Best Surfboards of 2020

With another year in the books, we wanted to look back at some of our favorite surfboards we built last year. 

Disclaimer: With the excitement of New Board Fridays and customers coming to pick up their custom board after weeks of patiently waiting, often times boards sneak out the door without getting proper photos taken.  If you feel like we missed yours, let us hear about it.. send us a photo or tag us on instagram letting us know your board deserves to be in the best of 2020.

Without further delay, here are a few of our favorite boards that we built in 2020: 

Which board: 5'7 Sandia Fish
Why we picked it: We still love every nautical chart print board that comes out.  So many details to explore.  We really like how the charts look on a fish template.

 

Which board is it: 9'6 Lumberjack
Why we picked it: The combination of the white opaque and the blue tint makes this board really stand out.

Which board: 7'6 Joy
Why we picked it: The topo map was a slightly different take on the nautical chart series.  And we're big fans of Rivian.

Which board: 6'0 Big Bueno Fish (BBF)
Why we picked it: 6'0 was the smallest stock BBF we had written up to date, and we really liked how this one came out.  A round-nosed fish option with plenty of maneuverability. 

Which board: 9'4 Surf Thump
Why we picked it: Panels.  Panels look so clean on a surfboard, and our eyes are always drawn to them.

Which board: 9'4 Surf Thump
why we picked it: Neutral color tints and multiple stringers.  This general aesthetic has been the dominant color pallet of our brand for the last dozen years.  We'd like to think this look is timeless and will always stand out in the lineup.

Which board: 9'6 Sano Special
Why we picked it: The steel blue tint with the polish finish just seems right.  Understated but beautiful.

Which board: 6'4 Pleasant Pheasant
Why we picked it:  The light brown tint from the deck (not pictured) wraps around to meet the blue tint from the bottom, creating a green rail that can only be created when two complimentary colors come together.

Which board: 6'4 BBF
Why we picked it: We just really like the colors here—tan bottom and blue deck makes for a pop of color when you lay into a bottom turn.

Which board: 6'4 Pleasant Pheasant
Why we picked it: The nautical charts get us excited, but the Navy Blue nautical charts really make a statement.  Expect to see more of these in 2021.

Which boards: 6'4 and 6'6 Pleasant Pheasant
Why we picked them: We did this pair of balsa wood Pheasants in collaboration with our friend Jeff Beck from Nine Lights Surfboards.  We shaped a pair of our beloved Pheasant models and Jeff gave them the incredible balsa wood treatment that he is known for.

Which board: 9'8 Lumberjack
Why we picked it: The warm tones of this resin tint seemed to capture the hope of bright days ahead.

Which board: 9'6 Surf Thump
Why we picked it: The split-color panels check all the aesthetic boxes in our book.

Which board: 7'6 Joy
Why we picked it: Our friend Abe took this board to Baja and filmed a beautiful first-person GoPro video riding it in dreamlike right-hand point breaks.  This board makes it not only for the bright golden tint, but for the dream of perfect, empty waves.

Which board: 5'7 Sandia Fish
Why we picked it: Nautical Chart of Santa Cruz

Which board: 8'8 Cash-Yew II
Why we picked it: We didn't do as many split-color tint boards last year, but the blue on blue stood out.  Also, the mini glider is a great way to catch waves early & often, which we always like.

Which boards: All three of these BBF's
Why we picked them: Because 3 BBF's is better than 1 BBF, and we loved how these looked together.

Which board: 9'6 Lumberjack
Why we picked it: We raffled this board off in the Spring to help a family member with medical bills and you guys showed up and generously helped us raise some money to make someone's year way better.  Thank you to our community!

Which board: 5'8 Special Recipe Fish
Why we picked it: This one was part of a series we did for our friends at Howler Bros.  Utilizing one of their beautiful textile prints on the deck of a Special Recipe Fish.Which board: 8'0 Joy
Why we picked it: Once again, we are big suckers for the Navy Nautical chart look.

Which board: 6'4 R-Series Pleasant Pheasant
Why we picked it: The 6'4 Pheasant was the newest addition to the R-Series line in 2020.  It's a mid-sized board that we absolutely love.  We're thrilled to now build it in the R-Series construction.

Which board: 6'4 R-Series Pleasant Pheasant | Huckberry
Why we picked it: This collaboration brought together one of our favorite boards, favorite artists, and favorite retailers.  Yusuke Hanai illustrated the deck of this three-way effort.  Very stoked on how it turned out and capped off our 2020.

Thank you all for the support in 2020.  We are happy to see people spending so much time in the water.  Treat each other well, share a wave once in a while, and we'll do our best to build even more great boards in 2021.