Firewire TJ Pro Mid Review: Sizes, Fins, and How It Really Surfs

By the Hawaiian South Shore team · 320 Ward Avenue, Honolulu, since 1996 · Updated July 2026

What is the Firewire TJ Pro Mid?

It's a mid-length that was born from a longboard. Most mid-lengths on the market are built the other way around: someone takes a high-performance shortboard and stretches it out a little. The TJ Pro Mid does the opposite. Taylor Jensen and shaper Dan Mann took the TJ Pro, one of Firewire's best-selling longboards, and shrank it down. That one design choice is why it paddles, catches waves, and glides the way it does.

Taylor puts the idea in plain terms: the goal was to "hit it with a shrink ray gun and drop it down a couple notches," so it still surfs like the TJ Pro but fits in the pocket on a smaller wave and in the back of a normal car. Dan calls it a "silent killer" and "a really, really good all-around, very good car board" — the kind of board you keep with you and can ride almost any day.

Where did it come from?

The TJ Pro Mid started with a problem Taylor Jensen had with his own longboard. The TJ Pro is a board he spent a huge part of his career on, and it's still one of Firewire's top sellers. But a nine-foot board doesn't fit in the pocket on a punchy wave, and it's a lot to carry. Taylor wanted a shorter version that still surfed like the original — and he wanted something his kids could ride, and something that would suit newer surfers too.

When he brought it to Dan Mann, it turned out Dan had already made a version of the idea three or four years earlier and just hadn't perfected it yet. This time they got it right. As Taylor describes the result, it's "a more pulled-in TJ Pro, shrunken." Everything that made the longboard work is still there, just in a package you can actually live with day to day.

Taylor Jensen walks through the TJ Pro Mid — why they built it, the fin setups, and how it rides.

How is it different from other mid-lengths?

Because it comes from the longboard world, it catches waves and glides more easily than a mid-length built from a shortboard. Dan Mann explains it simply: most mid-lengths are shortboards brought up into the mid-length world, while the TJ Pro Mid comes at it from the other direction — "from the longboard world down to the mid-length world." That downward path is what opens up the stability and the paddle power.

You can see it in the outline. The nose stays a little wider than a shortboard-style mid, which Dan describes as a "pendulum effect" — it gives you more glide through flat sections and even a bit of nose-ride. As Taylor puts it, the board "blurs that line of mini-longboard, mid-length" — a size range he feels has been left out of the market lately.

Design: outline, rocker, and rails

The shape keeps longboard glide up front and hides real performance in the rail and tail. The rocker is close to the TJ Pro's, with a flatter tail so it still skates through weak, small, or bad-quality waves instead of bogging down. Taylor kept the tail rocker mellow on purpose: "it will still work good in smaller waves as a mid … that flatter tail rocker helps it skate through sections."

The rails are where the performance lives. They run round and full up front, where you want stability and paddle, then foil down to a tucked hard edge through the tail, finishing in a pulled-in pintail. That combination is the whole trick: as Taylor puts it, your float and stability come from the width and the eggy outline, but "when you foil down those rails to that performance foil, it allows you to keep that performance mentality." So the board carries you and paddles like a bigger board, then knifes into a turn like a shorter one.

What's the bottom contour?

It's a flat entry up front that blends into a double concave under your feet, with that tucked hard edge through the tail. In plain terms: the flat entry and double concave give you speed and lift down the middle of the board, and the hard edge and V-panels through the tail let it roll from rail to rail, so a board this wide never feels stuck or planky when you turn it.

How is it built, and will it last?

It's built in Firewire's Ibolic Volcanic construction, which is made for exactly this kind of thin, longer board. Ibolic uses an I-beam EPS core with high-density parabolic rails, laminated with basalt "volcanic" fiber. Firewire calls it their most durable construction and their more sustainable alternative to carbon. (If you want the full rundown of Firewire's builds, we cover them in our guide to Firewire constructions.)

On a longer board, that matters more than it sounds. As Dan explains, a thin board over more length has more potential to flex too much or break down over time. Traditional polyurethane longboards "become noodly after a while" with little micro-fractures. This construction either eliminates that or holds it off for a long time, so the board keeps its snap. Taylor has been riding his "for quite a while now and I barely have a dent in it."

If you do put a ding in it, don't stress and don't try a mystery fix in the parking lot — bring it by the shop or send us a photo and we'll tell you the right way to handle it for this construction.

Which fin setup should you run?

This is the fun part: the TJ Pro Mid has a five-fin box (the "4 plus 1"), so one board gives you four different rides. The center box is a standard 2+1 position and the fins are sold separately. (If the whole idea of that center fifth fin is new to you, Dan Mann explains it in our piece on the fifth fin.) Here's how each setup feels, straight from Taylor and Dan and the people riding it:

• Quad — the go-to for most people when the waves are good. Fast, drivey, and still loose. Taylor rides it as a quad "when the waves are better," and Kirk — a Hawaiian South Shore customer riding the 8'0" as a quad — calls it "fast, loose, and tons of fun" in his review.
• 2+1 — the closest thing to the TJ Pro longboard feel, with classic drive. Run it when you want that performance-longboard glide. Taylor's wife rides her 7'8" this way, using the same fins she runs in her 9'0".
• Single fin — loose and cruisy. Dan suggests a fairly upright fin, nothing smaller than about 8 inches and easily up to 9 or 9.5. The long center box lets you slide the fin forward for loose or back for stiff, so you can tune it in the water.
• Twin — skatey and playful for small, mushy days. Taylor drops twins in "when it's small and super fun."

