The Seaside at Seaside - Rob Machado's new Helium shape by Firewire Surfboards

The van's got a lot of surfboards in it at all times. It's always open. Come grab one. We're gonna start at the beginning. I grew up on a tennis court. I used to have to do this for like an hour. Got really boring. Over and over and over. I broke a few tennis rackets in my day. They used to be wood. And then I stopped playing tennis and started surfing. Enough about tennis. We are here in the seaside parking lot. I've spent many days here. I ride a lot of waves here. So many waves that I decided to name a surfboard after my beloved home break. This right here is the seaside. It's a new surfboard I made. Pretty excited about it. I've been riding a lot. Hopefully you'll get to ride it soon. What do you want to know about it? That's the question. It's a four fin. This is an interesting story. I never rode four fins my whole life. I was always a little intrigued by them. I tried a couple here and there. But I never devoted enough time to a four fin. I was always committed to thrusters, 20s, singles. But the four fin eluded me. I could never find the magic combination of fins. So when I went into making this board, I decided to approach it with the thought of it just being a four fin and nothing else. There's no five fin option. It is a four fin. And it was designed to be a four fin. And then I designed fins to go with the four fin. So it's kind of a package deal. We got some cool little contours happening. Very subtle but very effective. A little spine running down the middle. Some double concave. I can't give it all away. You're just going to have to feel it, touch it. It's here, I promise. Throw a straight edge on it. Have a look at it. But overall, the outline. If you look at the outline, it's the evolution of the go fish, let's say. The go fish is amazing. It's kind of taken off the traditional fish. When I went into it to make a four fin, I wanted to pull the tail in a little bit. I pulled the nose in a touch. Just to clean up the outline and make it a little more high performance. The very first Seaside I made, I took to a little wave in Tahiti called Chopu. Didn't take it to surf giant waves. I don't do that. Scares me. I took it to surf a nice little four to six foot swell. Great conditions. I was a little nervous. First time getting that thing in the water, four fin. It was incredible. I'd always heard guys talk about riding four fins for tube riding, especially. Guys were really devoted to having that four fin in the tube. They just felt like it had more speed, more drive. That's what I actually got to feel. When I was in Tahiti. Then from there, I brought it home and I was like, wow, okay. It works there, check. Now it doesn't work in just like my average conditions at home here at Seaside. The first one I made for Tahiti was LFT. But after riding that board there, we decided to try one out in helium. Lighter, faster, flexier. Just see how it feels. And it was great. Great for little waves, weaker waves. Got a little flow to it, a little spunk and no turning back. Helium now. It was really hard to get off the go fish. I'm going to be really honest. I rode that thing and I still do. I go back to it, but this board really kind of pulled me off the go fish and has brought like a whole new spice to my life that I'm really excited about. I can just put this board in a little bit steeper of places than the go fish. I can turn a little tighter. It's just got a better arc. It's got a better radius. Feels good under your arm. Looks cool. I mean, right there, that's half the battle. Do I look cool? Okay, fins. These are fins. They talk to each other. I got an idea. So look at that. Behind, this is a go fish keel that I designed. And then you drop the new quad set right on top of it and you can see how much fin you lost, right? There's some similarities, right? This whole front curve and it kind of peels off early and you cut off a lot of the back edge. Well, you take that area right there and you turn it into this little buddy and he hangs out back here. That's how I kind of came up with it. How could I minimize the front fin and then make a little trailer in the back that's cool and cute and fun and it likes to party with his big brother? I'm not really a crazy fin designer, but I just went for it. I love making stuff that I ride and I go out and enjoy surfing. That's what I do. I want everyone to go out and have a good time, ride waves and smile. It'll make the world a better place. Trust me.