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One of the cornerstones of mid length designs are Eggs. Egg designs owe
their origin to Skip Frye, who started developing his version of the design in
the late 60s and early 70s. The design offered surfers the opportunity to break
away from the traditional longboard style of surfing and add the joy of carving
and accelerating turns to the thrill of trim and glide. To this day, this
combination of surfing performance features offers an exceptionally fun surfing
experience.
Today's Egg is a functional and versatile design for all skill levels,
perhaps the most versatile of all surfboard designs. The combination of
performance features and the wide range of conditions wherein they're
functional separates them from all other designs. Any surfer could reasonably
have a single board quiver with a well designed custom Egg.
The performance range of Egg designs varies from marginal knee high
conditions to solid - well overhead surf, from onshore to side shore to
offshore, from slop to perfection. The performance features of the design are a
combination of carve and trim. No matter the skill level of a surfer, a mid
length Egg is a design that is just super fun to ride.
EGG ANATOMY
Eggs are a mid length, moderate to high surface area and volume
surfboard. They range from 6' 6" to 8' 0" long by 20" to 22" wide by 2 3/8" to
3 1/4" thick, depending on physical features of the surfer such as their size,
fitness, age, technique, performance preferences, and surfing venues. These
features are also considered in the other elements of design. Egg rockers may
be very relaxed speed box or low and continuous. The bottom contours are
generally convex with a tri plane entry and wide point and a panel vee from
wide point to tail. A spiral vee or double concave may be incorporated into the
panel vee for extra acceleration in some designs. The outlines are full and
moderately wide round pin tails. The rails mimic shortboard designs, soft and
neutral at the nose and wide point to a hard edge at the fins and through the
tail. The primary fin configuration is 2 + 1, although thruster, quad, and twin
fin arrays are perfectly acceptable. Eggs perform well with all these fin
configurations with each offering unique nuanced performance features.
PROGRESSIVE NATURAL CURVES EGGS
Our history with Egg designs dates to the year 2000. It's a
design that Rob Yuen, a true "Surf Gypsy," wanted to develop. Surfer,
fisherman, drift boat guide, and arborist, Rob leaves his home in
Southern Oregon every winter for an extended surf expedition to
Central Baja. One of his favorite boards has been his 8' 0" Speed
Egg. Over the years, Rob cross pollinated surfboard designs with his
friends from San Diego who frequent the same point breaks Rob surfs.
These style and glide masters have been disciples of the Skip Frye
Egg School for decades. In 2000, returning from one of dozens of his
expeditions, Rob had me shape him the first version of the Speed Egg
design - extremely low rocker, simple round pin template, tri-plane
to vee convex bottom, with a cool single fin plus side bite 2 + 1 fin
configuration. Rob's original Speed Egg is a versatile surfboard that
carves and planes in a very wide range of surf venues and conditions.
In 2010 Rob had me shape a second generation Speed Egg. At 7' 8" his
new Speed Egg is more maneuverable, offers tighter radius turns, yet
maintains the glide that is key to it's performance. Rob has spent
years fine tuning 2 + 1 fins for his Speed Eggs. Always the master,
he recently reminded me that "style is free!" |
