Who still rides a fish?

[Beerfan]

WIth the mini simmons blowing up, im curious as to who still rides there old school fishes?? I keep waiting to see a heap of keel fishes come up cheap on ebay but it isn't happening yet haha. I miss my old keel fish. I've been struggling on my little boards lately. Not struggling, but just enjoying my 9'1'' a heap. Well, i've been surfing a heap of small high tide waves, so its only natural i guess.

The dimsimm seems ( from the few waves i've got on it ) to have similar glide, but it seems most people surf it more off the back foot, where i like front foot drivy carvy boards. My keel fish also had a dead flat bottom with shin shreddingly sharp rails from in front of the fins through the tail. It was fast as fEKK, and loose as a goose.

[batoes]

I miss my fish days too Beery for the same reason - front foot driving out of turns.

If this was 4-6 inches smaller, i'd grab it: http://www.mackiesurfboards.com.au/shop (page 2)

I love mackie's work.

[Topher]

I love my 5'9 mackie 70's style fish - so damn fast and fun and free. It can be a challenge in bumpy waves though.

That one on the website looks unbeleivably awesome! My next one will be a sidecut like that I reckon.

[buzzy]

I'm not much of a fish fan. Had a beautiful looking DVS Fish but much preferred a Munro retro fish (which was a thruster) in basically the same type of conditions. No fish for me.

[Beerfan]

Yeah batoes, front foot drive is good!!. I have too many boards, and 2 unglassed blanks, but im keen to finish the blanks, and i don't want to get rid of the boards i've got, so can't really get another one. My 7'10'' is about the only one i'd let go at the moment, but shit its a fun board, a go to board that i don't need to re adjust too, just jump on and surf. Need more money and board storage!!!

[Cpt.Caveman]

I had a go of a mates Mauricio Gil Retro Fish a little while ago and had an absolute ball. Somewhere around 5'5", forward wide-point, parallel outline coming to a wide traditional swallow tail, quad fins and plenty of rocker. It was a more refined and modernised foil and rocker, so it flew and was very easy to surf around the wave where I wanted.

Theres nothing wrong with the old fish in my opinion, but with this particular board I did feel the wide swallow made it more difficult to bank hard off the bottom to come up to the lip vertically. Despite all the modernisation in this board I've surfed a lot of semi-fish and a mini-simmons that do that a lot better.

[Beerfan]

Yeah capt, im talking the old school outline and keels, but more modern ( but still flat ) rocker and rails. I found mine very swoopy and drivy in small gutless waves, but i found in bigger and more hollow waves ( chest to a bit overhead, nothing major ), i had no trouble jamming the back foot off the bottom to get it more vert than normal. Maybe not shortboard vert, but much more than i thought possible.

[purple pyramids]

i have a blank i'm thinking of making into a fish. thought it might be a good one for a first try. plus, it's a classic kneeboard shape.

[Beerfan]

I'll have the orange one please!.

I still don't know what to do with quads, i've had moments of magic, but also lots of mis-timed turns etc. This summer im gunna play around with fins in mine til i get it right. I find the mckee setup too stiff for me, but i need to play around more. Hopefully by the end of summer i'll have something worked out. Or i'll cull the quiver and get a keel fish!!

[WANDERER]

love my keel fish slab.

[2000man]

YES! love em!!!
... usually ride the traditional Lis (styled) DVS 5'10 keel fish during winter. I find they work best in clean conditions with power and curve. I generally ride an MR '84 twin through summer windswell slop – the combination of volume, pivot, looseness and drive from this design seems perfect in such conditions.
However the recent acquisition of a 5'6 Mini-Simmons has changed all of the above! anticipating weening myself off the mal... which has been the staple slide of the last few weeks!

[diggerdickson]

not really a fish fan, but I think thats cause I have not spent enough time on them, maybe one day I might be converted

[alc81]

i got a 5'8 DVS carbon deck twinny to surf when conditions didnt suit my 5'4 DVS simmons, it was alright but have since got a Bing Dharma, man this board goes like the clappers, heaps better an more versitile than the twinny

[Cuttlefish]

My first turn on my mini-simmons was a backhand bottom turn.
I'd traded a quad fish in on it.
That turn blew my mind.

[batoes]

what size is that dharma? and what sort of waves does it like?

[Cuttlefish]

Here' a link to the Bing site and footage of it being ridden by a pro Del Moro (of course) which means we will surf like them too.
http://www.bingsurf.com/surfboards_dharma
Watching him ride the speed square however has made me think of trying my turtle as a stand up. Same kind of dims as Bing's do in a 4'2" (22" X 3") same length as the turtle.
That will be good for a laugh for anyone watching. :geek:

[alc81]

my dharma is
5'10 x 21 1/8 x 2 3/8
we havent had the best conditions since i have had mine, but have surfed it in 1ft slop and around 2-3ft
an it has been unreal
cant wait to have a go in something bigger,
there is a demo 5'10 at adrift surfshop at the entrance, see steve an have ride, he has had better surfs on it, he used to mainly ride 70's style single fins but he has fallen inlove with the dharma,
i pretty sure they a 6'0 in stock
im about 5'8 an 75kgs but a mate who is over 6ft an closer to the 100kg mark has taken mine for a few waves and is pretty keen on getting one

[Cuttlefish]

Welcome to the forum.
Post up some pics we like porn of the board variety around here.