Tex in the DRK

Press play above for an early-morning raw session with Oceanside local standout and Firewire team rider Tex Mitchell, riding the DRK in I-Bolic 2.0 Technology by Dan Mann. Filmed by Leo Nobel.

One of the best feelings in surfing is seeing your home zone come alive. During one of the standout south swells of the summer, Tex paddled out before first light and found Oceanside about as good as it gets – clean conditions, loads of swell, and barrel after barrel from dawn into daylight. A hometown session for one of our own. 

When Tex isn’t in the office with us, he’s putting our boards through their paces. Under his feet is the DRK in I-Bolic 2.0 Technology by Dan Mann, the shape that took the win in Stab in the Dark X and made the finals in Stab In The Dark with Ethan Ewing. A refined evolution of the FRK, the DRK is designed for speed, control, and high-performance surfing.

This is the winning design of Stab In The Dark X starring Kelly Slater.

Dan drew inspiration from the original shape he crafted for Kelly when first asked to make the 11x World Champion some boards, the DRK is a refined version of the FRK designed for high-performance surfing in good waves. When Dan shaped the original batch of FRKs for Kelly in 2015, they sat in his board shed until 2017 when a friend insisted he try one. He loved that board from the very first turn on it, he immediately clicked and felt he could mindsurf anywhere he wanted to on the wave, it drove and jumped to exactly where he wanted to go.  

Kelly's FRK shapes went unchanged until 2022 for the Barra de la Cruz event when he wanted to change the rail and foil to be more balanced under his chest. And then once more before a trip to J-Bay in 2023, when he asked Dan to push the wide point forward making the back half of the board more narrow than the FRK, allowing for a more elliptical, pulled-in tail. More narrow meant more sensitivity, and more need to be on top of your game. 

Dan on the Stab In The Dark X project, "it was a simple decision that this was my best shape for him. The board looked insane under his feet. He could put it wherever he wanted and he didn't have to think about it. Kelly not thinking about the board is when he is free to fly. When he is flying, we all win."

The DRK came to be with great care to keep the features that make the FRK such a great board, like fin placement, bottom contours, and rocker. It's a high-performance, refined, simple, and clean version of a high-performance shape that is surprisingly versatile in various conditions.

As he does with all of Kelly's shapes, Dan made the fin cluster conducive to changing between Quad and Thruster configurations. Kelly's been riding with his all-new Slater Designs Endorfins KSR Fin Set.