This design originated from “STAB” magazine's very 1st airshow at the WACO wave pool. Stab invited all the best ‘Aerial’ surfers from around the world to showcase who could land the craziest maneuver on a surfboard. One of those invitees was Matt Meola of Maui, Hawaii. At the time, AJW had never met nor shaped Meola a board, yet he ordered 3 boards as he was going to test a batch of different shapers boards at the pool prior to the event. His only requests: NEEDS to GO FAST + Extra POP, while hopefully stable enough to recover smoothly.
What AJW came up with was a 5’5″ slightly flatter yet semi fuller nose for a shortboard, a twist of their Xstump. This surfboard has extra volume in the front foot for stability and has a dropped tail rocker that is more similar to a fish rocker below 2″. AJW added soft, forgiving rails, combined with deeper concaves.
The very 1st session, Matt landed what some are calling one of the craziest airs to date doing a full backside ‘McTwist FLIP,’ and was later nominated at the Surfer Poll Awards as the “Maneuver of the Year.”
Not only is the board extremely forgiving for guys attempting crazy AIRs it is primarily a good daily driver fun board in everyday beach breaks. The surfboard paddles easy to get speed and its overall stability is forgiving in surf. If you like speed and to go for big sections, this is the board for you! Works best when ordered 3-4″ shorter and 1/2″ wider than regular shortboard. Have FUN go BIG!