5′8 Surftech New Toy Dimensions: 5′8 x 20 1/8″ x 2″ 5/8

Surftech’s brand spanking new New Toy by Doc Lauch of Surf Prescriptions features a pretty rad checker board paint job in Tuflite construction. The New Toy comes with Future quad fins with real pivots. Overall, the board looks like a wide/fat shortboard with a lot of thickness in the middle…and seemed to be the perfect grovel board.

I took this board out in small mushy waves and surfed it for a week straight. It paddled well and caught waves pretty easy but didn’t quite have a whole lot of speed in the mushy garbage surf as the Xanadu Wave Rocket. The board required you to surf in the pocket as it lost a lot of its speed way out on the shoulder. Some background on the wave I surfed…it’s a right hand wave that has its moments but for the most part is a pretty sub-par wave…quick barrel section (sometimes) and then mushes out until the reform on the inside…you’re basically able to do two maneuvers if you’re lucky and one cutback before the reform.

For most of the week, the waves were pretty small (3-5 ft faces) and slow all of which I struggled to get the board going and gain any kind of speed. I did manage to score a couple of waves that bowled a bit more providing a steeper face and better wall to drive across and the board finally came alive. This board rides more like a wider shortboard than a grovel fish.

The board works great with a longer and steeper wave (doesn’t have to be fully barreling but enough of a face to generate speed). It works great for those who don’t want to fully commit to a retro fish but want some of the benefits that fishes provide (better paddling/wave catching and speed) again when on the right type of wave. It also works for surfers who predominately ride fishes but want to ride more of a shortboard outline but can’t really get a stock high performance shortie to work well. Remember to keep the board close to the pocket…it also works well backside…much better than your average wide tailed fish…obviously due to its rounded tail and pointy nose. I personally rather ride the Wave Rocket in smaller surf.

The only real negative about this board is the black checkered paint job…you’ll find your wax melting within seconds on a hot day so make sure you wax prior to getting to the beach or carry a stick of wax in your pocket and wax in the water.