Rob Machado’s New Surfboard Is Inspired By… Avocados?

Originally posted on SURFER | By Dashel Pierson | Last updated Jul 14, 2024 2:00 PM ET

“There’s just something about an avocado that’s proportionately correct. And that’s where I take it with my surfboards. I like them to be pleasing to the eye.”

Rob Machado is a style icon, a Pipe Master, a wanderer, searcher, drifter, and a free surfer whose wave-riding approach has had a lasting impact on anyone who has ever stepped on a surfboard and attempted to look marginally decent while doing so.

All to say, yeah, he might know a thing or two when it comes to functional surfboard design.

Enter his new signature shape, the Machadocado (take your time; sound it out), from Firewire Surfboards. It’s a shape inspired by the balanced, rounded curves of the fruit, and one that’s somewhere in that sweet spot between a fish and a shortboard. Want a little extra width for groveling? Check. Wanna still hit the lip with force? Bingo.

“You have your traditional fish,” explains Rob, “then you have your high-performance shortboard. And there’s this world in between that’s so vast. This [the Machadocado] has some high-performance aspects to it. It’s got the thin tail; it’s got a little flip in the nose. Yet, it’s got the width and the glide in the surface of a groveler, that can give you that speed over flat spots. Then, you can step back on the tail, and get that bite.”

Inspiration for surfboard design comes from all sorts of places, all shapes and sizes. Like, for example, Kelly Slater’s twin fin inspired by a great white shark, or Koa Smith and Matt Parker’s serrated surfboard spawned from a steak knife.

But an avocado? That’s gotta be a first.

“I’ve had this idea in my mind for a while about how perfect avocados just…look,” Rob added. “Fun in all waves, every day. The Machadocado has the short and wide outline you need to gather speed in weak waves, but the combination of the thinned-out tail and the 2 + 1 Fin Set enables hold and control in good waves. It’s a balance.”

For more, check out the Machacado here.

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

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