Alan Atkins is one mighty fine surfer. He’s been a stand-out longboarder for years, winning numerous National and State Titles and generally impressing us all with his quiet surfing achievements.

These days, as part of his daily surf routine, you’ll find Al hunting waves each morning with his lightweight custom epoxy SUP, that I shaped here in Byron. The current version we’ve nutted out is 9'0" x 28 3/4" x 4” thick rounded-pin, with a flat deck, beveled front and mid bottom shape, fading into a soft double-concave vee tail. But the standout feature is the chamfered rail. In order to get that thick 4" rail to flow sweetly through all sorts of powerful turns, I shaped a regular surfboard rail in the back half, achievable only by dropping a concave chamfer from the deck onto the lower rail. The result? Look for yourself. A sunny morning at Wategos shows how friendly a thick SUP can behave with a decent rail shape to give it the true surf “feel”.

Bob

Al on the middle bank at Wategos. Photo Rachel Atkins

Getting the rail in on his backhand. Photo Rachel Atkins