Y – Generation

The Y-Generation model has been the board that took Jordy to the top as a youngster – winning the ISA World Games in 2003 at the age of 15 in Durban. This board is better known as my Junior Series and we still work off Jordy’s Grom templates dating back from the early 2000. We have made considerable improvements to this model yearly, by adding more width all round to all our Grom templates, so the kids can ride shorter boards and get ahead in their surfing quicker. Through my experience, I find young surfers developing in two categories: Early Developers and Late Developers – so my focus is to have a natural bottom curve, with soft under-tucked rails in the nose area to prevent rail digging, and with a bit more volume pushed forward for easier paddling. Speed is key for these groms in any condition, so a generous 3/16″ concave will generate consistent speed in and out of turns. Most important is to find the correct balance in such small boards, as we experiencing sizes going down to 4’6″.  Kids seam to want to try every type of tail, from pins to squashes, to swallows.  They all work well for the interim, and that is until they start to use the rail properly.  I’ve been very fortunate to have done boards for Jordy at such a young age. In the past, paying attention to finer details was very important, as ongoing adjustments to rectify fin positions, and other components that play a significant part in helping our groms to improve rapidly.  Basically, there is little need to changing the length of grom boards – it’s way better to add volume and width, so the board suits ones weight, as shorter boards are easier to maneuver. We find thruster setups are fine for groms, but 5-fin setups are in demand for the longer boards with the heavier groms that can “flair” a bit.