Slater's steed from the Quiksilver Pro Grajagan gets the once over in the latest Extraordinary Boards. It's the board he rode while punching himself in the head at perfect G'Land.

"You might as well be riding a unicycle up there," says Matt Warshaw of twin fins and their propensity to spin out. However, modern design and construction has curbed the chaos without losing that footloose feeling.

Mark Richards considered it the pinnacle of twin fin design, a board on which he felt he couldn't lose a heat, or indeed a world title.

In this, the first part of an ongoing series, we look at MR's handshaped 1980 twin fin (includes video footage).

Computer shaping can deliver racks and racks of identical model surfboards, and yet board design has never been more diverse. So where are we at with surfboard models?

A surfer falls down the rabbit hole of asymmetry bumping into innovators along the way: Midget, Bob Cooper, Carl Ekstrom, Kelly Slater.

Tequila is made from the Agave plant which is native to Mexico, however it also grows wild in the Adelaide Hills. Cass Selwood finds a different use for Agave, making a wild home-made shortboard from pilfered stalks.

A friend in need is a friend indeed, especially when it comes to guns.

The wooden stringer has been the veritable backbone of the surfboard for over half a century. Varial Foam blanks require no stringer or parabolic rails, all the strength comes from the core, and Shane Dorian has been riding a 9'8" stringerless JC in the biggest waves on the planet.

"A lot of surfers don't know why their boards work the way they do," says Greg Webber, before adding, somewhat cheekily. "But then a lot of shapers don't why either."

Webber gives Swellnet the straight talk on his latest experiment.

Come meet a shaper called Mitch, a legend called George, and a flex tail spoon called Gwen.