Slater Designs FRK Swallow Put Through the Paces at the Surf Ranch (Video)

The Surf Ranch may be the most ideal test track for surfboards in the world. Peeling perfectly down the basin for the better part of 700 yards, the left and the right are equally flawless. Both have barrel sections and spots for high-performance maneuvers. There are a myriad of settings for the wave itself, meaning it can be a freight-train tube or the folks behind the controls can back off the throttle and make it more user-friendly type of wave. That's considerably different than the get-what-you-get approach to surfing in the ocean.

It's the union of test tank and surfboard company that's enabled 11-time world champ Kelly Slater to really take a deep dive into the boards being created by Slater Designs. And for the new FRK Swallow , which was just released last week, the board's mastermind, Dan Mann, was just joined in Lemoore, California, by test pilots Sebastian Williams and Kevin Schulz to suss out exactly what the board is capable of. Turns out, the board is capable of quite a lot.

As Mann explains, the first iteration of the FRK line, the FRK Round Tail, was released in 2019, followed by the FRK Plus, which featured more of a conventional squash tail. And most recently, him and Slater have been looking at the design and adapting it to a swallow tail. This means moving the wide point back a bit, toying around with the distribution of foam, and adjusting the rocker accordingly.

"With the FRK Swallow, the outline is a little more full of an outline because the board is meant to be ridden a little shorter," Mann explains.

"The swallow tail, when you set your line and driving down the line and you're doing a bottom turn, you get so much drive off of the tail," adds Schultz. "The two points where the water breaks is also allowing that same release."

The FRK Swallow is now available in finer surf shops everywhere and comes in sizes ranging from 5’6" to 6’4". Also keep an eye out for Firewire Demo Days coming to a beach near you where you'll be able to take the board, as well as other Firewire and Slater Design models, for a spin.

Related: Kelly Slater Adds a Swallow Tail to His Quiver