Firewire Board Team Out to Set Surfing World on Fire
THEY are riding a wave of success in America, but now it's time for the Gold Coast to jump on a Firewire.
Firewire Surfboards, a Burleigh Heads-based company which boldly released its product to the US last year, has unveiled its surfboard to the Australian market.
The board, a revolutionary concept designed by a custom-made computer program, is being sold through Brothers Neilsen stores.
Firewire, which this week won the Rising Star category at the Queensland Smart Awards, achieved global status when World No. 2 pro-surfer Taj Burrows agreed to be the company's test pilot.
Over Easter this year, Burrows took out the WCT event at Victoria's Bells Beach.
Firewire chief executive officer David Cross said the company launched the board in the States first to achieve a 'global reputation'.
"It was a gutsy move, but whether we like it or not, America is half the world's market," he said.
Mr Cross was confident the board would have the same success rate locally.
"We've had calls from Queensland, from NSW and Victoria asking when we were going to release it," he said.
"We had plans to release the board in September or October, but now we have product and the supply to have a winter launch ... and we didn't want to give America an unfair advantage on the circuit," he joked.
Iconic board-maker and Firewire director Nev Hyman, who has been shaping boards for 30 years, said the product was one of its kind.
"To make five boards a week by hand is hard. We are now making 500 a week with this technology, and while that's hard too, we can do it," he said.
"They are a custom surfboard that has the ability to be able to change. We are using technology to shape a surfboard and it's a quantum leap in surfboard design.
"Taj Burrows has been test-driving them and he is pedantic about his board, but he loves them. They have a certain amount of pop and spring about them," said Mr Hyman
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