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The famous board Tom Curren won the OP Pro on in 1984, this is Tom Curren’s Channel Islands Red Beauty surfboard review!

The fabled OP Pro winning board, this is Tom Curren’s Channel Islands Red Beauty Surfboard Review. A rare shape, unique in this day and age, the Red Beauty is not a groveler but can still be surfed in your average, everyday waves. This Red Beauty surfboard has been slightly modernized with EPS/Epoxy construction keeping it very light.

Featuring a vee bottom from tip to tail for quick rail to rail transitions, an effective edge running the length of the rail and a very pronounced hip, as Craig explains, this is a unique design for the board connoisseur looking for something different.

This is Tom Curren’s Channel Islands Red Beauty Surfboard Review at Benny’s Boardroom for CompareSurfboards.com!

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Have a question? Wondering if the Tom Curren’s Channel Islands Red Beauty is the right board for you? Let’s talk about it in the comments…

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Pluses

+  The Red Beauty is pretty interesting, it has a vee bottom which is fairly rare
+ The board was stumped down to give me the right volume and dimensions. The epoxy gave the board a very light and very lively feeling
+ It is a good board to challenge your surfing

Minuses

– It doesn’t have to be big to ride the Red Beauty, but I just think you need conditions to clean and just have a little bit of push behind it.

Craig Rides 

Craig rides the Tom Curren’s Channel Islands Red Beauty model  at 5’9 x 5/19 x 7/16 x 2 3/8 at 28L’s. He surfed it in variety of conditions and had a very interesting time on it. Craig rode the Red Beauty with the AM2 fins by Futures.

Standard Tom Curren’s Channel Islands Red Beauty dimensions and volumes may be found at the bottom of this page.

Best Wave Type

I’ve surfed it in a variety of conditions because I hadn’t ridden anything like this. I was really keen to challenge it in some different conditions. I’ve had it from one to two foot small beach breaks. It’s gone really, really good and I also surfed on a where it’s probably five to six foot and we some which naturally falls on my forehand and it was weird.

Features

•  It’s quite a unique shape just to look at especially in today’s modern board terms
• Massive bump just in line with the front fins which is definitely unique to boards now
• It’s fairly flat. There’s not a lot of rocker in it
• The volume, you can see through here hold still quite a lot of volume through the nose
• No concave, just a vee which gives it a really nice rail-to-rail transition

Compare To

• DHD Surfboards DX1 Surfboard Review: Jack Freestone’s signature model and Stab in the Dark winning high performance shortboard

Video Summary

Hey, I’m Craig and today, I’m doing a review of the Channel Islands Red Beauty for comparesurfboards.com. This is the Channel Islands Red Beauty also known as the OP Pro. It’s the famous board Tom Curren won the OP Pro in 1984 but this one here has slightly been modernized with EPS/Epoxy construction keeping it very, very light.

The Board

Looking over the Red Beauty, it’s quite a unique shape just to look at especially in today’s modern board terms. You can see this massive bump just in line with the front fins which is definitely unique to boards now. A lot of boards do have like that kind of hip but it’s normally more of a gentle kind of hip that flows through the tail. We can see it’s like a nice cutout which is very different from anything else.

It’s fairly flat. There’s not a lot of rocker in it. The volume, you can see through here hold still quite a lot of volume through the nose. No way it’s really overly generous with volume. It is quite a nice flow of volume throughout the whole board. On the bottom is another massively unique feature. The board has a massive vee throughout the bottom.

No concave, just a vee which gives it a really nice rail-to-rail transition, but if you haven’t surfed a board like this and I hadn’t, it’s very different to anything else you would have surfed.

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Also, another thing that makes a board very different is it has an effective edge. Most boards have the effective edge that comes in front of the fin. It becomes quite soft. This follows through through most of the boards. It is quite gentle but it doesn’t roll like most of your rails in your modern boards do. This Red Beauty I got is a custom and I think it’s 5’9″x 5/19 x 7/16 x 2 3/8 at 28 L’s  and it is in epoxy construction, EPS, which gives it a little bit more float than most of your shortboards.

