Fat Bullet review

[old grom]

After enjoying reading the thoughts of others on their new rides - thought I should post my impressions of my new bourton Fat Bullet.

THE NEED
I was after a go to board for my local beachie – a go to board for 2-4ft, with essential abilities to help spice up shite slop days. I have a couple of other boards so really after something a bit different that paddles well, catches anything, and makes the most of a wide range of often very average surf. To fill this I had a traditional fish shape with quad fins made 6’4” x 21 ½” x 2 ½” . This board was incredible down the line – filled the need well – except it was very hard to turn unless lots of power or speed. Very hard to get it vertical and missed the ability to hit little wall on those ‘one turn and its over’ waves. After 3 months and sore knees – traded it in at my local – had to use one of their board lines so was restricted on my choice of shaper. The owner Alf with his kindly guidance recommended bourton as “he’s a great shaper and also an old bugger so he will be really good at understanding what a fat bastard like you will need”. Despite Alf remarks – not that fat – just 6ft 90 kegs and 41 yrs – but like a board that get me on lots of waves to maximize my fun, and keep me out longer.


THE PROCESS
Checked out the excellent Base website, noted a few models that seemed suited, and emailed mailed Muzza a detailed needs list and asked for a recommendation from his many fish and retro inspired shapes– he was on the phone in a flash. I have surfed one of his HPR range recently which helped heaps as was able to really understand my volume requirements and combined with lots of questions about the dimensions of by ex fish, and my short board, and questions about what waves I surf , and my ability etc. He then said he would make me a file of a shape and send it to look at. Later that day I received a file shape of my Fat Bullet.

THE BOARD
Muzza did not hesitate to select the Fat Bullet from his many models –told me that “it just goes unreal”. He said “don’t worry you wont have to go the gym and lose weight to float this - and I won’t shape you a boat” . His standard range goes up to 6’4” x 21 ½ x 2 5/8” . He suggested stretching this a bit to 6’6” x 21 ½” x 2 ¾” . I also requested a stronger glass job (had some bad experiences from of the shelf 4x4x4 standard boards – I expect my boards to last and my level of surfing is not effected by a slight weight increase). They glassed it 4x6x4 and it is a fantastic job – I think its wet sanded – but so silky its almost better than a polish job – Im very impressed.

On examination – you can see its fish heritage - shorter, fatter, thicker, with a flat rocker; but there are some very clear differences from a trad fish shape: 1) pointy nose – much less foam up front than a trad fish; 2) it’s a round tail quad ; and 3) the bottom shape is radical – extreme concave from the nose running halfway down the board, fairly flat in the guts, then a solid vee that runs through the tail and between the fins. Muzza claims this bottom shape – helps with paddling and getting onto waves, and allows a fat board to surf rail to rail and thus vertical with ease due to the vee.

All up it’s a very interesting shape – my first impressions were of a solid aggressive nugget of a short board, great glass job, and wild bottom shape. Its a round tail quad on steroids.

THE RIDE
I have been on this board exclusively for the last five weeks, surfed everything from tiny 1-2ft (waist high gutless wonders) to solid 3-4 ft perfect winter groundswell; and several really shite wind slop days – “get wet on a Sunday arvo” waves. My impressions:
• You often read all sorts of claims about board shapes – this shape makes it go…; in this case I have found Muzza’s claims (see his website for his own explanation) to be very accurate.
• The board paddles well – as one would expect with the width– but you can really feel the concave at the front sort of lift you as you paddle – especially when catching waves.
• Still fast and fish like down the line. It is so fast and when you shift your weight forward just accelerates. Never have any problems with the weird concave catching.
• This board is so forgiving – a few times I have stuffed late take offs especially on my weak backhand – and as long as you can stay on the board it just sort of stabilizes and takes of by itself – allowing you to reset and take over. Its very stable.
• For a fat board it turns on a dime, goes vertical with ease. A mate took it out and was very impressed he said “its sort of like this board has a steering wheel and if you want to turn up the face you just mentally turn the wheel and it goes straight up” – this may sound weird but it nailed exactly what I feel when surfing it.
• Just loads of fun in a wide range of conditions.
• Any negatives – only the expected from a fat board – a bitch to duck dive.

All up I am very impressed and loving the FB as my 80% local ride, I have a lot of surfing to go before I really understand the full potential of this very versatile shape. – Cheers Old Grom

[oldman]

Very interesting old grom,

I'm thinking a round tailed quad might be the next board for me. Very interesting concave/vee in that one. I'd be willing to experiment with something like that.

