Mctavish Fireball Evolution

Awesome board, long life span – Rode a red Fireball for 11 years, awesome in all conditions. It copped a few beatings and survived them all with minor repairs needed. Pretty much the only board I rode all of this time. I was pretty upset when it snapped at Boomerang Beach and had no hesitation in buying a new one. It was also made in Thailand.

Favourite board by far – I don't know what the happy chap below is on about, perhaps his was damaged before he bought it. I don't usually post reviews but the one below doesn't give this great board justice! I purchased my fireball brand new and it is unbelievably strong in my opinion. I surf it at gold coast open beach often in up to 4ft conditions and have watched it dumped onto the sand bank on numerous occasions. I love surfing this board, highly recommended!

Poor Quality – Bought my first ever mal, a Mctavish Fireball Evolution, 9'1 second hand with only a couple of small compressions. These boards retail for $1400. I bought it for small waves during the xmas break. My last surf was at North Boomerang Beach, 3 foot. After catching a wave, I was on a sand bank waste high ducking under 2 foot waves, with the last 2 foot wave snapping the nose clean off! It snapped off back 450mm from the nose. On the deck, the fibreglass mat delaminated off blank about 300mm back. I have seen my fair share of snapped boards, but never such a clean snap off a small wave.

I rang Mctavish up at Byron Bay, they said sorry, but we dont repair our boards, and they gave me a number on the gold coast. So I called some other board makers and they refused to repair a Mctavish board altogether. They all said the same thing along the lines of "you bought a Mctavish board that has a cheap soft blank, thin stringer and poor glass work.....get Mctavish to repair there own rubbish their spitting out...we know their not going to repair their own boards so why would we repair theirs?"

I new a shapper in the area so I gave him a call. Inially he said the same as the others, until he realised that he new me and my uncle I was surfing with. Took it to him and he wasn't surprised at the way it snapped. He repaired the board, and said bring it back when it snaps again.

Anyway, I will never buy Mctavish again, or any other mass produced surfboard from the likes of Global Surf.

However, from now on, I will only be ordering quality custom boards from my local shapper, who takes pride in his boards. Rode well Poor, inferior quality blanks and glass, poor service from Mctavish