Big Buoy

The Big Buoy's featured volume band is proposed at 30–42L across 5'4"–6'6" in 1" increments. As a starting heuristic, multiply your body weight (in lb) by 0.18 to get the ballpark volume — that puts a 175 lb intermediate around 31–32L, a 195 lb advanced surfer around 34–35L, and a 215 lb rider around 39–40L. The Big Buoy is intentionally sized so you don't have to push past that ratio to feel the paddle benefit; the design carries the foam where it helps you and pulls in where it doesn't.

The most common sizing mistake on a high-volume shortboard is sizing UP too far. Past `weight × 0.18`, the board starts to ride you instead of the other way around — the rail-engagement window narrows and the daily-driver feel drifts toward foam-mal territory, which is not what the Big Buoy is for. If you're between sizes, sit one size below your gut feeling the first time. We'd rather you grow into the volume than out of it.

Stock setup is thruster. That's the obvious fit for the daily- driver brief: drive plus control, the genre default for a modern high-volume shortboard. If most of your sessions are in the soft- shouldered SoCal week — Salt Creek tired Tuesdays, T-Street wind days, San Onofre log-with-friends days — thruster is the right default and you should not overthink it.

Quad is the optional move for the smaller-wave end of your range. A quad on a Big Buoy frees the board up down the line and adds a gear of speed through the soft middle of a wave; it's noticeably looser than the thruster, especially on 30–34L builds. Order quad if more than half your sessions are at waist-high or smaller.

5-fin convertible installs both sets of plugs at build, so you can swap setups per session. Best for the surfer who actually wants the versatility — not just the optionality. If you'd be running thruster 99% of the time anyway, the convertible plugs are extra weight and extra holes. If you'd genuinely run quad on small days and thruster on solid days, 5-fin earns its keep. Default fin box system is Futures; FCS II and other systems available on request.

Waist-high to chest-high+ surf is the sweet spot — the realistic SoCal week, where the wave isn't pushing as hard as you wish it would. Salt Creek on a tired Tuesday, T-Street when the wind is up, San Onofre when you just want to log waves with friends. The Big Buoy paddles and plans through the soft middle of those waves where a 28-liter HPSB rolls through unbroken sections.

It also earns its keep on a mainland Mexico beach-break trip — the Saladita-style point days, the smaller Pascuales mornings, the in- between Indo days at Sanur or Lakey when the swell is short of firing. Anywhere the wave isn't asking you to surf at your absolute limit, the Big Buoy gives you margin without taking the modern surfing back.

Where it's not the right call: solid overhead surf at Lowers with real push (size up to a step-up shape), and knee-high mush (a wider, flatter groveler will paddle and plane better than a high-volume shortboard at that scale).

No, if you can already read a wave, commit to the right rail, and draw a line off the bottom. The Big Buoy is positioned for intermediate-to-advanced surfers — the paddle and forgiveness help an intermediate catch more waves and make more sections, but the rail line and exit rocker still expect a confident lead-foot drive and an honest top-turn to finish.

If you're brand-new to a thruster or you're still riding mostly foamies and softops, this isn't the right starting board — a wider, thicker beginner-friendly groveler will get you more waves at a gentler learning curve. Start there, log a season of intermediate turns, and the Big Buoy is the natural next step when you want modern-shortboard performance without the volume penalty of a true HPSB.

Each Big Buoy is built to order. Turnaround depends on the finish tier:

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

The board gets CNC-cut from the Shape3D file to your specified dimensions, then finished by Jack (our shaper) here in San Clemente. The CNC step is what lets us deliver a custom dim without invented turnaround penalties — the file and the cutter do the geometry; Jack does the finish work that actually makes the board feel like a Lundquist.

Order flow: pick a finish tier, customize the build (foam, stringer, deck patch, tail variant, fin system) in the configurator, and lock the order with a 25% deposit. Balance is due on completion. If you're between dim choices or want to talk through the build before committing, message Blake — that conversation happens before the deposit, not after.

