see, is designed to be ridden 3” to 6” shorter and ¼” to 1/2” wider than your shortboard, which might feel a little too fat and flat for some people’s liking. The CI team took that into account in creating this little disc, though.
“The Bobby Quad has a low entry rocker that goes into a flat planing surface under the gas pedal portion of the board that provides the speed to get into waves and over those flat sections,” they explained. “The exit rocker and bottom contours are designed to be all business – with performance oriented flip and generous double concave for added lift to help Bobby boogie down the line in gutless waves. Its tail rocker profile, combined with some width in the tail and modified swallow, provide speed and hold during quick directional changes.”