One thing that surprises people: as the surf gets bigger and faster, you generally want smaller fins, not bigger ones. Dan compares it to a sailboat reefing its sail in strong wind — a fin loads up more the faster you go. So when winter swell shows up, stick with your normal fins or size down, the same way Kelly Slater and the crew do.

Shaper Dan Mann breaks down the outline, bottom, construction, and fin placement.

Does it catch waves, and can you still rip?

Yes to both — that's the point of the design, and it's the thing riders bring up most. Here's how a few Hawaiian South Shore customers put it in their reviews. The longboard DNA means it gets into waves early: Kirk, on his eight-footer, says "it paddles like a nine-footer. It just catches waves," and Nick — 6'2" and 205 pounds on the 7'4" — said "it gets in so early that you're taking off with instant speed."

The worry with any wider, longer board is that it'll feel stiff or "tracky" — like it only wants to go straight. Riders keep telling us it doesn't. "I thought it would be more tracky, but it's not," Nick said, adding that you can "still get squirly with the quads." Tony, who kept his 7'2" high-performance at around 46 liters, sums it up: "with the right fins, these boards can do anything a shortboard can do." At 190 pounds he can still duck-dive a five-foot set because the board is only around 46 liters, "but I'm still out-paddling everyone."

Here's what we hear in the shop, from the people who come back after riding it. The first thing out of their mouth is the rails. They're thinned down enough that a board this size still feels like a shortboard under your feet — not a barge. Most of them are riding it as a quad, and they'll tell you the quad feels unusually lively. That's the forward fin placement doing its work: Dan sets the side fins "quite a bit further forward than a lot of shapers," which moves the pivot point toward the center of the board. Any board turns off the tail — but this one you can turn from the center, and if you step back on the tail it pivots as tight as a shortboard. For a longboarder worried a mid-length will feel like a boat, that's the part that changes their mind.

On the size and power question, Taylor says it shines in a wide range: he's loved it "in six-to-eight-foot-plus point breaks" and in small surf alike, and reckons "up to eight foot, it'll handle no problem." Bigger riders coming off a TJ Pro can "ride it as big as you want."

Hear it from three people riding it

Tony, Nick, and Kirk each walked us through their own TJ Pro Mid — the size they picked, the fins they settled on, and how it surfs for them:

Tony on his 7'2" and his fin setup.

Nick on the 7'4".

Kirk on the 8'0", set up as a quad.

What size should you get?

Go by your weight and what you want the board to do — more high-performance and duck-able, or more glide and paddle. The four sizes climb steadily in width and volume, so a heavier rider or someone who wants maximum wave-catching moves up. Here's where real riders landed, which is the most useful guide we can give you:

Size	Dimensions	Volume	Who's riding it (real customers)
7'2"	21 3/4" × 2 5/8"	46.5 L	Tony, 190 lb — kept it high-performance, can still duck-dive it
7'4"	21 7/8" × 2 5/8"	48.0 L	Nick, 6'2" / 205 lb — "the longer size felt too much like a boat"
7'8"	22 1/4" × 2 5/8"	51.2 L	JS, ~215 lb — can "confidently take it in whatever surf I'm willing to paddle out in"; also Taylor's wife (6'0") stepping down from a 9'0"
8'0"	22 7/8" × 2 5/8"	54.5 L	Kirk — "paddles like a nine-footer," easiest wave-catching

A rough way to think about it: if you want the most performance and the easiest duck-dive, size down toward the 7'2"–7'4". If you want the most glide and the easiest wave-catching, or you're a bigger rider, move up to the 7'8"–8'0". Still not sure? Send us your height, weight, and the kind of waves you surf, and we'll point you to the right one.

Who is it for?

It's for the longboarder who wants less board to carry and more waves per session — and for a surprising number of other people too. If you love your nine-foot board but dread wrestling it into a small car or through a crowded South Shore lineup, this gives you that same feel with far less hassle. Taylor found it covers his whole family from one board: "I can take the one board and that pretty much covers the whole family. The kids can ride it, you can ride it when it looks fun."

It also works as a grow-with board. Dan points out that a kid can step up onto a 7'8" and get the feeling of a longboard "without a gigantic longboard to lug around." A newer surfer gets stability and easy wave-catching; an experienced surfer coming off a TJ Pro can drop onto it and rip. That's a rare thing in one shape — which is exactly why Taylor's kids "won't ride anything else now," even with a garage full of boards to choose from.

A few quick questions we get

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