CI Mid: Britt Merrick Breaks it Down

Over the past few months, the CI Mid has garnered more buzz than just about any other surfboard in 2020. Ok, maybe the FishBeard actually has, but this Mid is a close second! In this new video, we wanted to share a bit more info and visuals behind the inspiration for this egg-inspired model, as well as added insights on what you can expect from its ride.

“At Channel Islands, everything we do is performance oriented,” explains Lead Shaper and Designer Britt Merrick. “We’re not satisfied with just making boards that go straight and fast. We want speed, flow and glide in that feeling we’re all after—but you’ve got to be able to do the turns that you want to, and you’ve got to be able to do your best surfing. So that’s the philosophy that we took into our CI Mid project.”

“One of the cool things we have at CI, having been around for 50 years, is this incredible design library of templates and history, and rockers and all the things that go into making a board,” adds Britt. “In the ’70s, my dad had a board called the Huevo Caliente, which was this really beautiful looking midlength, egg sort of board. We’d been looking at pictures of that around the factory, and felt pretty inspired by that so we dipped back into the archives, and pulled out some of those old templates to accomplish those curves that created the CI Mid. We also updated the bottom so that it performs like a modern board but still has that classic feel and vibe that my dad created so long ago.”

The CI Mid is a modern classic design resulting from a fun collaboration with Devon Howard, a southern California surfer that has spent the past two decades riding and refining egg-inspired designs that are in a category of boards many refer to as midlengths. “I wanted to work on a board that blended all of the different characteristics of these type of boards into one,” explains Howard. “Although the CI Mid was inspired by the clean, longer-railed lines drawn by traditional eggs and single-fins like Al’s mid-1970s Huevo Caliente, it offers an improved crispness, sensitivity, and freedom made possible by his modern rails, rocker and bottom contours that earned him a rep as one of the greatest shapers of all time. ”

Boasting a sleek, egg-like template with low entry rocker and foam a tad forward for ease of paddle and effortless trim speed, the CI Mid scoots, squirts and swivels thanks to contemporary features like double-barrel concave, gradually accelerated rocker, and hard, slightly tucked rails through and off the tail. Britt adds: “The CI Mid is a long-railed board that has all that speed and glide you need to draw those high lines and get that flying feeling you’re after, but you can still really turn down the face and up it, and surf the board well.”

A reliable all-arounder that flies over the flatter, smaller stuff, the CI Mid shines best in shoulder-high to nearly double overhead point surf—where surfers are able to lay down flowy, arcing turns with total confidence, speed, and control.

The CI Mid’s minimalist logo is also out of the Channel Islands Archives—a lam Al put on his boards in the early ’70s—and all CI Mids are stocked with high quality, colorful resin craftsmanship (6-4oz. decks with 6oz. bottoms).

Fins can make or break any surfboard. For the CI Mid, we again worked closely Devon and our friends at True Ames Fins to custom build a 2 + 1 fin set that enhances our the board’s high-performance characteristics, as well as helping it be versatile in a wide range of conditions with just a simple adjustment of the center fin.