When you think of board design and the wave at Teahupoo, most minds head towards the gun direction. Long, narrow boards that ride fast. Not a 5'8" Almond Butter from Firewire.

Rob Machado, legend of soul surfing and once super-pro, sat down with Chris Grow from the YouTube web show - the Shred Show and talked about one of his new boards designed in conjunction with Firewire, the Almond Butter.

It's a short stubby thing, with the now-common 5 fin boxes, double concave and fat tail. What's not common, is the crazy tail rocker on it, and the Paulownia wood shell that hides a traditional foam core. At first glance, it's just another board, but after hearing what Machado has done with it, the plot thickens.

He tells of a day at Teahupoo, where he was bobbing around out the back on an Almond Butter, when the set of the day rolls in. An 8ft face, gun territory for sure, but he hasn't got a gun, or a choice about paddling for it. You've gotta go!

"I think the key on that wave was getting off to a good start, my positioning was really good, and that board obviously paddles really good, so I cruised into it super early. It wasn't like this super late fall out of the sky, try to recover and set a rail. You know like, really critical. I like got this really easy glide into it, and got down to the bottom really easy and then I come off the bottom and set up, set a line - and that sets up the whole wave."

He made it, and surfed all day on that little stubby board in a solid 6-8ft Chopes. Listen to his story about it, the board, and some interesting tid-bits about life in general through the eyes off Rob Machado…

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