Matt Barrow, Rusty UK

“In the UK it seems that surfers are getting more and more into their performance surfing and subsequently working closer with custom shapers to buy boards that suit their exact needs. This way they can progress their surfing to the next level. As the sport continues to grow and people become more clued up, your average surfer is no longer happy just buying a stock board, and so we’re seeing a continued increase in custom orders.”

John Purton, JP Surfboards, UK

“I’ll be concentrating on refining foils, plan shapes and playing around with different fin setups. We’re fully into volume in the tail area, especially in smaller high performance waves. I’ve been tweaking the amount of tuck in the rails depending on the surfer and how they surf. But everything works. They’re ain’t no magic formula or at least we haven’t found it yet.”

Bruce McKee, McKee Surboards, Portugal

“People are informing me about alot of four-fin related activity, especially in Oz with the growth of fish-type Quads.”

Pete Daniels, Pukas Surfboards, Spain

“Speaking for ASP tour surfers, boards are becoming a bit shorter, 1” to 1½” inches, 1/8” wider, flatter, more even foil, slightly fuller low box rails and fibreglass fixed fins. I’m also seeing more full concaves, 12” from nose to 12” from tail for fast innovative radical surfing as being done on tour last year by guys like young Brazilian Adriano de Souza – blowing all opposition away on 5’9”s. In general, this shorter trend also exists in the commercial market with fishes, hybrids etc.”

Matt Biolos, …Lost Surfboards, USA

“On the high-end competitive performance boards, the trends I have seen lately are pretty subtle. Deeper concaves going further into the rear of the tail and more tuck to take the twitchiness out are pretty relevant right now. Straight stringer rockers and curvy rail rockers are coming back again as well, I have been locking at my stringer to rail rocker relationships from boards we did in the late 90’s for new inspiration… but with added tuck and more thought into the fins than at that time.”

Gero Tragatschnig, Fatum Surfboards, Portugal

“The trend towards boards that are just plain fun to ride, even if you get a little more volume or some extra width along in the package. I think shortboard-envy is a thing of the past. At the high-end side of surfing I think we’re going to see some more fine-tuning, especially around the fin-setup and bottom-shape, just to squeeze every last drop of performance out of the almost perfected shortboard designs.”

Nick Uricchio, Semente Surfboards, Portugal

“2006 will again be a year of subtle refinement. Concave bottoms will continue to dominate most shaping bays as speed is the key to bustin’ big manoeuvres. Bump wings and a bit more width in planshapes as in 2005 will continue. The wing enables us to keep some width under your backfoot using the bump to draw tails in and therefore tighten your turning arc. Thickness distribution and rail line will work together to keep boards balanced, loose and responsive.”

Jean Pierre Stark, Stark Surfboards, France

“Retro shapes are back in fashion with increased orders of my AEROCKET and BIGFISH models. These boards combine vee and concave shapes with much flatter rockers, giving them more speed for smaller surf conditions. Riders seem to be very happy with the new S-Core technology too. They’re a lot more dynamic and responsive, and seem to open up a whole range of new options.”