Firewire Hydroshort


Introducing the all new Firewire Hydroshort - a new and improved modern planing hull from the mind of Daniel "Tomo" Thompson. After falling in love with the Cymatic we are stoked to finally get our hands on this new model!

The Hydroshort was built as a continuation of the Hydronaut - which is a board designed for big, barreling waves. The Hydroshort was a natural progression to a more all around design, for everyday conditions.

Maximum performance in small to medium waves.

Outline

Compact and Refined

The Hydroshort is a blend between a traditional high performance design and the new modern planing hull type surfboards - like the Evo and Cymatic.

One of the first things that you notice is the unique "torpedo" nose outline.

This eliminates the "pointed nose" feature of the traditional performance board. The whole idea of a "point" is to stab into something. In surfing, if you nose pierces into the water, whether your dropping in or performing a tight turn, your going overboard 9 times out of 10 (unless your name is Kelly).

Removing that point keeps potential for bogging your nose on take off minimal. It also keeps the board highly responsive and maneuverable, since you'll be riding it shorter, and allow it to handle later drops. Just an overall fun board to ride!

Below: Watch Tomo rip his personal 5'6 Hydroshort at home in Australia

The Hydroshort has a rounded squash tail similar to the Firewire SKX, but pulled in a little to give it more curve through the tail. Paired with a bit of tail rocker gives the Hydroshort lift and sensitivity in the tail to perform more radical maneuvers and surf tighter in the pocket. Loose and fun for small surf but enough control for punchier waves.

The Hydroshort has a continuous (medium) rocker curve from nose to tail with no real flat spots. It's not too aggressive which helps the board paddle well and carry you through turns with little effort, making it an easy board to ride.

Reduced volume in the rail of the board to account for the extra floatiness provided by the EPS foam. It's more of down rail but not too knifey.

Quad Inside Single Concave

Modern Bottom Design

The most unique feature of the Hydroshort is the bottom contours, Tomo's famous Quad inside single concave (QISC).

It's hard to picture, but here's the gist: It's a double concave right through the middle of the board (yellow) that is sitting inside of a single concave (blue).

The single concave along the bottom creates lift along the rails, "detaching" the middle portion of the board where the double concaves sit. This removes any surface tension from the center of the board, allowing it to go faster through the water (with less drag).

Traditional channel bottom surfboard feels drivey and "sticky", as they hold track. The QISC enhances speed but promotes detachment from the water until the board is on rail. Once on rail the concaves grip the wave like a traditional channel bottom - holding through your turn.

In a nutshell this gives the board some incredible responsiveness and sensitivity, springing itself in and out of turns. It also gives you a lot of grip and hold in the water and helps you engage your turns. This helps you maintain a feeling of control when the waves start to push 6' or a bit bigger.

Fin Options

Quad vs Thruster

The Hydroshort comes stock with 5 fin boxes which gives you the option to run it as a quad or a thruster. The board works really well with both setups, so it depends on the type of waves you are surfing.

Setting the board up as a Quad will allow it to excel in open faced pointbreaks and fatter waves. It just gives you the speed and glide through fatter sections and helps with those "s" style turns and carves.

Setting the Hydroshort up as a thruster works better if the waves are more peaky and steep, in which you want to get the board more vertical. This will also give you some tighter turns, with the center fin acting as a pivot point.

Since the board is so lively under foot - you don't need to throw in a flexible fin, or a fin with inside concave. A stiff and light fin (like the Carbon Beta 2.0 from Futures) works great with the really responsive feel of the Helium tech.

Helium Technology

Light and Strong

The Hydroshort is built with Firewire's patented Helium technology.

Helium tech is the lightest technology offered by Firefire (hence the name). It's got a lightweight EPS core, with a mixture of paulownia and balsa wood rails that helps control the flex of the board from nose to tail.

This is then wrapped in an aerospace composite deck skin that has great feel under foot as well as added durability. Finished off with glass and Entropy Bio Resin - making the Helium tech a level 1 "Eco Board", verified by the crew at Sustainable Surf.

This tech loads up and springs you out through your turns - plenty of acceleration.

Wave Range

The Hydroshort is designed to be accel in small to medium surf. That being said, the Hydroshort is by no means a good groveler... that’s a bit under its range. It will work in a small wave as long as it has a bit of a face to it.

Ideally, the Hydroshort will work best in a 3-6' wave in anything from lined up point break to fast an peaky beach break. A nice and versatile daily driver.

Below right: Timmy Reyes with two new Hydroshorts. Below left: Clip of Timmy Reyes ripping apart a fickle right hander on the west coast.

The Skinny

The Hydroshort is a board that will perform tight turns and get more radical in the pocket than your standard shortboard. A highly responsive daily driver capable of ripping any type of wave from 2-5 feet to shreds.

We recommend it to Intermediate to advanced surfers who are looking for a board to give them tighter turns and more response under foot. In our neck of the woods, the Hydroshort would work great in almost anything from waist high and up.

The Hydroshort is available in the following dimensions:

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