Why did they call it that ?! Looks like fun though !? How long is it ?? Check out that wide nose ! … Yea, the Stepchild gets lots of looks … It has a step deck, and it started out for the first few years at 6’10” long “only”…

 

When you first see one … you either “love it” or … you “hate it” ! But with that wide of a nose (21” a foot back from the tip), you can’t help but wonder… I’ll be riding the nose with just a half step forward. And, you will on a 6’10” Stepchild !

As the years have rolled along, the Stepchild has become a part of many surfing families. It has evolved into as many different lengths as our customers want one to be, for their personal weights or their favorite wave. We have even added a side-biter package to some of the eight-footers.

 

A Stepchild is a super fun shape, that with that wide nose platform and the pronounced concave bottom running along at least half the distance of it’s length, you are nose riding without even trying! This board has paddling power like no other board that is as long. Then, with the curve in the outline near the tail, the Stepchild will turn and come around with less effort than most other noseriders. That part of its performance has a lot to do with the compact length and the “Vee” in the front of the fin. This helps it start banking from edge to edge. Slightly more tail rocker gives up the leverage you’ll need to stay on the nose through those fun sections of the wave.

 

Most people can knee paddle this shape, as the Stepchild is 22” to 23” wide. It has such a good glide, even in the smallest waves, and if you step to the front 1/3 of the board, you’ll experience a burst of speed that’s hard to believe. Back on the tail it feels very loose and lively. It’s hard to explain loose and stable, but that’s in the nature of this design with its squaretail.

 

It took almost an entire day to get the first Stepchild outline design to flow, blend and make sense. A real designers challenge !!

 

Combine that outline with bottom concave that extends at least 1/2 the length of the bottom then seamlessly transitions into the Vee plane at the front of the fin box, and flattens out at the back of the box. Now picture a mid-length full outline, that has a stepdeck, a crowned deck and a specifically thinned out tail block. Fairly thin and tapered rails with a 60/40 curve help maintain the performance sensitivities of an advanced design.

 

It’s these ingredients that work and blend together, to give this unusual board the great ride that it has.

 

The majority of the Stepchild’s are accented with some tastefully located multiple pinlines, that not only embellish the outline, but surround the large lettered logo that you’ll find hard to take your eyes off of.

 

Much time was spent back to the drawing board developing these labels, as they had to be just right. Such an historic surfboard was being born, and nothing less then perfection was required for the first edition. You can only imagine all of the sarcastic comments and twisted sense of humors that got expressed as the first opaque red Stepchild made its way through the construction phases with those black and blue pinlines.

 

Everybody that was a part of that process, always says “Hey, remember that first Red Headed Stepchild"