Surf Board 60

Talk about kids in a candy store. Contemplating the 20-surfboard quiver we assembled for Buyer's Guide testing this year, our wave riders felt as if they'd been given the keys to Wonka's brand-new surf factory. We had longboards, guns, funboards, thrusters, and fish—yet there was one stick our testers kept plucking from the rack: the Gear of the Year-winning Hobie M-80. At first glance it looks like a mid-eighties four-fin, but from the initial paddle and bottom turn it's clear the M-80 is the sweetest thing on water.