PYZEL Surfboards 2024 Preview

Retail Buyers Guide: 2024 Surfboards Retail Buyer’s Guide
Brand: Pyzel
Interviewee: Rémi Chaussemiche European Marketing

To a certain extent, the surfboard market relies on custom-made products and on demand manufacturing. Does this mean the business is relatively spared from the poor sell-out and overstocks reported in other boardsport categories?
2023 has definitely been challenging in term of B to B pre-orders. However, the performance surfboards market is really oriented over custom made product and on demand order so that maintain a descent level of business. Considering we have very short production time we manage to satisfy the on-demand business.

While the board offer has never been so wide nowadays, which were the top trends of 2023?
The trend is definitely going towards boards with volume. Volume is good because you catch more waves, but it is better if the boards can turn and have a good level of performance. That what we do with our velocity project and our funformance surfboards, the idea is to create boards that are both fun and performance. We recently launch a new model called the Precious, based it off of the Gremlin, since that board is so versatile and fun, but we wanted it to be sleeker, more towards a performance feel with less width and less chunky rails. In order to do that, and still keep a fair bit of volume in the board, we decided to make it a step-deck. This allowed us to keep some foam in the overall board, but let it have a sensitive, high-performance rail at the same time. Last year we also launched The White Tiger a funformance surfboards that John John Florence felt in love with while surfing during his free time. It gets up and goes easily, flies through the weakest sections, but still lets you smash the lip and boost airs along the way.

There is a noticeable step-back from competitive surfing: did this affect the sales of high-perf models?
I don’t think there is a step back on competitive surfing, I think there are just many more facets of surfing available nowadays. This is exactly the same for surfboards, guys who like High Performance Surfboards will keep on buying them. But now it is also cool to have other boards in our quiver. Regarding intermediate surfers I think this is pretty cool now because Shapers have adapted there HPSB offer to them. For example, at Pyzel we have developed the Phantom and the ghost which are meant to be High performance but can also be surfed and loved by intermediate level surfer when ordered in more generous dimensions. It is also the case with the Red Tiger that has been launched last year and developed with John John Florence, it is definitely a high performance board but it features a flatter entry rocker that provide more speed and flow and the dimensions are quite user friendly for an intermediate to advanced surfer. We have also developed some XL versions of most of our HPSB to make them more generous and user friendly for average surfers and stronger surfers. Pyzel Surfboards is known as a reference for High Performance Surfboard, so we keep on developing some HPSB model and keep on pushing what can be done on a surfboard. We just released the Radius Prime, a newly re-tuned version of the Radius, our ultimate High Performance Shortboard design which is a favorite of our international team and was Jordy Smith’s pick for winner of Stab in the Dark. The Radius Prime is state of the art high performance, and we believe it’s a great board for anyone who is ready to level up their surfing.

There is no arguing: twins and midlengths still are crowd favorites. But which will be the trends within those two trends in 2024?
Indeed, twins and mid lengths are still very popular and will remain very popular because they are fun to ride. But they tend to work better on long and clean faces, which are not the most ridden conditions, especially in Europe. Moreover, twins and Midlengths don’t fit everybody’s surfing, there for I see a mutation of that trend toward more versatile fun boards, like our New Precious model, a but shorter, with generous volume but still with a performance edge to it. One of our very first model in that trend is the Gremlin and it keep selling very well too.

After the release of the Channel Islands Mid, the launch of the CI Log is a clear indicator of the appetite for classic longboards, outside the perimeter of niche hype brands. How is your longboard game for 2024?
We have one Log in the range, but I don’t think customers comes to Pyzel for logs. They’d rather go brand like Stewart Surfboards that are more identified as a longboard specialist.

There are two main paths when it comes to sustainable surfboards: the eco blanks & resins, or the low-waste vacuum-made EPS boards. What is your take on the matter?
Let’s face it EPS core are not necessarily more sustainable as it takes way longer to degrade. Then most of the EPS vacuum boards are made in Asia which generates transport and pollution. Then the demand for EPS is not that big so it is really hard to think about a sustainable business with it. We are tesing different eco blanks with our riders at the moment. If the performance remains the same, we might propose it in a near future. The first step to a more sustainable surfboard, is making sure we are limiting our waste, for example we removed the carbon patches from our standard construction and replace it by fiber reinforcement, that fiber glass comes from our scraps from our surfboard production. It also avoids to produce and ship carbon from the other side of the world. We also dove into the One board 1 tree program, for every board sold we contribute to various worldwide reforestation projects with Grow ahead.

Key Products:

The Precious:
Precious came about when a friend asked Jon Pyzel for a one-board quiver that he could take around the world and have a good surf on. “One board to rule them all”. Jon based it off of the Gremlin, but we wanted it to be sleeker, more towards a performance feel with less width and less chunky rails. In order to do that, and still keep a fair bit of volume in the board, we decided to make it a step-deck. This allowed us to keep some foam in the overall board, but let it have a sensitive, high performance rail at the same time. When creating the step-deck it also makes the deck concave, which adds stability and more sensitivity to the design, and it seems to give you a little extra boost of paddle power as a side benefit. Precious is an easy paddler that gets up and goes fast, and still has a snappy, drivey, high-performance feel to get you the most out of every kind of wave.

PRECIOUS

The Radius Prime:
Fast, loose and ultra rippable, The Radius Prime is a newly re-tuned version of the Radius, our ultimate High Performance Shortboard design which is a favorite of our international team and was Jordy Smith’s pick for winner of Stab in the Dark. The Prime is a winning choice for everything from punchy beach breaks, lined up point waves and any sort of reef break around the world. Just like its predecessor, it does work best in waves where there is some curve in the faces and will allow you to push the board into the well overhead range with ease. It’s a great board for anyone who is ready to level up their surfing.

RADIUS_PRIME

The White Tiger:
The White Tiger is one of our latest offerings in our Funformance category – a fun, stubby little board designed for average/below average waves. It gets up and goes easily, flies through the weakest sections, but still lets you smash the lip and boost airs along the way.

WHITE_TIGER