The purge: how I cut a 54-board quiver down to 29
Updated 2026-09-19
I started 2025 with 54 surfboards and sold 25 of them within the year, landing on 29. Most surfers run four to six boards, so 29 still sounds excessive, but every board left has a clear reason to be there. Four of the boards that went were genuinely hard to let go, and each one only left because something else in the rack quietly beat it every single time.
It is not about bad boards
None of the boards I sold were bad. A Firewire Seaside Volcanic, 6'1 and 46.5 litres, is a genuinely well regarded fish-style board, and the brand sells for good reason. Mine just felt wide and awkward every time I picked it up, and I kept reaching past it for a Channel Islands Feb's Fish instead, a similar length and volume with a straighter outline that paddled better as a twin than the Seaside did as a quad. When an Album Plasmic, a small-wave groveler that also holds up in good surf, was already doing the same job better again, the Seaside's fate was sealed. That is the pattern behind almost every sale in this purge: not a flaw in the board that left, but a better fit already sitting in the rack.
The four hardest boards to let go
Four boards took real thought before they went, because on paper each one was excellent.
The A Man O Twin Pin, a heavily glassed 6'6 that clocked 39.4 km/h, the third fastest board I have ever measured, was a sensational board in medium to powerful waves. It only shines in that narrow window, though, and locally I kept reaching for a longer board with more paddle power instead. A Jim Banks Revolution of the same length did everything the Twin Pin did and more, so the Twin Pin became the one that moved on.
The Christenson Nautilus, a 7'0 quad at 44 litres, is a beautifully made board with real pedigree, and I have owned two of them. It went because three other boards in the rack, a Channel Islands Mid Twin, an SMTH Grande and a Simon Shapes Quegg, each independently covered what the Nautilus did, and each was easier to live with day to day. Losing to three separate boards rather than one clear replacement made this the hardest decision of the four.
The Gato Heroi Acid Drop, a 7'10 single fin at about 52 litres, was my best pure single fin for roughly six years across four different versions of the model. It finally lost out to a Ryan Lovelace FM with an almost identical outline that turns more easily and paddles better, and to a Vouch Nuevo that clocked 38.9 km/h and steps up into bigger surf. Between the two, everything the Gato used to do on its own is now covered.
What the purge actually taught me
Losing count of 54 boards is not really a lesson about surfboards. Nearly everything left in the rack now is a twin fin, a twinzer or a quad, with a single 9'1 gun kept for serious surf I rarely paddle out in. That was not a plan going in. It is just where the comparisons kept landing, board after board, sale after sale. The real gain was not the money from selling 25 boards. It was one board per job, less confusion standing on the rack deciding what to grab, and no compromises left in the quiver.
Questions people ask
How do you decide which board to sell when several boards overlap?
I compare which one I actually reach for, session after session, not which one looks best on paper. A board that keeps getting passed over for the same other board, sale after sale, is the one that is done.
Is a bigger quiver always a worse quiver?
Not automatically, but a quiver grows past useful when boards start duplicating each other's job without anyone noticing. Going from 54 to 29 removed the duplicates, not the range.
Do you regret selling any of the four hardest boards?
Each one left because something else already did its job better, so no. The test was not whether the board was good, it was whether I was actually reaching for it anymore.
What is left after a purge like this?
Mostly twin fins, a twinzer and a couple of quads, plus one gun for the rare big day. That was not planned in advance; it is just where the head-to-head comparisons consistently pointed.
For the small quiver argument taken further, see how many surfboards do you need and dream quiver. For the boards that made the cut, see the current quiver, and for the full list of what has sold, see sold boards. The filters I run before any board leaves are on selling filters. More on the quiver hub.