Matt Biolos and …Lost Win the Shaper Ratings

WSL Shaper Ratings Victory

Now that the world tour has wrapped up with Yago Dora and Molly Picklum taking home the championship cup in Fiji, it's time to look at another competition that happens behind the scenes of the world tour—the unofficial shaper ratings. For the past few years, surfboard afficionados have been keeping track of how many athletes on tour ride boards from different shapers, and how well those surfers do in competition—awarding "points" to the shapers for their team riders' performances. This year, as with the past few years, Matt "Mayhem" Biolos from …Lost has been the standout performer. He has the most team riders on tour, his riders won events and placed highly more than any other group, and—perhaps most importantly—five of the 10 surfers who flew to Fiji for the WSL finals were on Mayhems.

Lost's Championship Team Riders

…Lost's stable of pros is pretty impressive, including Griffin and Crosby Colapinto, their close friend Cole Houshmand, Yago Dora, Bettylou Sakura Johnson, former world champion Caroline Marks, and Gabriela Bryan. Many of these team riders have something in common—they live in San Clemente, which is where a large part of the surf industry (including …Lost) is based. As you might remember, San Clemente is the town that has hosted the WSL championship event the past four years. This year, Finals Day was held at Cloudbreak, but the lack of home field advantage didn't seem to affect the Mayhem team. Consider the fact that Yago won the world title, Griffin finished second, Caroline Marks came within a heat of winning the title (finishing second), and Gabriela Bryan finished third. That's a lot of hardware won on …Lost boards this year. (And to add to the haul, rumor has it that Jordy Smith has a few Mayhem's hidden in his quiver, as well.)

As one might imagine, Matt Biolos was on hand in Fiji to watch his team throw down—and to celebrate their shared success together. While he might not have won the world title himself, he's gotta be feeling a lot of pride in his team at the moment.

Hawaiian South Shore's Mayhem Legacy

Here at Hawaiian South Shore, we have been team Mayhem since day one. We started stocking …Lost boards nearly 30 years ago, filling our shop with them from the beginning. We've always been able to see the genius in Biolos' creativity, from his 1990s fish-inspired shapes to the modern high-performance shortboards that the world's best are winning world titles on.

Matt Biolos' Board Design Innovation

Biolos started Mayhem/…Lost in the late 1980s, and quickly made a name for himself with his range of faster, friendlier, lower-rocker "hybrid" boards that made surfing fun again. Throughout the 1990s, the majority of people on shortboards were riding the ultra-rockered banana boards that pros were on—but these boards required the surfer to generate their own speed, which meant most everyman wave riders were getting left behind. Biolos knew that the equation for more fun for the average surfer was lower rocker, more volume, and less length—basically, a fish disguised as a shortboard.

The RNF 96 was the answer—a short, stubby, hybrid fish/shortboard that went ballistic under the feet of …Lost riders like Chris Ward and Cory Lopez. The seminal film 5'5" x 19 ¼" convinced the rest of the world that fishy shapes were the answer in sub-par conditions, which was what everyone surfed most of the time. This ushered in a board design revolution that still continues nearly three decades later.

The RNF 96 Revolution

Three Decades of Performance

Virtually all high-performance shortboards sold today look a lot more like the RNF 96 than the super-rockered shortboards most people were putting out in the mid-1990s. In fact, the RNF 96 still remains one of the top-selling board models here at Hawaiian South Shore. It is certainly the best-selling 30-year-old design in our shop!

Expert Reviews and Customer Validation

A few years ago, surfboard review guru Noel Salas did a comparison of all the best hybrid boards on the market, and found that the RNF 96 is still the ultimate hybrid, despite the fact that it was designed when he was still a grom. The board works for groveling in soft waves, handles overhead walls and small barrels, and surfs well from rail to rail. For anyone seeking a one-board performance quiver, this is it.

Salas' reviews are confirmed by reports from our customers here at Hawaiian South Shore, who continue to turn to the RNF 96 for a wide variety of conditions. One of our regulars—a guy who is in his 70s but still rips—recently told me he uses his RNF 96 with the Mark Richards 2+1 fin setup. He has the board in three different sizes, and has been out ripping it in four- to five-foot waves in the Country, and was amazed at how well it held!

The Evolution: Pisces Model

Even though Noel Salas and many others like him didn't think it was possible to make a better hybrid board than the RNF 96, Biolos and his crew at …Lost are never satisfied, and set out to do so. They designed the Pisces, which adds a bit more tail and nose rocker (and other high-performance elements) to the RNF 96, resulting in a more performance-geared hybrid that shreds just a bit harder. This has become another of our most popular models, and sells almost as well as the RNF 96.

Advanced Lost Construction Technologies

Revolutionary Construction Methods

In addition to being an innovator in board design, Biolos has also been very forward-thinking when it comes to board construction. He has always been open to experimenting with different materials and layups, with some of his most popular including the Black Sheep, Black Dart, and Double Dart. All three construction types serve as alternatives for those looking to move away from the standard polyurethane blank/resin, and utilize 1.5 EPS blanks and epoxy resin.

Black Sheep Construction

The Black Sheep uses a full-wrap blend of carbon fiber and fiberglass, providing the flex of PU with the durability of carbon and epoxy.

Shop Blacksheep Surfboards

Black Dart Technology

Meanwhile, the Black Dart utilizes a full-deck wrap carbon/fiberglass layup that is custom woven so that the carbon threads run nose to tail and the S-glass threads running perpendicular to the stringer, providing ultimate durability while still preserving flex. The bottom of the board uses normal fiberglass cloth to further preserve flex. The spring-loaded snap of these boards is very lively, but tends to be less forgiving.

Double Dart Innovation

Finally, the Double Dart uses a full-wrap (deck and bottom) carbon/S-glass weave, although the carbon layer doesn't wrap the rails to the same extent that the fiberglass layer does (in order to preserve some flexibility). This construction process preserves the liveliness of the board much longer than normal glass, which tends to break down over time and lose its snap.

Lightspeed II Construction

Proving that …Lost is always at the forefront of innovation, they also have a fourth alternative construction process called the Lightspeed II, which is perfect for those who want the strength and dependability of EPS/epoxy without the stiffness of carbon. Using a blend of S-glass and Innegra fibers, the cloth in the Lightspeed II construction provides a more forgiving ride and is less susceptible to heat or sun damage.

Shop Lightspeed II Surfboards

Championship-Proven Performance

Regardless of the construction style people choose—from Black Sheep and Black Dart to Double Dart and Lightspeed II—Biolos and his team at …Lost are making some of the best boards in the industry for the best surfers in the world, as evidenced by their overwhelming presence in the World Surf League Finals Day event. We remain huge fans of …Lost here at Hawaiian South Shore, and want to give a huge congratulations to everyone at Mayhem, as well as their stable of world-class athletes.