Lasso

Q: What size Lasso should I get for my weight and home break?

A: Sizing the Lasso starts with the size you currently ride your daily-driver shortboard. Most intermediate-to-advanced riders land at their current HPSB length or +1" — not a -1" downsize. If you ride a 5'10" daily driver in chest-high Salt Creek and want a Lasso for overhead Lowers on a south swell, 5'10" or 5'11" is the honest starting point. The featured set sits in the 26–35L volume band; pick your length first, then dial volume to the waves you actually surf, not the ones you hope to surf. If you're between sizes, message Blake with your weight, stance, and home break and he'll talk you through the trade.

Q: Why is the Lasso a thruster instead of a quad or twin?

A: The Lasso is built for hold and drive on fast, slippery walls — three fins of grip is what makes that equation honest. The thruster center fin is what lets you load the rail through a long bottom turn and trust the board to hold the line through a fast wall. Quad is offered as a build option for riders who want more release and faster down-the-line drive on glassier days, and the 5-fin setup ($40 upcharge) lets you run either configuration from the same board if you want the versatility to experiment. Twin and single setups are not offered for this model — those sit on different shapes in the line entirely.

Q: What kinds of waves is the Lasso designed for?

A: Chest-high through overhead-and-a-half is the real range — surf with push behind it. South-swell Lowers running long and clean, overhead Salt Creek on a glassy morning, T-Street when the wall stands up. On a trip, Mentawais reef passes, mainland-Mexico points with a long workable wall (Pascuales, Saladita), and the smaller days on Oahu's North Shore. Outside that band, the board paddles okay but won't reward the rider the way a wider planing shape does on weak surf or a longer, narrower step-up does on heavy reef. If you mostly surf knee-to-waist mush, a wider, flatter shape is the honest call.

Q: I'm an intermediate surfer working on bottom turns. Will the Lasso work for me?

A: Yes — if you can already commit to a steeper takeoff and you're working on loading the rail through a bottom turn, the Lasso will reward the work. The board is designed for riders who think in terms of grip and drive rather than air or pocket-pivot. It's not a punish board — the medium-high entry rocker keeps you confident on a steep drop, and the squash tail gives a clean release line off the top — but it does ask the rider to engage the rail, which is exactly the skill you're building. If you're an early intermediate still trimming across the wave face on a foam top, a wider, thicker shape will get you more waves than the Lasso will.

Q: How does a Lasso get built, and how long does it take?

A: Every Lasso is built to order in San Clemente. Blake designs the board in Shape3D, the file goes to the CNC machine for a clean cut, and Jack Sykes finishes the shape and runs it through glassing. Lock your slot with a 25% deposit; balance is due on completion. Turnaround depends on the finish tier you pick: 4–6 weeks for clear-resin sanded ($750), 8–10 weeks for resin-tint sanded ($900), and 6–8 weeks for tint plus gloss-and-polish ($1,100). Timelines reflect the current queue — Blake confirms the actual delivery estimate when your order is placed.

Q: How does the Lasso compare to a Sharpeye Inferno 72 or a DHD DX1 Phase 3?

A: The Lasso sits in the same hold-and-drive HPSB genre as both. The Inferno 72 is Filipe Toledo's everyday platform — pulled-in tail, deep single concave through the front, double through the fins — and shares the priority on bite-through-fast-walls. The DX1 Phase 3 is Mick Fanning's lineage — step-up-leaning HPSB built explicitly for chest-to-overhead with push. The Lasso is built around the same priority but tuned to the surfer who wants the rail to do the work rather than the board to do the air. The biggest difference is the build path: ours is designed in Shape3D, CNC-cut, and finished in San Clemente to your specs — not a stock-dim production run.

Q: What glassing schedule does the Lasso ship with, and can I make it heavier or lighter?

A: The default is a 4oz S-cloth deck with a 4oz warp layer and a 4oz S-cloth bottom (4S+4W deck / 4S bottom). PU foam, 1/4" basswood stringer. That schedule holds across all three finish tiers — the $750 / $900 / $1,100 differences are resin treatment and finish, not cloth weight. If you want the board built heavier (4S+6S deck for a step-up-leaning Lasso, more durability under a bigger rider) or lighter, mention it on the order and Blake will quote the upcharge. Deck patches (chest reinforcement, +$30) are available for high-volume riders who want extra protection under the chest area.

Q: Can I demo a Lasso before I order one?

A: There's no formal demo program for custom builds — every Lasso is shaped to a specific rider's specs, so a stock demo wouldn't be a fair representation of what you'd actually get. The closest path: there's currently a 5'5" Lasso (board #1212204AT) on inventory clearance — 19 5/8" wide, 2 3/8" thick, 26.6L, custom airbrush — at $330 (down from $830 MSRP). If those dims work for you, you can buy the in-stock board and have a real Lasso under your feet within a week. Otherwise, message Blake — he'll talk you through the build before you commit, and he's happy to put you on a board at the shop if you're in San Clemente.