Firewire Thunderbolt HIHP 9ft 01 Surfboard

Firewire Thunderbolt HIHP 9ft 01 Surfboard

This is the performance longboard that Harley Ingleby rode when he won his second ASP World Longboard Title in 2014, which is an upgrade from the board on which he won the 2009 world title. The HIHP shaped by Billy Tolhurst is a true high-performance longboard with continual curve rocker that enables direction adjustments form anywhere on the board. The HIHP is designed flat under the nose for superior planing tight in the curl. A slightly convex bottom through the middle helps keep the rails nice and free for quick rail-to-rail transitions. A spiral V with double concaves and a flat tail area behind the fins allows powerful turning in all surf sizes. Normally rode as a thruster, the addition of a quad fin box set-up improves handling in big surf where longer turns at speed are preferred.

Thunderbolt is a complex and meticulous method of crafting longboards through eleven separate build steps per board, preferred by many of the world’s best longboard riders for the way the technology flexes, bends, and resists breakage.

In March Dan Mann traveled to Hawaii to learn about the tech (both Thunderbolt RED and Thunderbolt BLACK) from 2x World Longboard Champion Harley Ingleby. He was specifically interested in asking Harley about the role carbon fiber played in Thunderbolt's build process.

Dan was curious for two reasons - he firstly was a sponsored professional longboarder in the 90’s - what he calls a separate and previous life, and secondly - he has long built boards out of carbon fiber from his shaping bay on Coronado Island in California.

Dating back to 2002, even while participating in the founding of Firewire in 2006 and overseeing U.S. board production through 2008, he continuously has experimented with carbon fiber as both an exterior laminate in place of fiberglass, and also as an internal flex control system laminated beneath fiberglass.

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This is why Thunderbolt caught his attention: as explained by Harley Ingleby, Thunderbolt BLACK utilizes carbon as an exterior laminate, beneath which fiberglass is used in ‘A’ and ‘V’ shapes on the boards bottom and deck to control flex along with the deck's’ T Stringer’.

Then there’s Thunderbolt RED - the opposite: laminated with fiberglass, beneath which carbon fiber acts as the flex control system with the same ‘A’ and ‘V’ structure controlling flex in alignment with the ’T Stringer” on the deck. This approach of reversing fiberglass and carbon fiber's position as both external lamination and internal flex control is the crux of Dan’s discussion with Harley.

In short, both methods of Thunderbolt technology employ carbon, but in separate ways. Thunderbolt BLACK is stiffer because it’s exterior is laminated with carbon, and Thunderbolt RED flexes more (and more immediately) because its exterior is laminated with fiberglass. This means that you’re making quick decisions in a surf shop near you about your next performance longboard, you can most likely expect Thunderbolt RED to work best in smaller or weaker waves, and Thunderbolt BLACK to work best in larger or more powerful waves.https://youtu.be/w_i_hWE_lBQ

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