My surfboard wishlist: 4 boards I am still curious about

Updated 2026-09-19

I keep a short wishlist rather than a long one: a Campbell Designed Big Cam, a Keyo Fish, a Neuvo Camino Thunder Egg, and a Lovelace Twiz. None of them are bought yet. None of them have specs attached, just a brand and a model, which is exactly how a board sits on this list until an actual example turns up.

Why the list stays short

A long wishlist is just a long list of excuses to keep buying, and I already know where that ends, since the quiver once ran to 54 boards before the purge brought it back to 29. Four boards is a list I can actually hold in my head and compare against, one at a time, whenever something real comes up for sale. Each one earns its spot for a different reason.

The four boards, and what has me curious

A Campbell Designed Big Cam sits on the list because I already own boards from that shaper and rate them highly for how they perform relative to their volume, and a bigger model in the same lineage is a natural next step to try rather than a guess.

A Keyo Fish is on the list partly because the one Keyo already in the current quiver, a Cheetah, holds the longest wave ride in the whole current rack at 430 meters, so a fish-style board from the same maker is worth finding out about on its own terms rather than assuming it will behave the same way.

A Neuvo Camino Thunder Egg is the least familiar name on the list, and that is most of the appeal. An egg shape sits between a shortboard and a mid-length in how it paddles and turns, and I do not have a strong opinion on this specific one yet, which is exactly why it stays on the list rather than getting bought on a whim.

A Lovelace Twiz is on the list because a Ryan Lovelace board already replaced one of the harder boards to let go during the purge, a Gato Heroi Acid Drop, almost entirely on outline alone. A different Lovelace model is worth finding out about for the same reason.

The one board already in the rack, earmarked for a trip

Separate from the wishlist itself, one board already in the quiver is marked to travel rather than to be bought: the Jim Banks Revolution is the board earmarked to take on the next overseas trip, ahead of whatever else makes the bag. It already won a head-to-head against a faster board during the purge, on turning and paddling rather than outright speed, which is most of why it gets first call on a trip where a wide range of wave sizes is likely.

A wishlist is not a plan to buy

None of the four boards above are a commitment. They are the boards I would actually stop and look at twice if one turned up secondhand or a shaper had room on the order books, measured against what is already doing that job in the rack. The buying filters that decide whether a wishlist board actually gets bought are the same ones that decide whether any board earns a place: is it a bargain, can I get it later if I wait, what does it replace, and will I actually let that other board go. The full filters are on selling filters.

Questions people ask

Why keep a wishlist at all if the goal is fewer boards?

A short, specific wishlist gives me something concrete to compare an unplanned opportunity against, so a new board only comes in when it clearly beats what is already doing that job, rather than because it happened to be for sale.

How long do boards usually stay on the wishlist before being bought?

There is no fixed timeline. A board stays on the list until the right example turns up at a fair price, and some models may never get bought at all if nothing that turns up beats what is already in the rack.

What happens to a board once it comes off the wishlist?

It goes through the same buying filters as any other board coming in: what it replaces, and whether that other board actually gets sold. A wishlist board is not exempt from those questions just because it was wanted for a while.

Is the travel board also part of the wishlist?

No. The Jim Banks Revolution is already owned and simply earmarked for a trip. The wishlist is only for boards not yet bought.

For the argument behind keeping the rack small in the first place, see dream quiver and how many surfboards do you need. For what actually travels day to day, see the current quiver. More on the quiver hub.