The Firewire/Slater Designs Boss Up surfboard in the Ibolic technology. We've had a demo of this board for a month prior to launch and we've been loving it! The Boss Up is a mid length with added performance, it's got a really good balance between all the things you want from a mid length but with added ability to surf it hard.

The Boss Up is loaded with glide and paddle power, it features a crazy double concave with a spine down the centre of the board (like the Sweet Potato) which gives it the ability to release into turns. The rail profile is medium to low to give the board a performance feel. The rocker is medium through the nose and tail and comes in fairly late so you still get all the glide you need when paddling into the wave and when you want to just cruise. As soon as you get your back foot over the fins it really comes to life, you've seen Slater whipping it through full vertical turns, yours might not be quite as accomplished but it will perform when pushed.

There are about a million mid length options out there right now, the choice can be overwhelming so where does the Boss Up fit in? Thinking about other mids to compare it with is a good place to start; The Harley Ingleby Mid 6 and the Channel Islands M23 are the two leading 'performance' mids right now and the Boss Up has that kind of performance potential but with a better mid range wave feel and is easier to surf as an everyday board. It has better good wave potential than the CI Mid for example, its a really well balanced Mid for everyday surfing. The Boss Up surfboard looks to be a great mid-length style board that will generate speed with ease and is suprisingly good in sub optimal waves too. Fin wise its got to be the quad set up to maximise speed and performance, we been using the Endorfins quad set up, works really well.

Ibolic construction is a leap forward in surfboard manufacturing with the best elements of LFT and Helium combined. This Patent Pending technology is built into the core blank construction to create preloaded structural flex together with structure strength and durability. The Boss Up has Fibre Reinforced I-Beam high density foam stringer down the centre with Parabolic Rail Springers from nose to tail. There are three independent points for flex control and break resistance. I-Beam ensures firmness underfoot and unparalleled strength. The two Parabolic Rail Springers enable even flex and give great recoil through your turns. I-BOLIC Technology is an engineering feat that builds performance into the core of the surfboard there are no external carbon layups or heavy laminations with this cracking tech. What this all means is that get a board that is stronger than a helium board and has the feel of an LFT with even faster recoil, this tech is really nicely weighted too, you'll surfer faster and harder all in the knowledge that the Ibolic tech is Firewire's toughest yet.

The team here have surfed pretty much every board in the Slater and Firewire range at some time or another and we speak to surfers from all over the world and get their feedback on how the boards perform in all sorts of conditions so we're well placed to talk about all aspects of Firewire surfboards.

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