Tolhurst Mid 6 Twin Review

Mid Length – it ain’t a log, and it ain’t a shortboard, it’s right in between. So a mid length for you might be different for me, or for the kid down the street. But ideally a Mid Length would generally run between 6’6 and 8’0 on the long end I believe (Probably could squeeze it to 7’8 actually).

The Mid6 range is designed for mid-length performance in all wave types, and I can’t talk highly enough about how much I love the OG one we reviewed a while ago. I still ride it today regularly. The Mid6 Twin runs a nice round pin tail, smooth rocker with a small touch of nose flip and it’s got a curvier outline then the longer versions (which have more rail obvs). The board has high nose rails transitioning to a tucked midsection and low hard tail, offering a balanced drive through sections and maintaining control during tight turns. You’ll also notice the channels is all the Mid6 boards, the channels are not overly aggressive, allowing for easy manoeuvrability, line adjustments, and arc length modifications on the wave’s face. While the Mid6 excels in everyday surf conditions, it can handle serious waves comfortably.

Fin options are pretty limited with there only being a twin set up on the board, a straight twin that you’re best bet is the Power Twin if you’re FCS. And you have two constructions to choose from, grab the blue or silvery looking ones and you’ve got Thunderbolt red, which is fibreglass laminated. If you grab the black one, you’re getting Thunderbolt Black, which is carbon laminated.

The conditions I surfed the Tolhurst Mid6 Twin in varied from 1ft high tide North Wall, to 5ft Duranbah and a lot of random waves in between. So we got a pretty good range of conditions and the waves it really shined were around the 2-3ft mark, playful but lined up type waves

This board enjoys both sucky and fat ass waves together, its got a nice level of variability in the conditions you can surf it. Its fun to trim on and go fast, it’s fun if you wanna rip some turns (remembering you are on a twin fin). Probably the conditions it hated the most was anything too choppy or mixed up, it liked cleaner lines and performed better when its clean and lined up. So don’t get this thinking it’s a junky board to rip on…

It’s ok with the short, one and done waves, but excels when it’s running on a bank (think point break or similar) and has areas of downtime on the wave. Which is easy to say because pretty much every board should go on a point break right? True, but with the Tolhurst Mid6 Twin there’s a certain feeling you get when riding it on a point or long stretched out bank – the speed, flow, and ability to rip the head off a couple turns here and there.

Overall Best Conditions:
2-4ft waves that have a couple of fast and slow sections. Preferably on your forehand with a slight offshore or onshore.

Stats were:
14 sessions
54 waves
Top Speed of 32km/h (Palm Beach)
Longest ride was 187m (Duranbah)

This is a that lets you enjoy the surf more then your surfing, thats not to take away from the effort of trying to rip. It’s more about the idea that some boards let you enjoy a surf regardless of how well you surf. And one of those boards is the Tolhurst Mid6 Twin. It’s a board that is great for trimming or some ok shredding. You’re not Harley Ingelby, so drop the expectation that you’ll surf like him on it – you won’t. You will have a load of fun, you’ll go fast and you’ll nail some turns. You’ll learn more about how to use your rail when riding a twin fin instead of just snapping your turns off, you’ll get a better understand about conditions and channels.

The beauty of the board is how much work it does for you, if you let it. It’ll run around a section with a slight push off the bottom, go the highline and you’ll get an immense amount of speed. Having said that, if you try to over-power or ‘force’ it through turns, you’ll come unstuck or heavily catch/bog more often than not.

You can go do snaps, round houses, probably even airs, but when you’re trying to surf it like that (like a proper HP shortboard) you tend to catch, lose your fins if coming too hard off the bottom and generally flail a lot. It’s brilliant at cut down’s, highline speed runs and seeing how fast you can go, sectional floaters (long as it’s not dumping) and even pretty good for some larry action.

I started out with the MF Twins, then swapped over to the Power Twins and can confirm how much better the board went with the Power Twins. The MF’s worked, sure, but they were harder to roll over during turns. Whereas the Power Twins made rolling the rails over, off the bottom or off the top a lot easier. So anything that is similar to the Power Twin will keep you sorted on this board.

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 and take your time, the board will do a lot of the work for you if you let it.

The Tolhurst Mid6 Twin is an easy ride. If you’re coming up from shortboard, you’ll enjoy the extra volume, glide and ease of riding and finding new lines. If you’re coming down from something longer, you’ll find it being quicky, snappy and punchy, which you’ll need to figure out how to ease up on that snappiness to really enjoy the board. If you’re not a twin fin guy, then grab the Mid6 in quad format, it’s easily one of the best mid lengths I’ve ridden and continue to ride today.

The Wins:
*Glides effortlessly on a wave and allows to enjoy surfing from a new angle.
*Built like a brick shit house, thanks to the Thunderbolt Technology.
*That it pairs so effortlessly with the Power Twins.

The Challenges:
*It can be a challenge to ride if you’re not open to new lines.
*Shitty, junky waves are not your friend on this board.

If you’re not quite sold on the Tolhurst Mid6 Twin, but are interested in getting a mid-length some alternatives include the Channel Islands Mid, the Mid-Strength from Chill or spice it up with the Long Phish 2.0 from Christenson.