2020 CORTEX

The Cortex will totally change the way you look at an average day. With an extremely short length and a narrow outline with diamond tail configuration, it delivers the best onshore conditions. Combined with a very fast rocker, Cortex is extremely agile and tight turning even when the surf is on. The parallel outline and smooth rail flow keep you in complete control during quick rail to rail transitions. Optimized for both sideshore and onshore real world conditions Cortex delivers snappy turns and quick reactions in the traditional windswell zones and can also be tuned to slice and dice in more side offshore down the line environments. The Cortex may be a new school short board, but it has a long history. The rocker, spiral v and concave profile has its roots in the original Simmer Freewave board.

When Kai Katchadourian needed a dedicated board for Peahi, aka Jaws, the controlled but still turny freewave shape was chosen to form the basis for the control that such a board requires. Freewave was a great hit and the dependable bottom shape has since been used in a variety of shapes in our prototype process. The most exciting of those designs became Cortex where the fast and controlled bottom, based on a progressive rocker flow  and double concave v bottom, is combined with a parallell outline and smooth rails. This creates a board that  is an awesome performer for real world conditions where it delivers snappy turns and quick reactions. Kai's original spiral V-bottom heritage still shines through on rail stability and general control through rough conditions, yet Cortex and it's short length and aggressive stance has changed the game forever in how you attack a wave.

The mechanics of this shape is a combination of several design choices; The fast and controlled bottom combined with a sleek, low entry outline provides excellent flow,  especially in slower waves. The squared off nose allows the board to fit in tighter parts of shorter trough waves while still allowing a long enough rail line for solid full rail carves. The shortened diamond tail and accelerated v-angle frees the board up quickly for enhanced shorter turns and ultra quick rail-to-rail performance. The parallell outline converges into the tail area under foot providing ample lift for early planing and lots of pop for aerials and jumps. Cortex can easily adapt to different turning angles. With the stance set as far back as possible, the inner angled rear section adds grip in top turns, and extra torque in tight bottom turns. In addition, a pulled back mast track gives the rider the choice of freeing up the board even more by placing the mast in the rear of the box, or to stabilize it for longer turns or jump oriented sailing by placing the mast foot slightly further forward.Cortex comes standard with five carbon slotboxes for quad fin, tri fin or twin fin setup.

All 2020 boards feature a hot-coat paint finish. This process combines the colour pigment with the outer layer of a hard epoxy gel coat, this improves the board colour longevity, making it almost impossible to stratch off, it produces an extremely UV-resistant coating that ensures the boards colour resists fading in strong sunlight, all of this whilst saving weight by replacing the base coat paint, and two layers of top coat paint

Our layup, construction, and reinforcement are all placed in where user needs and they all work in together to create the optimal stiffness to weight ration. The construction moves with you, rather and against you, which makes the board feel more lively in every movement. We call this technology Electric Flex. For our wave boards we use 45 degree carbon layup for maximum the strength and flex and for our flatwater boards we use 30 degree carbon layup for more vertical strength. Basically, flex and stiffness where its needed. The main features of the construction is the PVC Sandwich stringer. This is the spine of the board which absorbs and distributes the force from impacts throughout the boards entire construction. This eliminates unnecessary breakage as stress is shared between the entire hull, creating a much more durable construction. The stringer also helps to maintain the rocker curve during manoeuvres.

The tri fin setup will provide early planing, great upwind tracking and ease of sailing while still providing a insanely tight turning radius. On the wave, this setup will give you the best possible projection and drive in turns, assisting the sailor in keep speed through the bottom turn, even in less powerful waves. Versatility and snappiess with a user friendly feeling are the main characteristics of this setup.

Equipped with a quad fin setup, the Cortex gets more planted and controlled at higher wave riding speeds. The power of the fin cluster acts further forward, which drives the front rail into the water and gives the board added control in draws out turns. At the same time, the shorter depth of the two rear fins makes it easer to set the rail at high speeds which means that the board feels more responsive in fast sideshore or cross offshore conditions.

With only two fins, drag is lower and the fin power acts further back on the board. This lifts the nose of the board which in a straight line adds further speed and gives more looseness and quicker reactions in turns. The combination of twin fin and the fast tail rocker provides great ability to set up the top turn either for slashy release or solid power hooks.