Sponsored Content Provided by Ho Stevie!
Some experts say that stripes could deter sharks… possibly because it breaks up the silhouette of a body to a shark looking upwards, or possibly because striped animals are often poisonous.
While that all sounds great, Steve Mara, owner of local surf brand Ho Stevie!, appreciates stripes purely for the aesthetic. That’s why he put the design on the bottom of his company’s new soft top surfboards.
Thankfully we don’t have to worry much about sharks in San Diego, but surfers do worry about summertime flat spells, or periods with very small (read: boring) waves. That’s where his soft top surfboards come into play.
Not just for beginners, “foamies” have become much more popular in the last few years.
These boards are cheaper and easier to ride than a regular hard fiberglass shortboard. The added volume makes catching and riding small waves much easier. They won’t get dinged up while hauling them to and from the beach, and Ho Stevie’s “alligator skin” soft deck layer eliminates the need for messy wax.
It’s also nice for the warmer San Diego summer days, when you might not want to wear a wetsuit… you won’t have to worry about your chest getting rashed up while surfing, because there’s no sticky wax on the board.
Stevie’s favorite is the 8’2” longboard, because it can ride pretty much any wave, no matter how small. (Its float and stability also make it a better choice for beginner surfers).
And then there’s the 5’6” shortboard, which is better for doing turns and other maneuvers in bigger/better waves.
And you don’t have to worry about these boards breaking… they aren’t built like the cheap Costco “Wavestorms”.
Ho Stevie! boards are built like a regular fiberglass surfboard, with foam core, fiberglass cloth, and resin, and then wrapped with the soft “alligator skin” layer on top. They feature 3 stringers, which are the wooden “beams” that run along the length of a surfboard to provide strength. Most surfboards only have one stringer.
(Stevie tells us he is working on a video where he will cut his board and a couple other brands of soft tops in half, to compare how well they are built).
Leash and fins are included, so you will be ready to enjoy the ocean right away.
All Ho Stevie! gear is available on Amazon.com, with free fast shipping, or you can stop by their surf shop in the heart of Pacific Beach at 1152 Garnet Ave, open Monday-Friday from 2-5pm.
(Now’s your chance to visit their surf shop before they move into their new warehouse downtown very soon).
San Diego’s ocean temperatures stay pretty warm all the way through September/October, so there’s still plenty of time to enjoy sunny soft top surf sessions.
(Of course you can ride soft tops in the winter, but typically the waves are bigger in the winter and surfers will ride smaller high-performance boards).
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