Acid-Drop

Most riders in your weight range land in the 30–33L band on the Acid-Drop. The rule for any modern twin: pick 1–3 liters above your shortboard volume to compensate for the missing third fin, and add another 1–2 liters if your local breaks on the softer side of "punchy." Salt Creek and T-Street both have enough push when they're on that you don't need to bulk up further. Volume is the honest spec on a twin — start with a number, then talk to me about how to get length, width, and thickness lined up around it.

The Acid-Drop is built around a two-fin platform — the rocker, concave, and tail outline are all tuned for twin-fin water flow. A third fin would change the board's character: the snap that comes off the squash tail relies on the back foot driving water through two fins, not three. If you want a quad-friendly platform, that's a different model. If you want a thruster-friendly platform, that's a different model again. The Acid-Drop is what you ride when you've decided you want a twin and don't want to compromise the design to keep your options open.

Default box system is Futures.

Yes — that's exactly the wave it's tuned for. Punchy waist-to-overhead with shape, beach break or reef. Lowers on a clean south, Salt Creek when it's lined up, T-Street with push, Blacks when the bank cooperates. On a head-high Lowers day with real push, the Acid-Drop will hold a line through the bowl, give you a fast pivot off the top, and release out of bottom turns without bogging. Travel: it's also a strong pick for mainland Mexico beach breaks and Mentawais head-high days when you don't want a thruster.

Where it doesn't work: knee-high mush. The Acid-Drop wants a face. If your local is flat more days than not, a wider, flatter twin or a mid-length will plane earlier and have more fun.

Yes, with one honest note: a modern performance twin doesn't behave like a thruster. The Acid-Drop is built to surf vertically — which is a thruster instinct — but it gets there through a different combination of speed and release than you're used to. Expect the first couple sessions to be a recalibration: more speed off the bottom, looser through the back foot, less drive into a top turn but faster pivot once you're committed.

For intermediates ready to commit to steeper drops and looking to broaden the quiver, the Acid-Drop is a good first step away from thruster-only surfing. For advanced surfers who already understand how a twin moves underfoot, it's a precision tool.

Designed by me (Founder & Designer) in Shape3D, CNC-cut, then shaped and finished by Jack Sykes in San Clemente. Built to your specs.

Turnaround depends on the finish tier:

• Clear sanded ($750): 4–6 weeks
• Resin tint sanded ($900): 8–10 weeks
• Resin tint gloss + polish ($1,100): 6–8 weeks

The tint sanded queue runs longest because the tint and the sand both add lam-room time. The gloss + polish actually moves faster than tint sanded because the polish work happens in our finish-room queue, which has more weekly throughput than the tint lam queue. Lock your slot with a 25% deposit; balance is due on completion.

Both are modern performance twins built for shortboard refugees who want vertical surfing on a twin. Squash tails on both, double concave through the tail on both, modern entry rocker on both. Where they diverge: the Two Happy Twin is built off Britt Merrick's HPSB lineage at Channel Islands; the Acid-Drop is built off the design conversation Jack Sykes and I have been having about modern twin water flow specifically. Different starting points, adjacent destinations.

If you've ridden a Two Happy Twin and liked it, you'll find the Acid-Drop in the same neighborhood. If you've ridden one and wanted slightly more snap off the back foot, that's where the Acid-Drop's squash + harder tail rails put it. The honest answer: both are good twins; pick the builder whose voice you trust and whose shop you want to support.

(Other useful frames in the same neighborhood: Album Twinsman, JS Lemon Twin, DHD Twin Fin DX1, Sharpeye Modern 2.5 Twin.)

All three tiers use the same blank, the same shape, and the same fin system. The difference is in the finish:

- Starter ($750) — clear resin, sanded off the lam. Fastest turnaround, lightest finish, most "raw" look. Functional. Don't overlook this one — half the boards we ship are clear sanded. - Standard ($900) — resin tint both sides, sanded finish. Color goes into the resin during the lam, then the lam gets sanded smooth. Looks great, weighs roughly the same as Starter. - Premium ($1,100) — resin tint both sides, gloss coat polished to show-quality. The full custom-board treatment. Heavier than sanded by maybe 100g of resin, but the durability and the look pay you back over the life of the board.

If you're undecided between Starter and Standard, the question is really about color. If you're undecided between Standard and Premium, the question is gloss + polish vs sanded — read the finish-options guide for the long version.

Honest answer: not right now. The Acid-Drop is in the build queue — no inventory exists yet, and no demo board has been built. When the first one ships and gets ridden, we'll know more about whether a dedicated demo program makes sense for this model.

In the meantime, the closest thing to a demo is a conversation. Message me with your weight, your stance, the waves you ride most, and the boards you've ridden recently — I can usually narrow the spec down to a 2L window and a length within a couple inches based on that. If you've ridden a CI Two Happy Twin, an Album Twinsman, or a JS Lemon Twin, that's also useful framing for me.

Shop visits are by appointment at our San Clemente space (106 W Mariposa Unit B, 8am–8pm daily, (949) 750-5067).