For decades, the process of making a surfboard has more or less been the same: Cut a piece of foam. Put a wooden stringer down the middle to provide structure and strength. Shape it, then wrap it in fiberglass, sand it, and leave holes for the leash and fins. That was until Firewire Surfboards came along. Now the company uses a 21-step construction process and a dizzying assortment of aerospace-grade foams, carbon fiber, and bio-resins to produce a board that looks straight out of science fiction.

The surf world tends to favor the tried and true, but in Firewire’s case, every new material and design serves a purpose. Much to every Luddite wave-rider’s chagrin, the boards work really damn well. I spent most of the fall and winter testing out three new boards from Firewire—the Neutrino, the Machado, and the Revo Max. Each uses different materials and different designs made for different wave types (and surfers). Here’s what I found.

A Bit of Backstory

In December 2005, Clark Foam abruptly closed its doors in an event that became known as “Blank Monday.” Clark made roughly 90 percent of the traditional polyurethane (PU) surfboard blanks that were being sold, and suddenly board makers were forced to scramble for alternative core materials. Many in the industry turned to expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam, which also required the use of epoxy resins, because traditional PU resins melt EPS.

However, EPS presented some significant performance issues. First, it possessed roughly 8 percent more buoyancy than PU, resulting in a “corky” ride that left surfers feeling like they were floating awkwardly on top of the water rather than digging into it. It also didn’t flex the same way, which changed the way a board turns.

Around the same time, Australian shapers Nev Hyman and Bert Burger were collaborating on a radically different design. A deck skin was affixed to the top and the bottom of the EPS foam core, in what became colloquially referred to as “sandwich construction.” These skins were made of 3-mm thick aerospace composite material that added structural integrity and vibration dampening, as well as dent resistance. The whole sandwich is vacuum-bagged together.

The most noticeable change, though, was the removal of the central wooden stringer that ran down the board from nose to tail. Instead, it was replaced with two parabolic rails that run down each side of the board. Not only did these two wooden rails provide more control, but they pop you out of your turns with a little more speed. This construction would become known as Future Shapes Technology (FST).