Big Joe

Q: What size Big Joe should I order if I'm 6'1" and 215 pounds and my daily driver is a 6'2" × 19 5/8" × 2 5/8" performance shortboard?

A: Start the conversation around the same length you're already riding — 6'2" — but bump the volume up roughly 10%. So if your daily driver is 31 liters, look at the 33–34L row of the Big Joe table at the same length. The point isn't to ride a longer board; it's to ride a board with the right volume under your chest. If you already know you paddle slow even at the right volume, then size up in length first (6'3" or 6'4") and pick the volume that gets you into waves earlier. I'd rather you over-paddled into a Salt Creek wave than under-paddled and watched the set go through.

Q: Should I order the Big Joe as a thruster, a quad, or 5-fin?

A: Thruster is the stock setup and what I'd recommend for most riders — it's the default high-performance shortboard feel and matches the design brief for this board. Quad makes sense if you spend a lot of time on solid down-the-line waves where you want extra drive — bigger Mexico days, Indo trips, point setups with real push. 5-fin gives you both options on the same board, which is what I'd order if you're deciding between thruster and quad and don't want to commit. Twin and single-fin aren't offered on the Big Joe — different brief, different board. Specific fin templates (Futures vs. FCS II, rake vs. pivot) are still being finalized across the lineup; once you start the order, I'll recommend templates based on your weight, stance, and the waves you're riding.

Q: Will the Big Joe work for me at my home break in waist-high mush?

A: Probably not as a first choice. The Big Joe is a shortboard — modern rocker, single-to-double concave, performance tail — and even with the extra volume, it wants a wave with shape and push to work properly. Knee-to-overhead is the band where it earns its keep: clean SoCal beach-break peaks, Trestles on a chest-high south, T-Street on a clean morning, travel waves through mainland Mexico and Indo. If your home break is consistently waist-high and soft, you're a candidate for a different category — a fish or a mid-length will paddle and plane better in that surf. Big Joe isn't a small-wave step-down board.

Q: What's going on with the bottom contour on this board? I see "VEE" and "BELLY" labels on your contour diagram.

A: Good catch. The vee through the back of the board releases water cleanly out of turns and lets you roll the board rail-to-rail without it feeling sticky underfoot — the kind of release that helps a heavier rider through a turn instead of fighting it. The belly through the front lets the nose hand off rail-to-rail without catching when you're angling into a wave or shifting your weight forward. Together it's an older-school bottom-contour language than the single-to-double concave you'll see on a typical modern shortboard, and it's there because it does specific work for the rider this board is built for. Heads up — we're in the middle of resolving whether Big Joe ships as a high-volume shortboard or as a longboard (the contour diagram you're looking at is from the longboard build), so if the answer is going to matter for your order, message me directly and I'll walk you through where we land.

Q: I'm a returning surfer — I rode a 6'1" thruster ten years ago and I'm just getting back into it. Is the Big Joe a good "back into surfing" board for me?

A: It can be, with caveats. Big Joe is built for intermediate- to-advanced surfers who already know what shortboard surfing feels like. If you spent years on a 6'1" thruster, the muscle memory is there — and a Big Joe sized up in volume (not necessarily length) gives you the paddle and forgiveness to skip the rough first month of a comeback without dropping into mid-length geometry that you'll then have to climb back out of. What I wouldn't do is make Big Joe your first board if you've never ridden a real shortboard before — that's a different conversation, and it's probably not this model. Tell me where you're surfing and what your weight is now, and I'll help you size it.

Q: How long does a Big Joe take to build, and what's the process?

A: Every Big Joe is built to order in San Clemente, California. Designed by me in Shape3D, CNC-cut, and finished by Jack Sykes. Turnaround depends on the finish tier you pick: 4–6 weeks for the clear sanded build, 6–8 weeks for tint with gloss + polish, 8–10 weeks for tint sanded. Timeline reflects current shop queue and gets confirmed when you place the order. We take a 25% deposit at order; balance is due on completion. If you're ordering a non-standard length or volume outside the featured stock dims, expect the upper end of the range — custom dims add a Shape3D pass before the blank goes on the CNC.

Q: How does the Big Joe compare to a Channel Islands Mid Volume Six?

A: They're going after the same customer — the rider who wants a real shortboard at a volume the standard 30-liter envelope doesn't reach. Britt Merrick built the Mid Volume Six with that same brief in mind, and if you've ridden one and liked it, you're exactly the customer we built Big Joe for. Where we differ is in the build: the Mid Volume Six is a stock model in a stock-dim run, and the Big Joe is built to your specs in San Clemente — different dim, different glass schedule, different fin system, different finish tier. If you already know your dim and want a shop board off the rack, CI is the right answer. If you want a board built for your weight, your home break, and the waves you actually ride, that's what we do here. Either way, the design intent is in the same neighborhood, and that's not an accident.

Q: Can I get the Big Joe with a heavier glass schedule, and is there any way to try one before I commit to a custom build?

A: Yes on the glass. The standard shortboard schedule is 4 + 4 oz deck, 4 oz bottom, but for Big Joe specifically — where the rider weight bias is real — I think there's a strong case for a 4 + 4 + 4 oz deck (extra deck patch) as the default, and that's a conversation I'm happy to have when you order. Heavier cloth means more weight and a touch less flex in the deck, but the durability gains for a heavier rider are worth it for almost everyone. On try-before-buy: we don't run a formal demo program, but if you're local to San Clemente and want to swing by the shop before ordering, message me and I'll show you the master file in Shape3D, walk you through the contour, and let you pick up the closest stock build we have on hand. That's not a wave-test, but it gets you closer than ordering blind.

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*End — Big Joe FAQ.*