PYZEL SURFBOARDS 2025 PREVIEW

Retail Buyers Guide: Surfboards 2025 Retail Buyer’s Guide
Brand: Pyzel
Interviewee: Rémi Chaussemiche, Marketing Director, Sample N’Co

If you were to draw a quick assessment of 2024, how would you describe the current state of the surfboard market?
In 2024, the surfboard market remained tough, retailers relayed on the biggest labels and stayed relatively conservative on their offer. We had very few pre-orders and managed to keep the numbers by constant replacement order. Having European based factory helps to service the retailers need. That said it can create extended lead time if everyone orders last minute at the same time.

We see a resurgence of a trend consisting of (literally) no-name brand, with boards retailing at very aggressive prices (under 300 €). Are you concerned by this recurring phenomenon?
I don’t think those cheaper boards compete with Pyzel Surfboards or any other labels like us, we sell high end products, manufactured locally, an image carried by top surfers and world champion, we make sure to work ethically. Each of our designed has been tested by all sort of surfers, from pros to bros and are proven to work well. We target surfers that are already hooked and knows they want a high-end board. Those cheap boards do affect some other brands positioned in the mid-range prices but I don’t think it targets the same consumers than the prestigious surfboard labels.

The good news in the surfboard market is that sales are quite evenly spread between very different designs (perf shortboards, summer boards, midlengths, longboards, beginner funboards), unlike other activities which rely on a single design. Did you adapt your range to offer a mixed bag of boards or do you rather specialize in one segment?
Pyzel Surfboards is primarily known for performance, and we really put effort to be a reference on that segment. In the last 12 month we launch 2 performance models: the Radius Prime being the ultimate contest surfboards and the Power Tiger developed by Jon Pyzel and John John Florence, that last boards had played a major role in JJF competitive success in 2024. It is a refined version of the Red Tiger with design changes made to help handle bigger, better, more powerful waves. The good thing with all the models developed with John Florence is they all suit a wide range of surfers from intermediate to confirmed level. On another end we like all sorts of surfboards and Jon pyzel is really interested in developing some alternative crafts. Therefore, we created a series of models coming under our Velocity Project. The idea is to create models inspired from the past, with timeless look and modern performance. They aim to be the perfect mix between fun and performance. We recently launch the Crisis Twin a Twin fin adaptation of our Mid Length Crisis, Speed and flow being the main objective. The interesting point about this board is that it can be ridden as a mid-length or as a short shredding twinny. We also released the Precious, a step deck board based of our famous Gremlin, a very versatile and fun board. This allowed us to keep some foam in the overall board, but let it have a sensitive, high-performance rail at the same time. When creating the step-deck it also makes the deck concave, which adds stability and more sensitivity to the design, and it seems to give you a little extra boost of paddle power as a side benefit. Precious is an easy paddler that gets up and goes fast, and still has a snappy, drivey, high-performance feel to get you the most out of every kind of wave. We also have several fun summer boards in our Funformance program. Boards that turn small waves into fun waves but still with a performance edge. The John John Florence, White Tiger model is definitely one of them, a fun, stubby little board designed for average/below average waves. It gets up and goes easily, flies through the weakest sections, but still lets you smash the lip and boost airs along the way. The Gremlin is still here, based off the Ghost DNA, it’s the Step-Down cousin to the Phantom, with lots of extra volume packed into a shorter, wider, flatter rockered package designed for quick acceleration, easily sustained speed and great paddle power. The Gremlin was made to get you excited about surfing on the days that are less-than-epic, and also to give you a taste of FunFormance that will get you fired up in any kind of surf. The Astro Pop, a performance fish is right there as well, fast, easy to paddle, fun and still rippable.

In the past, beginners had go through the walk of shame, forced to aim for “fugly” looking shapes. In 2025, a novice board can be sexy as well: what do you have in stock for the newbies?
Our Gremlin, ridden in bigger volume, is the ideal board for surfers that are transitioning from their first board to a shorter board. Easy to paddle, stable but easy to turn. The Midlength Crisis, can also be a good option for people who already can stand up and want to surf with speed and flow. The Phantom is the perfect shortboard for average surfers.