The Average Joe is the closest peer the Big Buoy has in the mainstream shortboard catalog — both are high-volume daily-drivers with a pulled-in performance outline, both target the intermediate-to-advanced surfer who wants one board for the realistic mix of conditions, and both refuse the foamy-mal trade-off. The voice on the Average Joe page ("a step-up in volume from a high- performance shortboard while keeping the same response") is the single closest framing match for what the Big Buoy is doing.

Where they differ: a Big Buoy is CNC-cut to your specified dimensions and finished in San Clemente to your finish tier — not a stock model dim from a production-shaper template. If your CI dealer doesn't carry the Average Joe size you want, you wait for a custom order anyway. With the Big Buoy that custom order IS the default flow, and the configurator is set up so width, thickness, and volume are tunable from the start. The board itself sits in the same genre as the Average Joe, with the design choices Blake locked in during the Shape3D pass — flatter belly through the front foot, modern exit rocker, the rail line carrying volume forward where it helps the paddle and pulling in toward the tail so the back foot has something to push against.

We're not telling you to switch from a board you like. We're telling you the genre fits the same shopper either way; the build relationship is what's different.

Three finish tiers cover most decisions:

- $750 — Clear resin, sanded. Functional finish. PU blank, polyester resin, sanded off the lam — same glass schedule and foam as the higher tiers. The starter tier is a real entry point, not a stripped-down loss-leader. - $900 — Resin tint both sides, sanded. Color is in the lam, then sanded smooth. Most performance-shortboard customers order Starter or Standard. - $1,100 — Resin tint with gloss + polish. Top-tier finish. Color in the lam plus a gloss coat polished to show-quality. Worth it if you want the finish to look as deliberate as the shape.

Glass schedule on the Big Buoy is 4S+4W on the deck and 4S on the bottom as the standard build. If you're at the heavier-rider end of the size range and you want extra deck durability, ask about 6S+4W — adds weight, adds longevity. Universal upcharges (deck patch, stringer upgrades, alternate tails) attach the same way they do on any shortboard. Full add-on schedule lives in the configurator.

Honestly: not yet. With `in_stock_boards: []` in the polish-context JSON — meaning no Big Buoy has been built and photographed for inventory yet — there isn't a shop-pinned demo board on a rack to hand you. When the first one ships and gets ridden, that changes.

What you CAN do today:

1. Talk to Blake — message via `/contact?subject=Big%20Buoy` and walk through your weight, stance, the waves you're surfing, and the boards you've ridden recently. The conversation pre-resolves most "is this the right call" doubts. 2. Compare the genre — if you've ridden a Channel Islands Average Joe, a Pyzel Phantom XL, or a Lost Puddle Jumper HP, you already know the genre. The Big Buoy sits in that same shape space (see Q6). 3. Start at the lower end of the volume range — if you're 175 lb and you'd otherwise order a 33L, order a 31L the first time. Easy to grow into; harder to grow out of.

When demo boards exist, this answer gets updated. For now, the pre-order conversation with Blake is the demo equivalent.

When the Shape3D contour render is finalized for the Big Buoy and the PNG lands at `public/contour-diagrams/big-buoy.png`, replace Q5 (Build turnaround) with the design-specific question below and shift Q5 → Q6 → Q7 → Q8 → Q9 (an 8-Q list expands to 9 with the contour addition):

``` Q. Why the flatter belly through the front foot?

A. The flatter belly under the chest is what lets the Big Buoy plane early and trim through the soft middle of a wave — it spreads volume across a flatter surface so the foam-ball-to-rail handoff happens without bogging. A more curved belly through the same volume would sit deeper in the wave; a flatter belly with the same volume sits on top of it. The trade-off is less rail-engagement bite mid-wave, which is exactly the design choice the Big Buoy makes on purpose: this is a daily-driver that paddles in early, not a contest stick that pivots in the pocket. The exit rocker stays modern enough that you still get a real top-turn out of the design. ```

Until then, the 8-Q list above ships as-is.