You are about to board your dream trip.
11 days surrounded by friends with good food, ice cold beer, and a boat ready to take you to the best waves on earth.
Your only commitment will be to surfing.
Of course you don’t want to mess up with the quiver!
Take at least three boards.
A Boat Trip is not a cheap trip.
And trying to save some cash on the boards can ruin your entire investment.
Nothing can be worse than seeing the best surf of your life and not having the right board to get the most out of that condition.
Therefore, we recommend that you take at least 3 boards for your trip.
Two everyday shortboards, and a step-up.
If you can take more, better. But don’t go with just two boards.
The waves are strong, and the chances of you snapping at least one board are very high.
The Shortboards
The boards you should take for a Boat Trip should not be the same as the boards you use back home on a daily basis.
The waves on the islands are more hollow, with more “pocket”.
You don’t need to generate your own speed, just control the board.
Therefore, we suggest you take boards with more rocker, more refined edges, and slightly thinner tails.
Boards like the Chilly A2, Sharp Eye Inferno, DHD DX1, Chilly Volume II, SRS AMX, and Channel Islands Rook 15 are some of our favorites.
You will use your everyday board 80% of the time of the trip.
Because Islands are not just what you see on Instagram.
It is not 6 to 8 feet everyday.
The vast majority of the time of your surftrip, you will be doing performance surfing in unbelievably perfect waves from 3 to 5 feet.
This is where the recommendation comes from: carry at least two daily grinders.
Your Step-Up
And of course you want to get barreled!
We usually have a large swell on each trip, lasting at least two days.
And that is always the highlight of the trip.
The day you will challenge yourself and catch the wave of your life.
To do this right, you need a step-up suitable for waves such as Lances Right, Greenbush, Kandui, Rags Left, or The Hole.
This board is a must-have in your quiver.
A Step-Up needs to do two things: paddle fast and engagge the rail.
So look for the balance between volume and extremely refined edges.
The tail of this board needs to be extremely narrow and thin, to “stick” to the water and allow you to control the board at high speeds.
This board also needs to be longer than your everyday board.
If you use a 5’11, your Step-Up can be a 6’3.
Some step-up tips are: DHD Sweet Spot 3.0, Chilly Faded, Rusty Blackbird, Rusty New Traveller, Channel Islands Happy Traveler and SRS Blackcross.
A Pinch of Salt
The waves of the islands are a perfect test track.
You will have a lot of fun feeling the behavior of each board, each fin variation, each bottom contour, each tail, each rocker.
So take as many fins and boards as your budget allows.
And don’t be lazy to test all the possible variations.
And if you have a little leeway in your budget, take different boards, like a fish or flat deck board with channels, like the Rusty Blade Channels.
You will love to test and feel every variation in the equipment.
