I’m in my second season of wakesurfing and living the wake boat lifestyle with my kids and friends. We became a wakesurfing family in 2024, though I’ve been a board sports enthusiast most of my life. I started skateboarding in my teens circa 1987. I converted from skiing to snowboarding in 2000 and wrote a book on the history of snowboarding (The Way of the Snowboarder) five years later. I couldn’t find time for ocean surfing, but Kelly Slater has been more and more of an inspiration as we’ve aged into our 50s together.
Admittedly, the sport of wakesurfing is probably the easiest of the board sports to learn. It also comes with the lowest risk of injury. That said, it takes a lot of wave time to become truly proficient, such that you can do tricks like ollies, floaters, boardslides and 360s. This has been my goal for the 2025 season, and I’ve been riding and testing four different boards toward this end. The following includes feedback from several friends, one of whom was on the University of Utah wakeboard team. So it’s not purely from an intermediate’s perspective.
Connelly ONO
The Connelly ONO is an exceptionally fun board to ride. It’s a pure surf-style design with quad fins and pointy nose. This keeps it from nose diving too easily, but the balance is also shifted toward the back. So you’ll tend to ride heavy on the back leg. While this might send you off the back of the wave on other boards, the ONO’s concave base with center channels makes it really fast. You can get really aggressive with floaters and boardslides because it’s so easy to recover and get back into the sweet spot. This is a natural slasher and was equally popular between guys and girls in the 4’10″ size.
Hyperlite Transistor
The Hyperlite Transistor is the first pure skim board I’ve ever ridden. This is a top-of-the-line model designed for experts and competition-level performance. In many respects, this is a different sport altogether compared to surf-style boards. At first, you’ll spend a lot of time using the rope to get a feel for how it behaves on the wave. With a single, low-profile fin, it wants to let loose and generally requires much more rider input to stay on the wave. With sharp edges all around, though, you’ll find a lot of edge hold and bite no matter which way the board is facing.
O’Brien Revival
The O’Brien Revival is an intermediate, surf-style board that features a tri-fin, swallow-tail design. It’s similar to the Connelly ONO in that it embodies a lot of ocean-style surf qualities, such as the pointed nose. It’s not quite as fast as the ONO, but the tail releases and snaps easier. It’s also wider and, as a result, creates a more stable platform when trying tricks for the first time.
Phase Five Phantom
This is my nomination for surf-style board of the year. Designed by pro rider Parker Payne, the Phantom is an advanced wakesurf board with much of its inspiration coming from world of skateboarding. In particular, the concave deck feels a lot like a skateboard and allows for better board feel and control—enabling Payne to do actual kick-flips on the wave. The base is a combination of rocker up front and concave under foot. This gives the board a ton of pop, while quad fins provide speed and stability. It’s also incredibly light. This is the board my crew rode for most for the 2025 season and the one on which I was finally able to learn ollies off the lip.