Still a bit wider than I would be looking for, but your report is appreciated.

[black duck]

Good review there Old Grom. Agree with Old's on all counts as well. Keen to ride a round tail quad. Like the fin placements on that one - more thrusterish than twin finnish by the look of it. Heavy nose double concave looks a little strange but if it works, all good.

Not a fan of that Bourton logo, it's just too similar to the British Paints logo. Why would you design a logo for a surfboard company that looks almost identical to a well established paint company logo? Can't see any benefits... Every time i see that logo i think of Rolf Harris doing that thing with his knuckles and hand on the top of the paint tin lid. Trust Bourton surfboards, sure can.

[bohdidontsurf]

After enjoying reading the thoughts of others on their new rides - thought I should post my impressions of my new bourton Fat Bullet.

THE NEED
I was after a go to board for my local beachie – a go to board for 2-4ft, with essential abilities to help spice up shite slop days. I have a couple of other boards so really after something a bit different that paddles well, catches anything, and makes the most of a wide range of often very average surf. To fill this I had a traditional fish shape with quad fins made 6’4” x 21 ½” x 2 ½” . This board was incredible down the line – filled the need well – except it was very hard to turn unless lots of power or speed. Very hard to get it vertical and missed the ability to hit little wall on those ‘one turn and its over’ waves. After 3 months and sore knees – traded it in at my local – had to use one of their board lines so was restricted on my choice of shaper. The owner Alf with his kindly guidance recommended bourton as “he’s a great shaper and also an old bugger so he will be really good at understanding what a fat bastard like you will need”. Despite Alf remarks – not that fat – just 6ft 90 kegs and 41 yrs – but like a board that get me on lots of waves to maximize my fun, and keep me out longer.


THE PROCESS
Checked out the excellent Base website, noted a few models that seemed suited, and emailed mailed Muzza a detailed needs list and asked for a recommendation from his many fish and retro inspired shapes– he was on the phone in a flash. I have surfed one of his HPR range recently which helped heaps as was able to really understand my volume requirements and combined with lots of questions about the dimensions of by ex fish, and my short board, and questions about what waves I surf , and my ability etc. He then said he would make me a file of a shape and send it to look at. Later that day I received a file shape of my Fat Bullet.

THE BOARD
Muzza did not hesitate to select the Fat Bullet from his many models –told me that “it just goes unreal”. He said “don’t worry you wont have to go the gym and lose weight to float this - and I won’t shape you a boat” . His standard range goes up to 6’4” x 21 ½ x 2 5/8” . He suggested stretching this a bit to 6’6” x 21 ½” x 2 ¾” . I also requested a stronger glass job (had some bad experiences from of the shelf 4x4x4 standard boards – I expect my boards to last and my level of surfing is not effected by a slight weight increase). They glassed it 4x6x4 and it is a fantastic job – I think its wet sanded – but so silky its almost better than a polish job – Im very impressed.

boys and board 2009 029 (600 x 450).jpg

boys and board 2009 030 (450 x 600).jpg

boys and board 2009 032 (600 x 450).jpg

boys and board 2009 033 (600 x 450).jpg

On examination – you can see its fish heritage - shorter, fatter, thicker, with a flat rocker; but there are some very clear differences from a trad fish shape: 1) pointy nose – much less foam up front than a trad fish; 2) it’s a round tail quad ; and 3) the bottom shape is radical – extreme concave from the nose running halfway down the board, fairly flat in the guts, then a solid vee that runs through the tail and between the fins. Muzza claims this bottom shape – helps with paddling and getting onto waves, and allows a fat board to surf rail to rail and thus vertical with ease due to the vee.

All up it’s a very interesting shape – my first impressions were of a solid aggressive nugget of a short board, great glass job, and wild bottom shape. Its a round tail quad on steroids.

THE RIDE
I have been on this board exclusively for the last five weeks, surfed everything from tiny 1-2ft (waist high gutless wonders) to solid 3-4 ft perfect winter groundswell; and several really shite wind slop days – “get wet on a Sunday arvo” waves. My impressions:
• You often read all sorts of claims about board shapes – this shape makes it go…; in this case I have found Muzza’s claims (see his website for his own explanation) to be very accurate.
• The board paddles well – as one would expect with the width– but you can really feel the concave at the front sort of lift you as you paddle – especially when catching waves.
• Still fast and fish like down the line. It is so fast and when you shift your weight forward just accelerates. Never have any problems with the weird concave catching.
• This board is so forgiving – a few times I have stuffed late take offs especially on my weak backhand – and as long as you can stay on the board it just sort of stabilizes and takes of by itself – allowing you to reset and take over. Its very stable.
• For a fat board it turns on a dime, goes vertical with ease. A mate took it out and was very impressed he said “its sort of like this board has a steering wheel and if you want to turn up the face you just mentally turn the wheel and it goes straight up” – this may sound weird but it nailed exactly what I feel when surfing it.
• Just loads of fun in a wide range of conditions.
• Any negatives – only the expected from a fat board – a bitch to duck dive.

