Pickup Stick 6'6"

No diss to the board or design, I have buyers remorse for going with the 6’6” for Uncle N8’s surf camp for my kids and their cousins - when I should have popped for the 7’6” or 8’ for more versatility, or for a board with less dramatically chined edges. My 10-year old niece had the rides of her life on this deck, but it was a little too lively for the older cousins. I personally can’t wait to get some me time on this shape, it’s beautiful and deserves to get out a shred!

I purchased the 6’6 Pick Up Stix as a step down from my 7’0 fun board. I needed something to help me transition to shorter boards. I live in the mountains and didn’t start surfing until I was in my late 20’s so board volume has always been my friend as I only get to surf about 30 days a year. This board has been awesome for me. It’s got enough volume that I can still get I to waves sort of early and I am learning to to duck dive too. I prefer it as a quad. It’s a really versatile board and durable as hell too.

I’ve been surfing this board off and on for 8 months or so. I live on Kauai and have taken it out in 1’ to 8’ Hawaiian surf. Note that I surf nearly everyday on boards from 5’-9” to 9’-0”. It surfs okay and can be fun in 1-2’ surf. It’s not so great on the super fast reef breaks here once you get above 3’ Hawaiian or so. My major complaints are that my “B” grade board had several ugly defects and the the deck on my board is covered in pressure dings - some of which are substantial. I surfed an older version on this board s few years back and the construction was much different than this newer model - the older version was indestructible - this one not so much. My 5’-9” Firewire board with helium construction still looks like new - and it’s about the same age as the Pickup Stick and it’s the board I surf the most. I’m not surf I’d buy another if somehow I lost this one - and that’s my way of measuring how much I like the board.

I've been doing the injury dance the last couple years and haven't been able to get back into the water and I took this thing out yesterday and had one of the best sessions of my 10+ year surf career. I have only been out maybe 4 times in the last 6 months and I hopped on the 7'6 and felt like I didn't take a single day off. I'm 6'3 and around 200lbs and I was out paddling everyone, even some people on logs. I find it goes really well with shoulder to head high waves.

Absolutely love this board. Used it as a rental for a week in 2-6ft beach breaks. Caught tons of waves. Would consider buying, but not with those proprietary fin boxes. All my boards use Futures, not going to add a set of fins that only fit in this board and bring the price up another 100$.