Experimental Surfboard Design Inspired by a Golf Ball

Originally posted on SURFER | By Jake Howard | Last updated Dec 2, 2024 6:23 PM ET

Surfers will try anything to gain a performance advantage in the water. In fact, it's that sense of adventure and experimentation that has lead to some of surfboard design's greatest advancements. Hell, without some good, old-fashioned, mad scientist experimentation on the part of shaping greats like Dick Brewer and Bob McTavish, we might all still be riding single-fin logs.

And that takes us to the cusp of 2025 and Casey Buck's new Phazer design. Taking inspiration from the dimples on a golf ball, the bottom of the back half of the board is pocked with shallow holes in an effort to reduce drag and make the board faster. Based in Dana Point, working with master craftsman Timmy Patterson as of late, Buck's new model is featured on the latest episode of "Shralp Stories."

"In a tight, fast-moving, powerful wave it worked amazing," testifies test pilot Kolton Sullivan after taking the board for a spin in a variety of conditions.

And just a little backstory on Sullivan for those less familiar with the man's talents, he's an underground Orange County core lord that's got style for days and an affinity for varying surfboard designs. He's learned the art of board building from Patterson and has been shaping under his own label for the last couple years. He's a hell of a nice guy and the perfect guy to talk surfboards.

"It went super fast, made barels, turned when it needed to," continues Sullivan. "There were plenty of moments when this board felt insane and super fast."

Sullivan left it undetermined how the Phazer worked in smaller, more gutless surf. With rail design, rocker and fin choice adding more variables, as well as less energy from the swell, it sounds like there may be some refinement needed for this model to work as a grovel board, but it certainly passed with flying colors in wintertime conditions with a little more push.

The golf ball-dimpled bottom on the surfboard isn't exactly new. In the 1980s shapers such as the Willis brothers in Hawaii were trying them out on some of their big-wave guns for guys like Liam McNamara. And in 2012, Josh Kerr partnered with a company that was exploring dimpled surfboard fins. And that's the beautiful thing about surfboard design, it's in a perpetual state of evolution and a concept from yesteryear may be just as relevant today as it was when the shaper first stumbled upon it.

This article first appeared on SURFER and was syndicated with permission.

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