Rusty The What? - PU - FCS II - 3 Fin FACTORY SECOND

FACTORY SECOND: This board is part of a limited collection of Factory Second surfboards. These boards function as intended but have a touch more personality. This personality comes in the form of imperfections in the handwork that is involved in making these surfboards. For example, the colour is not perfect, the logo is in the wrong position or there is a minor fault in the finish. In return, you get a great deal on the price. If you can live with these imperfections, these deals are definitely for you!

The What? is your new favourite high performance shortboard. This board will perform best in waves that are a little bigger and have more power than average days in Southern California. Best conditions would be about shoulder high to overhead with punchier/steeper sections.

What is a What?? The What? is Rusty’s version of your standard high-performance shortboard. It will perform best in shoulder high to well overhead in better conditions with waves that have more power behind them. The What? has a somewhat narrow nose that travels into a mildly curvy mid-section and then to a slight, elongated bump just after the rear of the front fins in the tail.

The overall rocker is fairly aggressive to allow for maximum performance and top to bottom surfing. The bottom is where this board starts testing the waters. It starts off in the tip flat and rapidly deepens into a single concave, this gives the board a lot of speed. At the mid-section, it reduces in depth and then develops into a shallow, slightly hooked, double con, then a slight vee off the tail to allow for rail-to-rail transitions.

The What? is what you’re reaching for when you want maximum performance out of a board whether you're doing turns, airs, or hunting tubes.

Deep single concave up front

A deep single concave with the deepest part in the entry, approximately 1/4 to 1/3 back from the tip of the nose, starts to shallow out through the center of the board and turns into a “hooked” double concave as it approaches the rear foot, coming into the front fins. The deepest part of this double con is under the rear of the front fin. The deep concave in the front creates lift. It feeds water back through the midsection and into “the zone” between the feet, generating a great deal of speed and drive.

Hooked Double Concave

A single concave helps to direct water flow, but it doesn’t really focus it. A double creates a lateral break and helps to initiate turns. It helps to focus the water through the fins. By deepening the concave and focusing it close to the rail, deepest under the front fins, it gives extra hold and provides additional thrust and drive.

The bottom finishes with a slight vee off the last few inches of the board. That helps to finish turns, smooth and connected.

Shaper's notes

What is a What? What if the deepest part of the concave was ahead of center? The What? is a very high performance shortboard. The template of the What? has a somewhat narrow nose that travels into a mildly curvy mid-section. The tail width at one foot is in the low 14s. A slight, elongated, bump just aft the rear of the front fins that flows into a slightly rounded squash tail.

Fin(s) included: None

Rusty Surfboards is the brainchild of Rusty Preisendorfer

Born in 1953, Rusty began designing surfboards at the age of sixteen. Not long after, he started shaping surfboards for major brands including Canyon and Gordon & Smith (G&S), to name a few.

As his profile grew, Rusty’s hand-shaped boards became the choice of champions, earning ads and editorials in both Surfer and Surfing magazines. In the 1980s, after success on his shapes, Rusty began to brand his work under Canyon Surfboards with his own logo.

This heralded the birth of Rusty models being ridden by more than half the pro surfers in the ASP (now WSL) Top 16, including Australia’s Mark Occhilupo and Californian Dave Parmenter. As a rivalry developed between Occy and California’s hero, Tom Curren, the publicity blasted Rusty into the surfboard shaping spotlight.

With Occy riding Rusty models and Tom riding Al Merrick / Channel Islands surfboards, their rivalry grew into legendary proportions. This was the perfect time for this master of surfboard shaping to take the plunge on his own.

Breaking away from Canyon in 1985, Rusty the man soon became Rusty the brand, starting his own label using an iconic, large R with a dot as his logo. This was referred to simply as the ‘R-dot’ and has carried us through to this day.

It did not take long before the ‘R-dot’ moved into apparel as the brand became more established and recognized in the world of surfing. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Rusty Surfboards endorsed many of the pro surfers of that decade, including Taylor Knox, Chris Ward, CJ and Damien Hobgood, Jamie O’Brien, Kalani Robb, Todd Chesser, Shane Powell and, more recently, Josh Kerr, Noa Deane and now Wade Carmichael and Caio Ibelli.

Alongside surfing, the company was one of the first to crossover and endorse athletes from other board-sport disciplines, like skateboarding with Tony Hawk and snowboarding with Jason Ford.

Rusty Surfboards’ commitment to progressive surfboard designs for pros and bros alike makes it one of the most beloved and well-respected brands in the surfing world today.