Jeff McCallum 5'9 Twin-Pin for Kookbox

At last, after a summer away from the surf, I've got to try out this new toy. Hand shaped by Jeff McCallum for Kookbox. The quality of it is unbelievable: absolute shaping refinement, foiled beautifully with a good dose of foam scraped out of the nose to counteract the forward wide point and flawlessly glassed-on twin fins. Hully/bellied nose into single concave into double concave with vee out through the fins. Whatever, it works soooo sweetly.

The board feels Sim-y on pop-up and if you weight your front foot but then when it gets flying the board kind of melts away and your back foot is in the wave and it wants to carve classy smooth turns. Jeff McCallum has really taken the wide influence of the Mini Sim and blended it beautifully with a twin fin tail.

I guess all Kookbox boards will be of this level due to Joel Tudor's overseeing, testing and his ability to use fantastic shapers to handshape the boards.

Trim Surfboards are importing Kookbox's so get in touch with them if you're interested in their boards. I'd recommend Kookbox heartily for their craftsmanship and design and Trim Surfboards for surfy love and helping you get hold of the finest custom handmade boards from other shores.

Buying surfboards is difficult. I feel guilty for not buying locally - in fact I've never found it so weird buying something. There are so many good shapers over here, who aren't exactly raking it in, who could do with the commissioning of a new board. Nobody else is making this shape though. Initially I was trawling the global surfy world essentially for a single fin that appealed to me. Thinking of Morning of the Earth MP boards, Eggs, Hulls, lovely Andreini's and was in the end drawn to the Archie's Left shaped by Rusty Preisendorfer for Kookbox (hully, eggy, singlefin with a bit of a more traditional turn than an out-and-out hull - they say). Hull into single concave. Then the trouble is I found one at Mitch's surf shop at Windansea - mustard resin tint and shaped by Hoy Runnels (who began shaping the year I was born!). They had this Twin Pin too and I could not resist the folly and absolute childish behaviour of buying them both (I shouldn't be in charge of my wage packet). There's no doubt that nagging images of Joel Tudor with his funky quivers have got me all foamy and brand influenced. Yeah - Kookbox dude! But, in truth these are beautiful and rare handshaped lovelies. Perhaps the most delicious boards I've ever seen - and definitely that I've ever surfed... so far.

"What does this mean for your surfing?" a friend asked. This is the other sticky point - as there's a lot to be said for surfing the same shape for a long time to get it dialled and improve your ability. But I feel like I'm on some dreadful ticking clock. Taking up surfing late in life is great but also tinged with a little regret. I want to taste all flavours of surfboards as quickly as possible. (I now have a single fin, a twin-fin, a thruster and a quad.) I guess I would have been one of the horrible little greedy kids in "Charlie and the Surfboard Factory" who meets a grisly early end due to this urge to scoff everything in sight and to hell with the consequences. On the other hand - perhaps I'm willing to sacrifice a little ability and maybe purity in order to experience as many surfy dishes as I can before it's too late. Either way I may be being a complete cock in many ways - but a cock with a couple more surfboards to love and enjoy anyway...