A Parallel Universe

Neal Purchase Junior reimagines dual-finned surfcraft with his Duo design

- Matthew Shaw

Talking with Neal Purchase Junior, it’s clear the renowned Queensland shaper is a firm believer in the design-world adage that form should follow function.

“I don’t like to see crazy or wacky shit with no thought behind it, just for the sake of being weird,” Purchase says. “I like to see function.”

Purchase’s Duo model—a voluminous egg with two raked single-fins that curve backward from parallel fin boxes—may look like “wacky shit” at a glance, but the design is no gimmick, and Purchase has made believers of surfers like Jared Mell, Harrison Roach, Chippa Wilson, and many others.

The parallel-finned design is a product of Purchase’s unique perspective on shaping and surfing. As a second-generation shaper, he knows his way around a planer, and as a surfer who’s featured in acclaimed filmmaker Andrew Kidman’s surf movies, he also has the wave-riding talent to put his designs through the paces. Purchase came of age in the ’90s, when the mainstream approach to surfing and board design was largely one-dimensional, but has spent the last three decades branching out.