All up I am very impressed and loving the FB as my 80% local ride, I have a lot of surfing to go before I really understand the full potential of this very versatile shape. – Cheers Old Grom

Round tail quads are all I have now, except my high performace quad fish . I wont ride anything else. Fins give you the drive, round tail the release. Cant beat that combo IMO. Muzzy is a great guy and a guru shaper. The deep concave on that board would have stopped me but if you love it and it works for you, then thats all that counts.

[Cpt.Caveman]

Nice review, sounds like you're having a lot of fun on that board

How did you find it behaved in bigger more solid surf?

[old grom]

I think this shape would work well for any intermediate or better surfer. If you surf well and are lighter/ younger or just fit then a smaller Fat Bullet - a 6' or 6' 2" may be the go - but the whole range are wide. I guess thats what I was after as I wanted a fish style board (and associated advantages) for my quiver.

I would be real interested to hear if anyone has ridden his Skinny Bullet - Muzza says:

"The Skinny bullet is basically the Fat Bullet on a diet. All the same design but for a shorter tail vee and the board made narrower and thinner. The relevance of this is for this design to be available for those who are lighter or want the design for bigger waves which requires more length and less width"

My guess is that these - or the Brooko model would go real well for the right surfer.

Capt - as for bigger waves - I have had a couple of decent sessions in near perfect overhead waves - solid 4ft - and the Fat Bullet has handled it without worries. Very smooth and reliable on a steep drop - and as I said - very stable, makes the bottom turn with ease - almost like on auto pilot. Also very fast if needing to make a section.

I suspect a better surfer than me could fly on these in even bigger waves, as I felt no sign of the board catching or losing grip - despite its fat gut. Maybe this sense of stability even on steep solid waves, is in part due to the grip provided by the quad set up.

However for me anything bigger than 4ft would lead me to grabbing my 6'10 - or 7' 2" as I like the security of a bit of length and associated early paddle in (not called OLD grom for nothing )

That said for 2-4 ft I am loving the Fat Fat Bullet. - OG

[oldman]

I would be real interested to hear if anyone has ridden his Skinny Bullet - Muzza says:

Likewise OG. I took a look at his website and saw the skinny bullet. More like what I was thinking of.

Sounds like a good shaper to strike up a working relationship with.

[steve shearer]

Good one Spence.
Thats the ticket for the Shine.

There seems to be a lot of convergence going on in design right now with a lot of shapers coming to roughly similar ideas about outline and fin configs.

But I'd beg to differ about the heritage of this board.
This has got nothing to do with a fish, at least the traditional split tail variety from San Diego, which is a derivative of a kneeboard.

I was talking about this with Kidman the other day; he was showing me an early Jim Pollard channel bottom from the late seventies with an eerily modern outline. In fact there wouldn't be a split whisker in the template between this board and modern generously proportioned roundtails like your fat bullet and my quadfather.
We agreed that after a period of extreme anorexia due to Slater and the New School board outlines were now by and large coming back to this happy medium. Slater himself is doing this...last year with his wider and more forward foiled swallowtail , then the deep six with it's singlefin heritage, and now the roundnose quad with very parallel outlines.

I'd say these are more classic early shortboard templates, shrunk and modernised and given some more fin area for modern accelerative requirements.
There's more aussie shortboard from the seventies than san diego fish in that fat bullet and I'm sure Muzza would give you the drum on that.

Those bottom curves look sexy, but it's not possible at the slow speeds of a paddle-in that you could generate enough hydrostatic or hydrodynamic pressure to feel lift.........much more likely that the concave is providing resistance to rolling and it's the extra stability that feels so good. Any wider nosed board paddles so much better than a thin pointy nosed due to this fact.......again why Slater could go so short with the deep six and the wizard sleeve.

