The Shadow is a high-performance shortboard addition to the Pyzel Ghost family and has quickly become a favourite among our team riders such as John John Florence and Jack Freestone because it’s a board that lets you surf how you want in a wide range of wave conditions and size.

For the 2018 Stab in the Dark project they asked for a 5’1o board for a surfer who was 5’10 and 175lbs (turned out to be Mick Fanning) for waves that were good, but not overly powerful. Jon Pyzel wanted to make something fresh and new, but to start off with something that was tried and true. Knowing that the Pyzel Phantom is a great board for those types of conditions he decided to start there and redesign it as a more refined, high performance shortboard, while still keeping the added flow and glide that defines the Phantom.

The Shadow is designed to give you the advantages of a wider, forward outlined type of board but in a sleek, modern package. It features our version of a high performance outline, but with the wide point at centre not behind. We pulled in the nose by almost a ½ inch and added some extra rocker through the last 12 inches in nose to keep it free through critical turns. It has a gentle hip for looseness and the squash tail is pulled in to help tighten the turning radius and improve its vertical capabilities. The tail rocker and bottom concave remain nearly identical to the Phantom, which has proven to work really well in everyday conditions in waves around the world.

The thickness flow, or foil, is different from most other high performance shortboards, keeping the volume a little bit in front of the centre, but not overly exaggerated. This added foam under the chest area not only helps add paddle power, but it also gives you extra float under your front foot in slower sections which translates to more speed and flow.