Following on from the unprecedented success of the Seaside we have literally been dying to get our hands on the new Seaside and Beyond from Rob Machado and Firewire Surfboards.
That day came to us when we took delivery of a sample board in the first week of January 2020 and the surf was looking real good for our first surf of 2020 on the east coast.
The alarm was set real early for Sunday morning for a good old fashioned dawn patrol east coast style. After picking up shop manager and local charger Scotty, we headed just south of Scarborough to a local reef break with the conditions looking perfect with a 15 second long range groundswell backed up with a steadily rising through the day offshore wind.
Stumbling across the reef in darkness my first impressions were on how the board still had plenty of width across the middle and felt a little longer than what I traditionally have ridden. At 48 and starting to slow down a little, I felt the extra stretched out length of the Seaside and Beyond would get me into the waves a little easier, making the wave count a little better as it was pretty crowded with a friendly local pack for so early in the morning.
The demo board was a 7’0 and initial impressions paddling out were how well the buoyancy was proportioned.The float was under your chest and at approx. 45 Litres the first few duck dives were relatively easy as the volume is distributed pretty well throughout the length of the board.
After taking a long paddle out in the dark, as the sun rose I manged to pick off a few of the wider sets from the main pick. Whilst the young guns were all jostling on the main peak, I used the extra length and volume to sit wider and take the fun wider ones. My initial first wave in a solid 4-5ft range was fun, the board paddled well and the take off was nice and easy, plenty of time to make the drop and bottom turn.
I’m not going to deny, the longer length and initial Xmas over indulgence made the first few waves slightly awkward and the board felt a lot longer than the traditional 6’0 Boards I normally ride. However as I picked a few more waves, once I’d found the sweet spot the board really seemed to fly round sections that sometimes I may have struggled with. You could really feel the speed, drive and responsiveness of the Quad setup of Rob Machado designed Future fins. It’s worth noting that you can use this with any set of quad only future fins, but we believe that if Mr Machado is going to take the time to design a fine specially for the Seaside, then it is bound to work well as he is infinitely better qualified to pass judgement than any of us mere mortals. The pulled in swallow tail of the board really made it feel fast and responsive once your foot placement was in the right spot the board really turned like a much shorter length board.
If your used to surfing mid lengths then you should jump on this and have fun right away and be used to that feeling of having that extra 1’ or so in front of you, but what really put a smile on my face was the feeling of glide that this board gave me. It seemed to cruise around sections and the medium hard rails made it feel both responsive and fast with the quad fin setup.
All in all after reflecting on a really good surf, the biggest thing I remember is the smile on my face. I literally had plenty of waves, when others were struggling due to the crowds I caught my share and really enjoyed the glide of this surfboard. In the right hands this board really turns well and we’ve all seen the videos of Rob surfing this board so we know it performs.
We have this board in stock now and is available in both future fins and FCS2 and is available in 6’8, 7’0 or 7’4.
Take your pick folks, we have a 7’0 Demo board currently instore ready to try and with the boards landing week commencing 13th January, we are sure this will be one of the most popular models of 2020.
Now, let me find an old checked shirt and a beat up old minivan to complete the look, whilst you watch the video review below! Happy New Year…Secretspot
