The surf industry was in a 20 year performance design rut when in '94 and '95 Matt Biolos experimented with multiple variations of fish for himself, Chris Ward and Cory Lopez that became the building blocks for a performance hybrid revolution. "I'd never before had so many surfers and shapers ask me what are you riding?" The RNF '96 sh designs that teenaged Chris and Cory took to the North Shore and made their indelible mark on the surfing universe were featured in the seminal '97 surf film 5'5" X 19 ¼. The key component of Matt's fish is that they are performance minded inspired by MR's competitive minded twins of the '70s and '80s with relatively pulled in tails designed to rip, not just small surf but in all sizes and shape of waves. Most fish have been predominantly influenced by wide tailed '70s kneeboards that create speed but have always fallen far short of the peak performance of modern short boards. In the name of great surfing and surfboards Matt has applied the past 25 years of board building to create a better surfboard faithfully based on but not exacting to the 96 RNF versions.
"With diligent testing being done by Kolohe, Coco, Ian Crane, Crosby Cola and other "guests" including myself in the last few months of 2020, we are very confident that the RNF '96 will perform at and above expectations, as an all-around, rip-able fun machine, for a wide level of surfers." - Matt Biolos