Griffin Thruster
THRUSTER REVIEWS
GRIFFIN THRUSTER
By Zach, San Diego, CA
I was really excited the day I took my Griffin thruster out for its 1st session and found 2-3ft slightly offshore conditions at one of my favorite local beach breaks. My excitement stemmed from just how freakishly fun Greg's 5 fin modern fish was for me in the smaller conditions I had order it in and so I was just extremely pumped on the idea of Greg's thruster in the next jump up in punchy conditions.
The 1st wave I caught on my Griffin thruster allowed me to go left and As soon I stood up I pumped once to get way up on the face and immediately felt an extremely boosting driving feel from the fins which allowed me to come down the face and set up an effortless speeding bottom turn leading me into a vertical snap that I came out of with so much speed that I was able to do a quick speed check and then set up a really fun round house cutback to finish off the wave. At this point(the very 1st wave of my session)I'm really excited and I'm not believing what I'm feeling coming from the board and so I want to catch one more wave just to make sure that I can let myself freak out on Greg's design.
On my 2nd wave of the session I caught a right going backside and found that all of the same performance characteristics were there available to me just like I had experienced on my 1st wave going left.
I took off kinda late on a head high right and went immediately into my bottom turn and had so much speed available to me that I took the turn straight up behind me and just unloaded on the wave face with a big snap and then straightened out down the line and pumped once, again the pump providing a turbo boost of speed, floated a section and then came off of my floater and went way out onto the shoulder and then just laid into my bottom turn bringing my cutback all the way back into the pocket and then blasted the foam ball and then kicked out.
After that 2nd wave, I was officially freaking out on what I had just felt on Griffin's thruster and I wanted to get out of the water and run up and down the beach like Pat O'Connell did in Endless Summer 2 when he and Wingnut found those empty peeling waves in Costa Rica, but I didn't... I just sat there in the water for a bit really stoked and knew that Greg was designing something very special and exceptionally unique.
I found that Greg's thruster encompassed each and every single hi-performance design characteristic that I was in search of. I wanted a board that was going to be extremely drivey and then be loose and have the ability to hold the hardest turn I went into without losing any speed and then to take that speed and redirect it in a second. Greg's thruster goes into bottom turns and up the wave face with more drive and speed than I have ever felt and is then nimble enough to let you throw the tail up and out the back or just lay into a wave gouging carve. This is something that you just don't feel from the big label boards.
I've gone through about 16 boards in the past 2 yrs from every big name shaper around in the world and I've found that Greg's boards are truly in a league of their own.
If you would like to have your review included in this list you can do so by sending me an email at griffinsurfboard@aol.com