Campbell Designed Twin Cam 6'4 review: a custom order that arrived different
Updated 2026-09-20
The Campbell Designed Twin Cam is a 6'4 EPS fish, ordered as a remake of an earlier board and delivered as something else entirely. It is a small case study in what can go wrong with a custom order, and in how a board can still turn out fine anyway.
What it is and why I bought it
This was ordered as a remake of a board I had owned before, built to new dimensions, with an orange color and a channel bottom expected to match the original. What arrived instead was a swallow tailed EPS Exoflex fish with no channels and none of the concave the original model carried. It came with extra fin slots rather than a simple channel setup, which may be part of why it turned into such a capable all-rounder anyway, though there is no knowing how the board originally asked for would have surfed, since it never arrived.
How it surfed
Whatever the mix-up, this board paddles beautifully and ripped on the very first wave. It steps down and rides in mush, then steps up and holds in good waves. The nose carries a slightly rolled entry and plenty of rocker, useful for getting into bigger waves, running back into a single concave that builds into a solid double vee through the tail before flattening out again right at the back. At 6'4 x 21 3/4 x 2 3/4 and 45.1 litres, it is light and strong thanks to the Exoflex build, and it holds up in both small and big waves without feeling out of its depth. A Jim Banks Hooker fin has worked so well on it that there has been no reason to try anything else.
Compared directly with a Campbell Designed Wingman at 6'6, the smaller Twin Cam paddles better and gets picked instead almost every time. Against a heavier Surman Sweet Leaf, the Sweet Leaf has more glide in fat, smooth conditions, but the Twin Cam is the easier, more everyday board of the two. It also won out over a Campbell Designed Chunky Toe thruster, in day to day rotation. Trying it was enough to prompt selling off a good part of the rest of the quiver.
Who it suits and who it does not
A modern, multi-slot fish like this suits someone who wants a lively, high performance board that still works in everyday, small to medium surf. It is not a board for anyone set on the specific channel-bottom design that was originally ordered, since that design never actually turned up.
What happened to it
It is still in the rack, one of a small final shortlist of Campbell Designed boards kept after a much larger quiver was pared back.
Questions people ask
Did the Campbell Designed Twin Cam arrive as ordered?
No. It was ordered as a remake of an earlier board with an orange color and a channel bottom, and it arrived with no channels and none of the concave the original model had.
Does a custom order arriving different always mean a bad board?
Not in this case. The board that arrived surfs as a capable, high performance fish even though it is not what was specified, though it does mean never finding out how the originally ordered design would have gone.
What fins work on the Twin Cam?
A Jim Banks Hooker fin has been the setup, and it has worked so well there has been no need to change it.
This one is still in the rack; more on where it fits sits on the quiver hub. For more on what can go wrong ordering custom, see custom or stock surfboard. For similar fish-style twins, see the Album Plasmic and the Channel Islands Feb's Fish.
