The Meyerhoffer Slip In looks a lot like someone sliced Thomas Meyerhoffer”s signature, groundbreaking XYZ surfboard in half. And that’s pretty much what happened.
It all began with a broken Land Rover in Barbados, and the story goes something like this:
“We were checking for an incoming swell. Instead of surfing, we spent the afternoon fixing the Rover, when Zed suddenly said from under the hood “make a short version of the longboard, I bring it to Indo.” It didn’t take long before we laid the White Ass on top of the XYZ, Zed’s signature longboard, and there she was!”
A year of refinement and testing in locations like the Maldives and Bali later. and here you have the distinctive red-coloured, stub nose, single fin Slip In.
We love experimental boards and Meyerhoffer has already proven that an almost inconceivable break from the norm can provide functional excellence and high performance wave-riding. The XYZ longboard is testament to that.
The Meyerhoffer Slip In surfboard has already won “Best in Show” at The Boardroom Surfboard Show in October 2012. The design provides a completely different approach to shortboarding by fusing a classic old-school pintail onto a shape with both longboard and shortboard design elements. It is a reverse engineered platform – and from an already experimental shape. The board features a double concave which will provide plenty of drive and high performance rails for celebratory turns when you make it out of the barrel.
Meyerhoffer say that the Slip In will take your surfing to a new place. It certainly looks like a highly refined creation which I imagine takes a bit of getting used to. If you’ve never surfed a single fin there is a definite learning curve, so approach the experience with an open mind and plenty of patience. Experimental boards – and by this I mean anything outside of the standard 6’0′ thruster – will test your ability to adapt and flow with waves in different ways. But you will find yourself in new places and your surfing will improve. You can’t just eat one flavour of ice-cream all your life.
When would you use the Meyerhoffer Slip In?
I don’t think this would be your everyday summer board. But when combined with good waves the Slip In is a perfect platform for honing your own style and getting to places on a wave (and your board) you don’t usually go. Rasta and Donovon F-style turns become a necessity, not a dream.
My eye would be firmly up on the flat hull nose for some nose-riding, barrel racing fun.