Editorial by Benny, words spoken by Matt Biolos

Final Part 4 of 4 of the Matt Biolos, My Quiver Series. Here the …Lost Surfboards founder talks about the board he will never get rid of and what you should look for in a reliable step up surfboard!

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Matt Biolos, My Quiver Series Recap

This is the end. The only end, my friend. But we saved the best for last…

Rounding out Matt Biolos’ quiver is the Lost Mini Gun.

Step up / gun surfboards are a difficult breed of board to order right. In my experience, they’re either too straight and pinny to surf like you’re accustomed to or not capable of handling truly big and powerful waves.

Matt ‘Mayhem’ Biolos shares his insights into what he appreciates in his perfect bigger, better wave board. After recording this, I am sold on this Lost Mini Gun. Another surfboard to add to the review queue when good wave season approaches!

To recap the Matt Biolos quiver, from the top:

Lost Puddle Jumper (new model) – 5’10 x 21 1/2 x 2 3/4 @ 40L’s
Lost V3 Rocket – 6’1 x 21 1/2 x 2 7/8 @ 42L’s
Lost Sub Scorcher Two – 6’4 x 21 x 2 7/8 @ 41L’s
Lost Mini Gun – 6’10 x 20 1/2 x 3 @43L’s

I hope you enjoyed watching this series as much as I enjoyed filming it. Great insights into a well rounded quiver by a master of foam and resin, Matt Biolos, Founder & Co-Owner of …Lost Surfboards.

Interesting side note: the volume of Matt’s boards – all 40L’s+. He weighs 95kg’s, still rips and knows a lot more about what works for most people than…well, most people. If you needed a reason to give something with a little bit more volume a try, this is it.

If you dig this series, please Like, Share, Comment and, of course, Subscribe! The ‘My Favourite Board/Quiver’ series is just beginning and, of course, you don’t want to miss out on REAL reviews of the best new (and used) surfboards on the market each week!

All the best,
Benny

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Video Summary

Benny: Hey! This is Ben. Welcome to Benny’s Boardroom. Imagine you had the shaping skills of Matt Biolos, one of my favorite shapers and founder of Lost Surfboards. The guy has been shaping for over thirty years. He has shaped thousands of boards and he still shapes boards for himself by hand as well as his team riders, such as Taj Burrow, Kolohe Andino, Carissa Moore, Coco Ho, and more.

If you had that type of skill set, if you had that experience, what would your dream quiver look like? Well, I was fortunate enough to catch with Matt in California and asked him the question, “What is your favorite quiver?” Hope you enjoy the answer!

Matt Biolos: This is a board I’ll never get rid of because I’ve had so many good experiences on this board in the last year.

I made this board last fall. I probably made it almost a year ago. It’s a 6’10”. It’s based off the (Taj Burrow’s) Whiplash rocker. It’s a 6’10” Mini-Gun. It’s 20 1/2″ wide and it’s 3″ thick, but it’s got a really dome-y deck. The rails feel more like 2-5/8. It’s 43 liters.

I made this board last fall dedicating myself, saying I want to surf some good waves this winter. I made a couple bigger ones as well that I never even rode.

I first rode this board in northern Baja out at Point San Miguel on a really good day. I guess the locals said it was the best day of the season there. The board felt really good. I could ride two to three feet overhead waves with more power and push than we have at the point breaks here. It allowed me to surf those waves like I would surf a head-high or a chest-high wave. I could roll in early and go straight up and turn under the lip, and really control [00:02:00] the speed of the wave and surf it critically, within my ability. I thought:

“Wow, this is a great surfboard!”

The one thing about it is the all red board, it draws maybe a little more attention than you want to, especially in a lineup with a bunch of not-so-friendly locals – but it felt really good.

Get REAL Surfboard Reviews from a Wave Obsessed Surfboard Addict. Independent. Objective. For you.

Then the next time I rode it was what everyone said was the best day of the year at Rincon last year. There was all kinds of videos that came out of Kolohe Andino and Conner Coffin; all the ripper guys. It was just a zoo with 200, 300 people out. I drove up there for a couple days and surfed the peak of this really good swell. Classic Rincon two, three, four feet overhead and reeling for hundreds of yards. This board helped me navigate the lineup, got me into good waves. When I was on the waves it was still free and loose and easy.

It’s got enough tail kick and the little vee under the back foot where it just frees the board up rail to rail. You can just swoop up and down and all around and just really have a good time, a lot of fun riding the board. On that swell the red board helped because one of the surfing magazine photographers got a couple nice pictures that I can keep forever. Pictures of me riding these beautiful waves at our best point break here in California.

Then this board, I packed it up and I took it to J-Bay. The day after the J-Bay Open Final – that amazing day where Mick Fanning won and Tom Curren got the ‘perfect 10’ – that next morning I surfed this board at some of the best J-Bay anyone had ever seen. I surfed five hours and I got about six or seven amazing waves. I was able to pick off waves in the crowd and ride [00:04:00] the waves from the top of the Supertubes all the way through into the Impossibles section, and rode some of the best waves I’ve ridden in a long, long time.

That was three memorable sessions on this board. To cap it off on Hurricane Marie I threw it in my car and went to northern Baja and I surfed a deepwater point break on that Big Wednesday (27 August, 2014), the day that Newport Point went off, and caught some double-overhead, just beautiful, beautiful bombing deepwater point breaks on this board.

After that, this thing is basically in the record books. This is a board I’ll keep forever. I think it’s a board that,

“something like this, everyone should have.”

A little thicker, a little longer, normal width, pulled-in tail, enough rocker so you can throw it around and turn it and not feel like you’re on some big, long, straight gun that doesn’t let you surf how you want. What I really love about this board is it let’s me surf waves from two, three, four feet overhead, double-overhead, and surf them how I would surf a head-high wave at Lowers (Lower Trestles). It’s really, really cool [ 05:10].

From the groveler [Lost Puddle Jumper…] to the performance hybrid [Lost V3 Rocket…] to my high performance pointy nose shortboard [Lost Sub Scorcher 2…] to a really dependable step-up, that’s my quiver.

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OUTRO: Stay tuned, grasshopper. More epic shapers talking about more of their epic favorite boards.

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