Maxi Pip

Steve · Age: 54 · Height: 180 cm · Weight: 77 kg · Skill: Advanced · 26 July 2021

This is a great mid-length board. It's really well-made. Took a while to find the sweet spot (both paddling and riding) as I normally ride shortboards. Got this for the smaller days and for when I feel more like cruising. It works well. Plenty of speed, with great glide. Feels like you flow effortlessly across even the smallest waves. Put the back foot behind the fins and it turns well. Overall, a really fun board.

Grumpy · Age: 52 · Height: 183 cm · Weight: 91 kg · Skill: Experienced · 16 Jan 2021

Great board, paddles well though it took a couple of surfs to find that sweet spot. Once on a wave it has plenty of down the line speed. Place your back foot just behind the fins and it will turn with ease. This board doesn’t have that loose feeling like twin fins of old, even with the wider tail there is plenty of bite drive and hold. Maybe that torus channel synonymous with Gary’s designs really does have merits. I have a range of boards from 5’9 and up from various shapers but this has become my new everyday ride. I also purchased a set of Gary’s upright twins and they are an excellent product that have been working very well with this board as you would expect. Gary was great to deal with and delivered an excellent product that will keep me surfing for many years to come.

chris · Age: 50 · Height: 195 cm · Weight: 92 kg · Skill: Experienced · 14 Oct 2020

Awesome board from a great shaper. Already have the Mini Pip and love it, and the Step up Maxi Pip is more of the same. Great drive off the front foot with the taurus channel, and extra hold in the tail with the other channels and pulled in tail. Had 5 boards of Gary now and his shapes never disappoint. Glassing is also exceptional.

Rob · Age: 42 · Height: 177 cm · Weight: 73 kg · Skill: Experienced · 6 Oct 2020

Having always ridden fish style boards or traditional thrusters, for 20 years, this board was an attempt to up the fun and lessen the frustration that creeps in when timing and fitness start failing. Let’s just say it worked. This board is a serious bit of eye candy beautifully made (especially for channel lovers) with great art options. Mine at 7ft comes with a round pin. Which Gary has developed into the two model on his site. I am running Gary’s upright handfoiled fins, I won’t lie and pretend that I can feel the difference between fins but this set up definitely works. Initially I struggled wrangling the extra size and volume in the line up but it glides on to waves pushing no water giving plenty of extra time to line things up. It is fast projecting me around sections I would normally struggle to make. So far I have surfed 1 to 5 ft beach breaks and it’s been very versatile holding in hollow waves and trimming on small runners. I look forward to some point waves to really feel it’s potential on some long walls. Basically can’t fault it, does everything I wanted from it in style.

Cohen · Age: 29 · Height: 175 cm · Weight: 70 kg · Skill: Experienced · 6 Oct 2020

I’ve had the Maxi PIP for about three months now and have surfed it mainly at pointbreaks and beachbreaks under 4foot. This is the first midlength shape I’ve surfed and I can honestly say it was the best decision I’ve made in my surfing life so far. My wave count has increased dramatically and I am probably having more fun on this board than I can recall on my usual shortboard. At first I tried the board with some futures upright twins and really felt the ‘slingshot’ coming out of the pocket of the wave after a cutback. I also pulled off some successful grabrail carves using the full length of the board which felt awesome. I switched out the futures for some torryn martyn signature fish keels (which have quite a large area) thinking this might suit my style of surfing better, but found that I didn’t have the weight (I am 70kg) to throw it around properly and went back to futures. The board itself absolutely fangs and the Taurus channel helps this, I even had a stranger chat to me after a surf and commented that I was able to go very quick down the line with minimal effort in weak fat waves. The tail is quite thin and pinched at the end which helps the board to pivot, I think I would personally prefer the MAXI PIPS diamond tail to Gary’s TWO model which features a rounded tail. However, the TWO might a better option in bigger more quality surf. Despite the volume and width, the board duckdives easily and doesn’t feel like a log. Being a stretched out twin fin, it is a bit more difficult to ride on the backhand and I still haven’t quite figured it out but I am very excited to continue to experiment with this board

Felix · Age: 22 · Height: 170 cm · Weight: 67 kg · Skill: Experienced · 27 May 2020

My PIP is a bit of a mashup between the Maxi PIP and the pin twin. The outline is a pin tail twin, a bit stretched out for a solid step up, but includes the iconic "Torus" full length channels on the maxi PIP, and other Gary McNeill boards, along with tail channels. My board is mostly set-up as a step up, which I've sometimes ridden more as a mid-length. With a nice pin tail, and tail channels, this board has so much hold, and so much speed in larger surf. I've felt very comfortable dropping into 6ft+ waves and getting a deep bottom turn with loads of speed onto the open face. The extra paddle power with added volume and length giving me plenty of extra time to get in early, and the refined tail providing no shortage of hold. This board loves to set a rail and get a big turn in, and loves to go fast. As a mid-length, this board has so much paddle power, and lots of speed, which helps for small, very straight, Autumn/Winter days with gusty offshores... I can imagine the diamond tail on the original model would offer some fun pivot points to make better use of the speed and ease this board has to offer. My go to fins for this board have been the Tyler Warren upright twins, which are a bit of a larger fin, and quite stiff, which I found better in the bigger stuff with ample power/speed available from the wave itself. In smaller waves, trying to ride it as more of a mid-length, the Rasta Twin+1 did a good job at generating speed. I got this board in regular epoxy construction, with some art on the deck. Sadly she's been in the shop twice now for a leash/tail, and rail repair from larger surf. With expert repairs, the board still feels great and held through some pretty good waves over the big surf brought by the recent Tasman Low.