After borrowing one of Michel’s boards in Australia that rode absolutely insane for him, Alejo spent a little time with Nev tweaking the current Flexfire model to suit his preferences. Even though Alejo isn’t a Firewire team rider, Nev, being the board building genius that he is, cranked out a few sleds for him to use on his own accord. After spending a bit of time on the shelf with a back injury, Alejo decided to give them a whirl in South Africa. Check the heat highlights and even though Slater was a no show, I am pretty confident he would have won anyways. Don’t believe me? Good luck proving me wrong. Enjoy the video!

On a recent trip to Mexico, marketing director and team manager Chuy Reyna passed around some equipment and Huntington Beach pro Timmy Reyes was there to get in on the action. Cool little clip of him playing around on some Salina Cruz rights. Enjoy.

The Deviant fin has been out for a little while now, but we want to take the time to spread a little more awareness so that surfers everywhere understand how the fin works and the benefits it offers.

Designed in collaboration with RADCOR Design Studio, Firewire’s Deviant Fin serves the sole purpose of making surfing more enjoyable for beginners and experts alike. The concept behind what makes the fin work is simple: allow the “cant” of a thruster setup’s center fin to adjust naturally to the pressures it experiences while the user is surfing a wave.

Technically speaking, fin cant refers to the fin’s tilt in relation to the bottom of the board, or, in other words, the degree to which the fin leans away from the centerline of a surfboard. The Deviant Fin has been engineered with the freedom to deflect 7˚ from vertical in either direction for a total range 14˚. By giving the center fin the ability to shift and nearly match the cant of the forward fins of the thruster setup, drag is reduced and responsiveness is elevated. Surfers riding the Deviant Fin experience noticeably higher speeds throughout the duration of their turns, a tighter turning radius and quicker rail-to-rail maneuvering.

The coolest part about riding the Deviant Fin is that it can be used in both Futures and FCS fin boxes and it gives ANY board that can be ridden as a thruster a completely new feel. Designed with a tried and true template similar to the FCS M5 and Futures FEA outlines, the Deviant is highly versatile and its benefits can be applied in a wide range of wave types and sizes. Throughout our testing, we found the benefits of the Deviant Fin to be immediately noticeable, and above all, super fun.

Just got back from 2.5 weeks in J-bay celebrating my 50th with Tess and my immediate family and enjoyed 4-8’ surf every day but one. What a ridiculous wave, it just keeps on coming at you forever.

Had a blast and rode a bunch of different FW boards. Rode my DM510 on the smaller days and a Quadraflex 602 when bigger. I took out the DM510 with quad fins and a Deviant in the 5th fin slot on a couple of the double overhead days and it felt unreal – short rail line was great off the top/bottom, and the 5th fin gave it the hold to cope with all that power. Even took my 504 Potato out on a couple 3-4’ days and flew down the line.

Plus it was really cool to share the line up with many of the best surfers down there, many of whom were riding Firewire’s (Deon L, Craig E and Warren D were all ripping). Big props to Cheron, Mike R, Ginsy and the rest of the FW crew for creating such a strong FW presence at one of the best surf spots in the world.

Best surf trip of my life – by a mile!

Stopped by one of our southernmost California dealers jut before the 4th and thought it would be cool to share a few pics of the space. Its essentially a museum that pays homage to our sport of surfing. If you live in the area, give it a visit and say hello to Bird.