Board review - Tomo 5'4 EVO
The latest of Tomo's modern planing hull designs and the first Tomo board that I've ridden. Rode it in 3-4 feet punchy beach break conditions in Sai Kung (Tai Long wan) It has a super sick outline that looks and feels quite symmetrical. What makes this board, really is the Insane double to quad rear concaves/channels on the bottom.
I got a 5"4 listed at 29L of volume and which is my normal high performance volume. I was a little concerned but was told to order it as short as possible on the low end of my preferred volume. Surprisingly, it really rides like a board with of 31 liters. Paddles super easy and gets in early.
Once up the board feels quick and drivey but not slidy like some of my other quad fishes or wide tail short boards. It definitely has a very unique feel that's addictive and easy to surf once you get it dialled in.
I've ridden the Evo as a quad with the medium Merrrick AM2 templates and as a thruster with the medium fanning template both FCS 2s. Both worked really well and i prefer it as a quad in small surf for additional down the line speed. The thruster setup was better for top to bottom surfing
The board also felt really pivoty and being so short was really easy to turn and make quick directional adjustments. The soft rails and make it quite forgiving in tricky conditions which is common here in Hong Kong with our NE windswell. Im frothing to try this in bigger steeper waves and reckon it'll hold due to the medium nose rocker and its overall balanced feel. Definitely also like the LFT technology that FireWire has created which keeps it light and springy. All in all I'm very stoked on the Evo and feel that I can ride it in most conditions. It definitely excels in head high and below punchy waves.