Guys who think these things can't ride the tube were obviously still a twitch in their old mans nutsack when Freeride came out. Wideboards ride the tube unreal, especially with that round tail.
It's the ability to use more of the effective rail line in turns that enables them to be ridden in bigger waves to: that thing'll handle anything the Sunny Hoax can dish up.
My only concern would be at high speed with chop the nose concave could get a little unruly.

Thanks for the review mate.

[foot-e]

Thanks for the review oldgrom.

I have been riding a custom HPR from Muzza for the last 6 months after an (very) extended lay off. It has brought so much joy back to my surfing and cant believe how quickly my level has got back and how many waves I am getting. (Also makes me realise what a dog of a board I had from nineties onwards and why everytime I took it out the flame was never reignited). And cant praise muzza'a level of service enough.

Was looking at one of these fat bullets as my next purchase to step the performance level back up some more notches from the HPR. seems like a logical step. saving coin now.

[bood]

gruen

[pridmore]

good review....board looks nice, the template is same as many shapers are doing of late and it is a very user friendly one, allows good paddling plus stability and with the extra width you can increase the planshape curves which allow the board to turn tighter arcs when up on rail but the right bottom contours are required for best results...I am not sure about the nose stuff but sure it must be doin something but I like to keep it simple and get the water from 'A' to 'B' as quickly and unhindered as possible... the round tail quads go great and seems to have caught on alot lately....these shapes are a good all-rounder, if you cant have 2 or 3 boards and have to have just one for 1-6ft, these are a good option IMO...my Quadfathers are going well and seem to suit surfers of all levels..I have a tester QF floating around OZ soon if anyone would like to ride it, just PM me or check out the thread in GSD....cheers...few pics of recent Quadfathers...

[Cpt.Caveman]

No. 2 looks familiar

I bet Mr Shearer is putting it through its paces right now

What sort of good times have you had on it recently Steve?

[steve shearer]

Well, not wanting to hijack Spence's thread but I've given the board plenty of water time now and have come to many simple and yet unprofound conclusions but first a question for high performance gurus or Carroll : is it possible to improve your performance without following the standardized route of "modern professional" performance benchmarks?
Or is high performance surfing only defined by what kids are doing on low volume surfboards ?

Are there other definitions tied to explorations of other forms, eras and modes of surfing expression?

Personally I feel this board has improved my standard of shortboard power surfing ......I've always been on the lookout for a shortboard that carves, and this one has plenty of drive, hold and grunt.......

I't not quite as exciting in small surf as a Fatbat with all it's planing area and speed but from, say, 2-3ft upwards it wants to be put on rail and given some stick.
The only modification I'll make for the next one is some minor changes to the rail shape and edge profile which I'll discuss with Mark.....but otherwise I haven't had a bad surf on this board......some minor adjustments to technique to deal with just that slight loss of control in turn transitions but all good.
Loving the stick.

[Nick Carroll]

but first a question for high performance gurus or Carroll : is it possible to improve your performance without following the standardized route of "modern professional" performance benchmarks?

Oh, of course. Improvements are improvements, they don't have to involve complex high rotation aerial moves. The moves are just the evidence, they're not the act.

What you do find is that beneath the sometimes quite different "evidence", most really extraordinarily good surfers have developed surprisingly similar bases for their surfing. Ie the gap between Joel Tudor and Joel Parkinson is not nearly as big as you'd imagine.

Classically, a bit more board volume gives you time to work on aspects of your turns and trim sense that escape you when you're just trying to stay afloat.

[Cpt.Caveman]

I'm starting to understand your view-point more NC. I think what you're hinting at are the principles behind good surfing. Principles such as flow, functional balance and position over the board, etc. I'm starting to see the principles there, but fully embracing them in my surfing is another thing at this moment

[steve shearer]

Classically, a bit more board volume gives you time to work on aspects of your turns and trim sense that escape you when you're just trying to stay afloat.

I'm struggling to come up with a classical example of increasing board volume in the high performance annals.
Mostly increasing volume seems to come wrapped up in what might be termed "retro" nostalgia or weight gain amelioration in fat bastards who should've stayed on the golf course.
Perhaps a new order of "neo-classicism" might be called for.
No soft options.

[Nick Carroll]

^^Well I think more volume can be a means to an end for a surfer working on baseline surfing techniques, but they're not a leap forward in performance per se. If you can ride a board with less volume you'll probably get more feeling and edge out of it.

Really technically shit hot surfers do tend to erode volume in boards 'cause they're trying to get to that fine edge feeling. But lord knows it's not for everyone.

[mustkillmulloway]

hey old grom.....great review...really enjoyed it

so no dramas with the nose concave at all