Kelly Slater's New Surfboard Was Inspired By A Great White Shark
Eleven-time world champion Kelly Slater has been pushing the sport of surfing forward ever since he blew up on the scene in the early ‘90s, and more than 30 years later he’s still doing it. Releasing his newest surfboard model via his Slater Designs label this week, he’s taking a page out of Mother Nature’s book to drive the performance ever forward—namely he borrowed the outline and curves of the ocean’s most iconic apex predator, the Great White Shark.
“It’s called the Great White Twin because the board is literally a template of an outline of a Great White Shark,” Slater shares.
Over three years in the works, the board is a collaboration with Indonesian-based shaper Mike Woo. And while it took the last few years to fine tune the details and get it ready for public consumption, Slater, who’s long been a fan of the twin-fin design, knew him and Woo were onto something immediately.
“We made one and straight away the board was unbelievable, I didn’t want to ride anything else,” Slater shared on a recent podcast with Firewire Surfboards.
“I think where part of the lack of evolution happened in twins is as thrusters became more rockered and radical, twins kind of stayed more flat and traditional,” Slater explains. “With [the Great White Twin] what I’ve noticed is backhand especially, it’s much more versatile in the pocket than a standard twin fin would be. You can actually go up and throw the tail out right up in the pocket, in the lip, backhand. Which is pretty hard. I’ve never liked going backhand on Twin Fins [until now].”
Beyond the shape of the new Great White Twin, it’s been built using proprietary I-Bolic Technology with Volcanic Lamination, making it extremely durable and versatile.
“I just noticed when I would get a board just literally off the rack, it has our deck skin on it, and I wouldn’t dent them, and it would just last me forever, and I’d surf for like, months on a board and it would hardly look like I rode it. And for whatever reason, they seem to be more consistent than customs,” Slater claims.
So, why design a surfboard modeled after a Great White Shark anyway? Where did the idea come from? For Slater it goes all the way back to his grom days in Florida in the ‘70s.
“My first board has a painting of the ‘Jaws’ poster, ever since I’ve had this sort of Jaws fascination,” Slater admits.
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With more than 25 years of writing about surfing, the ocean and action sports, Jake Howard continues to share stories, profiles and issues that shape the surfing world. One of the premier subject-matter experts in the field today, he's savvy in the ways of print, digital and social media, his breadth of work is expansive. Getting his start writing Surfline surf reports and recording the phone reports for 976-SURF in the late '90s, Jake served as the managing editor for Surfer Magazine in the early 2000s before moving on to launch RedBullSurfing.com and cover surfing for ESPN and the X Games. Over the years, Jake has also enjoyed time behind the edit desk at The Surfer's Journal, as well as the World Surf League, where he worked as the Senior Editor for a number of years. Beyond producing editorial content, Jake has served as a digital marketer and copywriter for iconic surf brands such as Quiksilver, Roxy and Rip Curl. Writing thousands of pages of copy for Surfline, he has deep SEO experience as well. The surf columnist for the San Clemente Times, Jake continues to dedicate himself to the culture and history of the sport through his involvement with the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente.