Chilli Surfboards Peppa Twin Review

Twin fins are everywhere these days. Original twins, modified twins, performance twins, mid length twins and more. A couple of years ago buying a twin was pretty straight forward. This twin, the Chilli Surfboards Peppa Twin sits firmly in the performance twin section, and boy can it perform (if you can)…

It’s got chimed rails, it’s been a long time since I’ve ridden a board with them, which you’ll notice first wave first wiggle. For anyone unaware, chimed rails are essentially a flat deck that holds foam out to the rail then steps down into a performance rail. Meaning you get the buoyancy of the flat deck, but you can shred easier when you lay it over (or attempt to)

The outline isn’t what you’d expect when you’re getting twin, but there are subtle hints if you look for them. The front 2/3rd of the outline is wide enough and you’ll notice the wide point is forward of centre which will give you some extra paddle power (along with that flat deck), as well some needed stability as this thing can be real skatey depending on fins.

The backend is where it gets a bit more interesting as it’s pulled in tight into a swallow tail, that when combined with the pushed back fin placements, gives you a lot of hold when you decide to put ya foot right back and hit turbo mode. The fun part of this board, with the backend, is this ability to put your foot back and hit turbo mode or have it sit just on top, or in front of the fins and cruise. This is where you will find some of the twin fin glide that is rad, it’s not easy to find as it’s performance focused but look and you will find.

Fin options are pretty limited as it’s a straight twin. I ran FCS 2 plugs and tweaked out across several twin templates from FCS, including:
* MF Twins
* Christenson Twins
* Power Twins

The best conditions are 2-4ft, but you could push it to 6 if you’re skilled enough. If you aren’t, enjoy face planting cause at 6ft you’ll most likely tip over like a tea kettle and enjoy a trip over the falls. My insecurities bubbling to the surface aside, this thing is primed for everyday surf in everyday conditions. It’s a board that can back up, even replace, your regular shortboard – if you’re looking for change.

I surfed the Chilli Surfboards Peppa Twin mainly at Duranbah and a little bit on the points. Dbah is a reliable wave from 1ft – 6ft, so it’s a pretty good testing spot. The board thrives with a bit more push, a bit more suck but can still be ridden when the surf has gotten a little overweight and fat. And to be honest, it’ll still be a lot of fun when it’s fat you just gotta approach it differently.

When it’s sucky and pushy, you’ll find yourself going up and down more often and if you shorten your bottom turn just a touch than you would normally on a twin you’ll find yourself heading to the lip/top section real quick – so be ready. When it’s chubby, take the foot off the pedal and cruise with your turns. I found the board the be more responsive, if it’s fat, when I’d cruise a touch more and stretch out the carves/turns a bit more. There’s a nice balance that you can achieve with this board that will propel you to a lot of fun regardless of conditions.

Overall Best Conditions:
2-4ft surf, and to be honest you could probably push it to 5ft…

Stats were:
14 sessions
87 waves
Top Speed of 28km/h (Duranbah)
Longest ride was 172m (Duranbah)

The Chilli Surfboards Peppa Twin is a board for the surfer who can’t get off their performance shortboard, but does want to try something different to spice their surfing lives up. It’ll still perform but in different ways and give you a new aspect of looking at surfing and what different boards can do for you. It might be your gateway drug…

First couple of surfs and you’ll find that you can go straight up, do snaps, round houses, probably even airs, but when you’re trying to surf it like that (like a proper HP shortboard) you will tend to catch, lose your arms and generally flail a lot. It’ll take a few surfs to get used to not having that back fin, but still being able to surf it somewhat like your regular shortboard. Once you’re used to it, you can really start to drill down into the specifics of the board – sucky vs fat conditions, for example.

The fins I used (see the image above) in the beginning were different to what I ended up on, and the second set – the MF Twins – complemented the first set quite well. I didn’t really get much enjoyment out of the power twins myself, but have heard others love it with them.

Ever since the Lane Splitter, I’ve been loving going between the Christenson Twins up to about 3ft and switching to the MF Twins from 3-5ft. They allow me the best of both worlds, I get a nice sparky feeling when it’s smaller and then I have set that holds in quite well (especially for a twin) when it’s bigger. Win/win. Basically all things I want more of in a board. You can see in the images below the difference in size, rake, depth, etc

Overall, the biggest thing I learn with this board was to give yourself more time when surfing, more time off the bottom, off the top or doing cutbacks – stretch it out, especially when its fat/chubby conditions, the board will do a lot of the work for you if you let it.