Surfboard design and architecture have their similarities. Both creative mediums can take classically proven design concepts and marry them with modern technology and new theories to produce something that is radically progressive while still retaining a pointer to the past. This year on the North Shore, riding everything from knifey asymmetric shapes to wide-nosed twin fins with a twist, Ryan Burch, Derek Disney and Bryce Young carved winding tracks into surfing’s alternative future. While the regular Rocky Point aerial set chased lofted dreams on their increasingly refined thrusters these three were on a different sort of trip, one which almost made it seem like they were simultaneously moving forwards and backwards on a surfing time line. Ryan Burch with his twin fin grooveBryce Young drifts into a rocky point chamber Photo: MoranDerek Disney’s backside vogue. Photo Joli Burch had flown in late for a Surfer Poll nomination for best performance in a film for Psychic Migrations. That gong ultimately went to John John but it’s worth noting that style king, Joel Tudor, did make a point of paddling up to me at Sunset and saying, “Have you seen Ryan Burch’s section? It’s pretty sick.” Burch’s last minute fly in set up an impromptu rendezvous with like-minded sliders, Disney and Young, who were staying together at Rocky Point. Burch brought a bunch of his asymmetric boards with him, Bryce already had a few of Ryan’s in his kit, while Disney had made himself a Burch-inspired twin fin that got wider instead of narrower in the tail and was thus dubbed the squid. To an outsider who had rote-learned the conventions of the modern shortboard, this collective quiver looked like Forrest Gump’s famous box of chocolates. If you rode one you never knew what you were going to get However, if the boards looked unorthodox, to anyone hanging out at Rocky Point and Sunset this winter it was clear that this gifted trio sure knew how to ride them. Disney’s clean, precise lines on his squid, Burch’s effortless asymmetrical glide and Young’s anachronistic blend of deep furrowing carves, soul arch stand talls and big old airs pretty much stole the show from the more conventional Rocky’s rippers. Surfing’s great leaps forward often happen when there is confluence of ideas between individuals who find themselves in the same place in a moment in time. And as Burch will attest, Hawaii is still the … Read more