Imagine, if you will, a surfcraft with morphing rails and rocker that allowed you to alter its shape at will to optimize speed, execute a turn, or get deeper in the barrel? Would it surprise you to find out that they already exist, and have done for the past 80 years – pre-dating most surfcraft designs?

You rarely see surf mats in the line-up these days – those inflatable rectangles that are ridden prone by a committed and fiercely underground few. The only mat surfer whose name would be familiar to the foam and fiberglass masses is probably George Greenough, but that alone should tell us something: the man responsible for many of the developments in surfboard design that allow modern surfers to do what they do (a key figure in the shortboard revolution, the designer who redefined the fin, etc…) prefers to ride waves on a vehicle so apparently basic, but that he can manipulate in his search for a particular feeling. Mats put your face close to the wave face, giving a far heightened sense of speed, and carry you quickly across the surface of the water like a hovercraft with a partially deflated mat easily absorbing the lumps and bumps of choppy conditions. Air-bag aficionados claim that a mat provides a far greater connection to the immediate environment in comparison to regular surfboards and more speed and glide than bodysurfing; apparently, a surf mat offers the best of both worlds… By using a partially inflated or deflated mat (glass half full? Or half empty?!), rail profiles can be manipulated by squeezing different parts of the mat, whilst the body position of the surfer and control of the front corners determines the mat’s rocker. Squeezing the outside rail during a bottom turn will, for example, force air into the inside rail making it fuller and increasing hold, whilst squeezing both rails during a re-entry makes the mat more rigid and offers a hard surface for the lip to hit and push back into the wave. A softer mat will go faster, whilst a harder (more pumped up) mat will provide more control (although go too hard and you’ll end up “mat-boarding”), with the beauty of it being that a few puffs of breath out back or a quick opening of the valve is all it takes to alter your mat’s performance characteristics.