Surfboards 2.0

Once reserved for the young and the expert, shortboards have been reinvented thanks to advances in technology and design. For about $1,000, you can hit the waves with a bold new attitude.

- DANIEL DUANE

A SNARKY REMARK by my friend Kevin changed everything I thought I knew about surfboards. After parking in front of his house by San Francisco's Ocean Beach, I unloaded the hefty eight-foot surfboard that guys like us ride when we reach middle age. But Kevin, 62, appeared with a snazzy little 6-foot-4-inch shortboard that looked like something 11-time world champion Kelly Slater would have ridden in his heyday.

Shortboards are like Formula One race cars insanely fast and fun, but super hard to ride. Kevin and I both gave them up back in the 1990s. And yet, here was Kevin scoffing at my big old-dude board with a friendsdon't-let-friends vibe, and saying, "Is that really what you're riding?"

I thought he was deluded until we hit the water. Kevin caught a wave and slashed the biggest turn I'd seen him make in decades. We traded boards and I noticed that Kevin's new toy was wider, thicker, and flatter than the shortboards of the '90s, which were famously potato-chip-thin and highly curved from nose to tail. It surfed like a dream: I caught a wave, ripped around like an adrenalized kid, and realized that something profound has changed in shortboard design.

I did some Googling over a post-surf burrito and learned that the revolution in contemporary surfboard production has two distinct parts: First, new shaping techniques have made shortboards much easier for older and bigger surfers to enjoy; second, top surfboard companies like Channel Islands, Lost, and Pyzel have pioneered an unusual fusion of artisanal craftsmanship and computerized efficiency to let any surfer anywhere order one of these shortboards perfectly customized to their own skill level, body size, and surf conditions-all for about $1,000.