Kelly Slater Debuts The Nubster 

World No.1 Kelly Slater seems to make news wherever he goes, though this time it wasn’t for winning an event, but for the new addition to his surfboard which got people talking.  It’s what many are calling the fifth wheel, more affectionately referred to as the ‘Nubster‘ and designed by former pro-surfer and USA team coach Sean Mattison. 

Sean Mattison, the "nubster" mastermind

While relegated to watching surfing web-casts after injuring his ankle, the idea for a new design came to him during the initial rounds of the Billabong Pro in Tahiti.

For some time Mattison had been developing short board tails with fish-like dimensions, though in pushing twinzers to thruster-like performance, Mattison realized it was always a trade-off,  “We like how quick on a rail and how fast twinzers are, but they can be squirrelly.”

He started experimenting with a tiny, half-moon keel in the back – about an inch and a half tall – ‘which smoothed the ride but retained the quad’s best properties’.

Kelly had been switching between thrusters and quads throughout the year and while watching the surfcast,  Mattison noticed he was using a quad while tackling big Teahupoo.  This got him thinking and one night he awoke and decided to email Slater with the hopes that this little fin would create a middle ground for the champ.

To his surprise, Slater got right back to him. “Sure, I’d love to try it,” he wrote.

“Where should I send it, San Clemente? “ Mattison wrote.

“No, New York, there’s gonna be waves.” Slater responded.

The designer sent a couple of the “Nubster” fins to Slater via a friend in New York where he was competing in Long Beach. When Bobby Martinez shot his mouth off during an interview,  he got disqualified and this break in the contest allowed for Slater to try out Mattison’s nubster. Slater sent off an email later that night to Mattison: “No joke,” he wrote. While watching the surfcast the next day, Mattison couldn’t see the fin, until Slater blasted a huge alley-oop in his fourth round heat. Suddenly the fifth-wheel was noticed by everyone and since became the talk of the town.

In a post-heat interview Slater called out to Mattison, mentioning the heat back in 1982 when Mattison should have defeated David Eggers, and thanked him for the fin.  Sitting in his kitchen 2,800 miles away with his swollen ankle propped on a stool,  Mattison knew his hard worked had payed off,  “It made me feel like I took a ride with him.” 

Check out video from New York here: 

via: espn 

Bobby Martinez, David Eggers, Kelly Slater, Nubster, Sean Mattison, Thruster