The so-called Grovelers dominate the shortboard category (even if used in overhead surf), yet options are very unalike, from twin-keels to stubby tri-fins. What is your take within the Groveler category?
Groveler is important category as most of the surfers usually surf in average conditions. In addition to that the extra volume of those board bring comfort without compromising too much maneuverability. Our Gremlin, Mini Ghost and precious are our groveller offers. They perform extremely well in smaller surf but can easily hold more solid conditions.

Midlengths are everywhere as well. Which are the latest developments in this design within your range?
Couple season ago we launched the Mid Length Crisis, a surfboard that goes fast glides and allows you to draw new lines. It turns Smooth and can be ridden by all type of surfers. Recently we released a natural evolution from our Mid Length Crisis, which was typically ridden as a 2+1, the Crisis Twin. We kept seeing people throwing twin keel fins into the forward boxes and realized it made the board a whole different thing, but the fin placement wasn’t optimal for control and performance. So eventually we built the Crisis Twin, a twin fin only version of the MLC with speed and flow as the main objectives. It is designed for fast paddling and to easily generate speed, carry flow, and smooth turning at any speed. The Crisis Twin is a fast paddling, fast surfing and super fun addition to our Velocity Project lineup. It might help you look at weaker, funky waves with a little more lust, and it will for sure let you have a blast at any long, lined up wave you can find! It works great as a little rip stick or a longer cruiser, whatever makes you happy.

The longboard reach is unprecedented in surfing history, as even die-hard shortboard brands do propose classic Logs. If you are new to the category, how did you position yourself? If you have been a long-time promoter of 9’+ boards, do you think “the more the merrier”?
We don’t really push that category for the moment…

The Groveler infused the High-performance Shortboard, yet the extra foam has been streamlined so that High-perf shapes still bear a racey look. Please unveil your secrets!
Paddle power is a very important point for a surfboard, because before standing up you need to get waves. That is why at Pyzel most of our surfboards groveller or high-performance boards are designed with this idea in mind, we like to bring volume under the chest to ease surfer’s life. That is what made the success of the Ghost, The Shadow, The Phantom and the Gremlin. We also can find this element in the White, Red and Power Tiger and obviously in all of our Funformance and Velocity Project programs.

While the alternative constructions/materials towards the eco-friendly surfboard have never been so plentiful, we are far from a massive adoption (whether from manufacturers or end-users). Any solutions out there that seem viable to you?
We have been trying different material, but for the moment we feel we have to keep on experimenting to find out the perfect mix between eco-friendly construction and performance. On a price point those solution is also a bit more expensive and its seems that the end consumers are fully ready to pay more for a partially eco-friendly board. On our side we work on our waste, we try to recycle anything we can and limit the impact of our activity. It is far from being perfect but we improve every day to be cleaner. Packaging is a big topic we are working on at the moment. We use the waste of fiber for tail patches. Every little things we can do we do them.

Key Products:

Power Tiger:
John John Florence came to Jon Pyzel asking for a board that would fit in between the Red Tiger and his Ghost as far as wave size and quality goes. John had already helped Pyzel to develop the Red Tiger for performance surfing in smaller and weaker types of waves and we have all seen his amazing surfing on that board. The short story here is that the new Power Tiger is a refined version of the Red Tiger with design changes made to help handle bigger, better, more powerful waves.

Power Tiger 3views

Red Tiger:
Silky smooth, even in junk waves, and possibly our fastest board yet. It is the ultimate performance machine for small/medium sized, slower, weaker waves based on John’s simple guidance – make it Fast and Fun. The board will easily turn your everyday sessions into something special and we believe it will outperform any other HPSB in underpar waves AND still come through when the surf turns on!

RED_TIGER_CUT_FEB_FINAL

Crisis Twin:
The Crisis Twin is a natural evolution from our Mid Length Crisis, which was typically ridden as a 2+1. We kept seeing people throwing twin keel fins into the forward boxes and realized it made the board a whole different thing, but the fin placement wasn’t optimal for control and performance. So eventually we built the Crisis Twin, a twin fin only version of the MLC with speed and flow as the main objectives. It is designed for fast paddling and to easily generate speed, carry flow, and smooth turning at any speed.

CRISIS_TWIN_FINALS-05