Pukas x Matt Bilos // The Link
Pukas The Link top
Pukas The Link rocker
Pukas The Link bottom
Words by Matt Biolos (USA)
“Year after year I’ve worked with Olatu and Pukas, surfed a lot of the local waves, mingled with the local people and there has always been a link between myself and Pukas.
After almost 20 years of traveling the Basque Country, and shaping at PUKAS, we finally made our link official and have designed this collaboration model…. The Link.
We thought it would be fun to make this link official and do a special little project…a special board. Specifically for the small punchy beach breaks in this area. Super fun and skatey, but high performance as well. Not a cruiser, or flat glider, but a board with some rocker and some concave, a board that a good surfer can throw around and up into the lip and surf kind of radical, but in a small, fun, beach break kind of way.”
From the start I have always sorta been known for pushing the idea of wider shorter boards, but always trying to do it with performance in mind, not just fashion or retro.
So with The Link we started with my ShortRound, and wanted to race it up. We pulled in the nose and added more tail rocker to fit in these dumpy, quick waves. To work with the rocker, we added a lot more concave from the center back through the fins. The concave gets up and going and fast, as well as increases rail curve, allowing for quick radical direction changes.
Pukas x Matt Bilos // #CarbonWrap Technology
“We are building The LINK in two techs. First, we are launching it with our patented “Carbon Wrap” Technology. Stringer-less EPS with a Carbon Fiber frame that “wraps” The rails in a strategic point, creating a lively and electric feeling flex, engineered for maximum performance in small surf. In addition to the CarbonWrap, we are building The Link in the tried and true, proven performance of PU/PE construction.
Pukas The Link #CarbonWrap top
Pukas The Link #CarbonWrap rocker
Pukas The Link #CarbonWrap bottom
Pukas x Matt Biolos // The Link Size Chart
5’0″ to 6’4″. The sizes and volumes seems to flow pretty well. Up to about 5’10” I stayed pretty HP and minimalistic with the dims. Then around 5’11” I made more significant jumps in dims and volume for bigger customers. The volume numbers for each board are clean and simple, and are spread out evenly. I feel comfortable with these.
When sized properly, with the right amount of volume, it could be anything from a 5’2 rip stick, for a young ripper to throw airs and blow the tail….On up to 40 liters of Domestic high performance carving and snapping to keep the middle aged guy, father with kids out there having fun…..instead of giving up and riding an oversized boat or a flat rocker pig.
| Length | Width | Thickness | Litres |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5’0” | 17 3/4 | 2 1/8 | 20,60 |
| 5’2” | 18 1/8 | 2 3/16 | 22,30 |
| 5’3” | 18 3/8 | 2 3/16 | 23 |
| 5’4” | 18 5/8 | 2 1/4 | 24,50 |
| 5’5” | 18 7/8 | 2 1/4 | 25,6 |
| 5’6” | 19 1/8 | 2 5/16 | 27 |
| 5’7” | 19 3/8 | 2 3/8 | 28 |
| 5’8” | 19 5/8 | 2 3/8 | 29,10 |
| 5’9” | 19 7/8 | 2 3/8 | 29,00 |
| 5’10” | 20 1/4 | 2 1/2 | 32,50 |
| 5’11” | 20 3/8 | 2 1/2 | 33,25 |
| 6’0” | 20 1/2 | 2 9/16 | 35 |
| 6’1” | 20 3/4 | 2 5/8 | 36,5 |
| 6’2” | 21 | 2 5/8 | 38 |
| 6’3” | 21 1/4 | 2 11/16 | 39,75 |
| 6’4” | 21 1/2 | 2 3/4 | 41,5 |
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