On the Channel Islands website, when they talk about this board, they say that it’s a custom-order only and it says that it has quite a lot of volume for a shortboard. If you got this stock dimensions and compared it to most modern boards, it actually doesn’t really have that much volume. This one is being stumped down a little bit. I think if you get the stock 5’9″, it comes in around 26 liters, it’s only around 8 1/2 wide.

I got this boards recently when I as over in US and I thought after the history of it, Tom Curren winning the OP Pro, I thought it was a bit of grovel and I was going to be in the States for a while so I want finding the groveler kind of beach break and I took it out. I think it was Manhattan. There was a couple of runners and it was pretty groveley and the board wasn’t what I thought it was.

Experience in the Surf

It was very, very different. I had a very interesting time on it. I had some fun. It definitely challenged my surfing but it was interesting but then we were up the coast and we went and surfed which is like a right-hand point break. It was probably two to four foot offshore and the thing was amazing. Getting some waves, they’re a bit steeper. There was smooth and there was a bit of room to move. The board was really quick and the vee on the bottom with the rail-to-rail transition felt really, really nice and I think also the epoxy.

Having a light board, waves didn’t have a whole lot of push but having that lightness of the epoxy felt good as well.

Since I got home, I’ve surfed it in a variety of conditions because I hadn’t ridden anything like this. I was really keen to challenge it in some different conditions.

I’ve had it from one to two foot small beach breaks. It’s gone really, really good and I also surfed on a where it’s probably five to six foot and we some which naturally falls on my forehand and it was weird. I do these big rapping roundhouse calves like a closed out phase. I think from having this edge and this sudden loss of edge through the hip, you almost jump out of the water but then when you work out how the board needed to be turned and transitioned through that turn, it felt really good to challenge your surfing.

Fin Setup

In the Red Beauty, I’ve ridden the AM2 by Futures which again is a large fin and I think I’ve said in my reviews, when it comes to Channel Islands Al Merricks, it’s a fin I put in straight away and most of the time, it works.

Summary

Overall, Tom Curren’s Channel Islands Red Beauty has been a good board. It’s been pretty interesting and like I said, it’s very different. Most boards on the market these days have single to double whatever kind of concave bottom. The Red Beauty has a vee bottom which is fairly rare. You might have a vee through the tail or like a light vee through the front but this has a vee throughout the whole bottom without a concave.

At the same time, I was riding this, I was also riding another Channel Islands’ board with a very deep single concave. When I’d float between the two boards, I’d get on that deep single concave and the board almost felt like a channel through the bottom very, very different to this. I had a lot of fun with the board. The board was stumped down to give me the right volume and dimensions. The epoxy gave the board a very light and very lively feeling.

The cons, like I said, I got it and I thought it was going to be a bit of groveler that would light up some kind of … California is known for some pretty average waves at time and so it’s where I’m from in Sydney but it wasn’t really for that. It doesn’t have to be big to ride the Red Beauty but I just think you need conditions to clean and just have a little bit of push behind it.

Like I said, we’ve had one to two foot waves at a local break where it’s being clean and a little bit of push and I’ve had a lot of fun on it. I’ve also surfed one as being much bigger,but I think when it is that groveley kind of average stuff when you just came out and get wet, you might be better looking at something else like a little fish type thing. It’s one of the things I think is going to hang around in my quiver for quite some time. It’s somewhat irreplaceable.

Anyway, I’ve hoped you enjoyed the review and if you get a chance to check out Red Beauty, I think they’re a bit of a collector’s item, you know what I mean? A lot of people, big Curren fans, it’s worth checking out. Anyway, thanks for watching.

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Stock Standard Dimensions 

Standard Tom Curren’s Channel Islands Red Beauty Dimensions available at the Channel Islands.