8 Boards from One Shaper, Now Down to the 3 I Kept
Updated 2026-09-19
Eight boards from one EPS Exo-Flex shaper, in different shapes, sizes and tail configurations, down to three kept in the rack for good. As at December 2025, here is the run through all eight, and why three specific boards won out over the rest.
Where it started
The first board from this shaper, a Sacrifishal, arrived as a gift on moving to a new town. It was a fun board, but too small, and it sold. A 7'4 Middle Toe came next, and it changed the relationship with the brand: loved at local points, taken on a Maldives trip, and responsible for some of the longest, fastest rides logged on any board owned. It built enough trust to justify going custom with an 8'8 version of the same model, a glide-into-anything board that took a long time to arrive but paid that wait back.
A Binary Twin at 6'6 came in for cyclone swells, fast and stable, followed by a 6'9 Mid Mod, a more refined take on the Middle Toe with a more pulled-in nose and tail. Bought as a dedicated travel board, it went to the Maldives and beyond and became a genuine go-to in almost any wave. A Chunky Toe followed as the go-to thruster for the local coast, ordered with channels and rated among the best thrusters ridden despite not usually riding thrusters at all. A Wingman at 6'6 filled the standard twin fin rounded-pin slot, with a custom rail spray, and proved a very good board in its own right.
Then came the Twin Cam. A tip-off from the brand about a new model worth trying led to a test ride good enough to sell the Binary Twin almost immediately afterward, and it forced a rethink of the entire eight-board lineup. Too many boards covering similar ground makes choosing harder, not easier, and it is easy to keep gravitating to the same one or two boards regardless of what else sits in the rack.
Keeper one: the 8'8 twin
This 8'8 twin has replaced every longboard in the quiver, including a 12-foot glider sold off once this board proved it could paddle onto anything from one foot to seven feet. It is light without being fragile: a hard hit on a shallow reef section did not crack it, and it has produced some of the longest and fastest waves logged on any board, unsurprising given it was custom built around a specific favorite point wave. A tinted resin finish rather than a plain white one also means it will not yellow with age the way some of the others eventually do.
Keeper two: the Twin Cam
At 6'4 and 45.1 liters, the Twin Cam paddles better than the outgoing 6'6 Binary Twin despite being two inches shorter, and it is fast, fun and full of hold across a wide wave range. It alone has been responsible for a dozen other boards being sold, simply by making them redundant every time a choice came down to which board to grab. Ordered in plain white, it fits easily in the back of a wagon and has proven itself as a genuine travel board, covering everything from small fish-sized days up through a proper step-up range.
Keeper three: the Mid Mod
At 6'9 and 48.5 liters, the Mid Mod does everything the original Middle Toe does, with a more pulled-in nose and tail that make it noticeably better again. It has been ridden more than almost anything else in the quiver, from tiny days at home to good-sized Maldives waves, and it is holding up well despite some tail impressions from riding without a pad. Its day-glow orange rail spray, brighter in person than it reads on camera, makes it easy to spot from a boat or from shore, though rail spray sitting on the outside of an EPS Exo-Flex construction is more exposed to dents and scratches than a spray sealed underneath a clear coat.
What got let go, and why
The Wingman does not paddle as well as the Twin Cam that effectively replaced it, and it carries a small chip in its outside rail spray along with the same slow risk of yellowing over time that eventually caught up with the Binary Twin too. The Chunky Toe, despite being one of the best thrusters ridden, lost out simply because it asks for a tail pad and a thruster stance that has fallen out of favor, and because a 6'4, 45.1 liter Twin Cam already covers that same 44-liter, 6'4 ground with a fin configuration preferred day to day.
Questions people ask
Why keep multiple boards from the same shaper instead of spreading across brands?
Consistency in construction made it easier to trust the brand enough to go custom, and to compare shapes fairly against each other, since the variable being tested each time was the shape rather than the build quality.
How do you decide which boards to sell out of a large quiver?
By checking for direct overlap: if a newer board paddles better and covers the same wave range as an older one, the older one is the one that goes, regardless of how good it still is on its own.
Does rail spray placement affect how well a board holds up?
On EPS Exo-Flex boards, yes. A spray on the outside of the construction is more exposed to dents, scratches and slow yellowing than a spray sealed underneath a clear coat.
Is it worth keeping a thruster in an otherwise twin fin and quad-focused quiver?
Only if it is genuinely doing a job nothing else covers. Here, a very good thruster still lost out once a twin fin of a similar size and volume proved just as capable without needing a tail pad or a thruster stance.
What does a good travel board need to cover in a small quiver?
Enough paddle power and volume for small days, enough hold for something with real size, and construction tough enough to survive repeated reef sessions without babying it between surfs.
For the individual boards mentioned here in more depth, see is this Exo-Flex thruster a quiver killer and which twin fin surfs better: Sweet Leaf or Twin Cam. For the wider argument on trimming a large quiver down, see the purge and how many surfboards do you need. For the case on going custom once a brand has earned trust, see custom or stock surfboard. The boards mentioned here that moved on are listed on the sold list, and the three keepers sit in the current quiver.