Byerly Hazard Wake Surf Board Review

In 2010, Byerly came out with the Hazard Wake Surf Board. Butch has been shaping surfboards forever and this is his first board that he actually shaped for behind the boat. It’s one of the best boards I’ve ever ridden behind the boat, for sure.

My background is surfing. That’s what I did for a lot of years. I surfed professionally. So, when I got the opportunity to come up with Byerly surfer, it was a project I jumped on and actually had the most fun with this year.I went back to more of a true original surf design. It’s a really proven outline. I came up with single wing pintail on this. We’ve been riding boards with this type of layup here for 20 years now in the industry. It’s a super respected shape. We did four slots off the tail. Channels give you a little bite, a little traction. But, at the same time, it gives you a good water flow off the tail.

One of the coolest things about the Byerly Wakeurfer this year is the placement options that you have for the fins on this board. This board is going to come to you shipped with four fins. And you can alternate the fin placement on this board to customize your ride. It’s one of the first wave surfers ever in the industry where you have ultimate options on your fin placement. The boards going to come with two larger fins in the front, two smaller fins in the back. You can ride it with a twin fin, with the big fins just in the front. It’s super loose, super skatey. It’s still got a little bit of drive to it. The way I prefer to ride it right now… I’ve been riding with the two smaller fins in the secondary placement in the back. It’s almost as loose as the forward placement, but at the same time, it gives you a little bit more drive having the fins positioned a little bit closer to the rail, and also a little bit closer to the tail. You can also ride one of the bigger fins moved in the back in the single fin position. So, this board, you can ride it as a thruster with three fins in the rear. You can ride it as twin fin with the fins in the middle. You can ride it as a twin fin with the fins up front. You can ride it as a four fin, which four fins are really big back in surfing right now, with the fins placed in the upper and middle positions. So you’ve got a lot of options on this thing, and really, every different placement you put the fins, it rides completely different. So, you can really customize the ride for yourself.

Being from the surf industry, we all have custom surfboards made especially for ourselves from shapers. And what I really want to do was give the consumer the opportunity to customize his board for himself, to make it just how he wants it. It’s got a low entry rocker, so it’s got a really, really, fast rocker to it. There’s quite a bit of flip in the end, in the tip, so your nose doesn’t dig. There’s a really nice full EVA traction pad. It reminds me of the old Astrodeck traction I always used when I was surfing, a really good grip to it. It’s relatively light. It’s actually a vacuum back construction board, so more of a high tech composite internals to it. I’ve watched a lot of the riders get on this thing and just tear it apart. I haven’t had one rider tell me anything but it’s the best board he’s ever ridden anything but it’s the best board he’s ever ridden behind a boat.