Flatspell

The Edge Board, Again.

We had been through this before. As we were beginning to shed layers of fabric and finally spend more hours outside our apartments, we began to anticipate the arrival of another summer, with the same unrealistic expectations.

There was a generous increase in daylight and a few extra degrees in the water, but our selective, hopeful minds were forgetting the gutless windswell and howling northerlies that wouldn't let up until the return of fall. 

There was no escaping the season of skunk, but we could always prepare for it.

Last spring, we collaborated with Nothing Surfcrafts to find a board that would get us through summer and skim over its flat sections. 

Shapers today don’t so much start with a blank canvas as work backwards from pre-existing designs, and the Flatspell doesn’t hide its 1960s origins. 

George Greenough wasn’t a fan of crowds, and their steady increase led him to seek out lesser-quality waves where he could surf undisturbed. However, his equipment had to undergo a little redesign in order to adapt. 

Just like his early footage from inside the tube, the Edge Board became synonymous with the idiosyncratic Californian-turned-longtime Byron Bay resident, as did his straight blonde hair, bluntly cut above the eyebrows and flapping down to his upper back as makeshift sun protection. 

In time, shapers such as Marc Andreini and Ellis Ericsson began exploring and experimenting with Greenough’s fundamental design ideas.

Essentially, the Edge Board combines two surfboards into one: a narrower, concave-bottomed board with hard edges from nose to tail is shaped beneath something of a displacement hull with lifted rails. In theory, this allows the board to perform in meager conditions, hold a good amount of speed — especially through flat sections — while also excelling in pumping surf. 

The practice held up to the theory. João Berberan initially tested the Flatspell in conditions that lived up to its name, but in his attempt to find the board’s sweet spot and truly feel it underfoot, he extended his trials into fall when he regained access to tapering pointbreaks and punchy, sand-bottomed A-frames. As it turns out, those were exactly the conditions it wanted. 

Shot over a few months in and around our usual go-tos, and edited by Guilherme Martins, Flatspell documents the process of figuring out an unfamiliar design and how it affected the experience of riding familiar surf.

The Flatspell won't be a board that lives in your car, but it delivers a feeling you can't get from your HP thruster. 

And occasionally, breaking from routine makes routine feel good again.