Duane’s New Gun

You may remember us writing about Duane’s broken board recently.  His replacement board just came in.   It’s an 8’5″ x 19″ x 2.75″ gun, very similar to the one he broke.  More interestin though is what Duane wrote to me:

It’s an 8’5″ North Shore gun made for double to triple overhead surf.  One thing I’ve learned about surfing the North Shore is I need to have faith in my equipment.  This guy Dennis Pang has been shaping boards specifically for the North Shore for years.  He’s super familiar with the places I surf, who I surf with, and how I surf.

What really struck me was how serious board buying can be when you surf the North Shore or any other heavy wave.  I’d never even thought about it before.  But for most of us, we can buy a beater and if it turns out to be junk, no harm done. But when you are surfing in anything overhead or higher, you really do need to trust your board (and yourself!).  And by extension, you’d need to trust your shaper.