Channel Islands Biscuit or Fishcuit

[steve shearer]

And if, like the Merrick, there is extensive R & D time gone into refining a new design, saving a $100 by getting a cheap knock-off seems like theft to me..

That's hilarious, seeing as Merrick has been one of the great "borrowers" in history.

Back in the mid-seventies Chris Brock was making tri-plane hulls based on Greenough's design theories.
After a visit by Merrick where he chanced upon the design full page ads magically appeared in American surfing mags trumpeting Al Merrick as the innovator of this amazing tri-plane hull.
His early thruster planshapes were amazingly similar to Simons wide tailed subtle hipped creations.
Any acknowledgement by Saint Al : not to my knowledge.

His current fish and fishcuit boards and other designs like the Pod are all heavily influenced by existing designs created by other people.

He's a great marketer of board designs but very very few could he claim to have invented himself.

[Nick Carroll]

Well it's no shame to be borrowing design ideas, everyone does that ... and Al's ability to blend and refine competing and often still crude ideas into super functional craft, at both elite pro and normal surfing levels, is well worth our admiration, I think.

But Al is indeed a bit slow to credit other designers.

Maurice Cole, who shaped and designed almost all Tom Curren's boards between 1989 and 1992 -- including the magic 6'9" on which he won Santa Cruz and Bells and the 6'3" on which he won in Europe on his way to the title from the trials, and the legendary yellow-railed boards on which he devastated Haleiwa and Backdoor in the winter of 1991 -- will testify to that one.

Strangely, two CI-driven docos -- "Trials to Title" and "Flow" -- both managed to cover this period in great detail without once mentioning Maurice, or indeed any other shaper.

[smw1]

I have a Fishcuit. Loved the look of the shape and ordered one without trying a demo (unfortunately I couldn't find one available anywhere).

Anyway, I'm not sure how suitable it is for your average aussie beach. It is pretty chunky with flat rocker. It goes well on a long wall (great for speed runs down a line) but to be honest, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it if you're looking for an all-rounder.

Mind you, I suppose it depends on your surfing ability. Rob Machado doesn't seem to have too many problems.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_6_D9LSuOg

It probably doesn't look quite like that when I take mine out.

SMW1

[Cpt.Caveman]

After watching Rob Machado on the quad version in that last video, the ride looks a lot similar to Webber's Mini-Fish twinny. I love the Webber Mini-Fish as something a bit different - super fast and its responsive enough to surf the whole wave. Its definitely not an all-rounder, its more on the high volume fish side.

You could pick up a Mini-Fish off the rack for a lot less than an AI.

Test a few out and decide I reckon

[Scuba_steve]

you wanna go smaller than that mate, id say about a 5'5 or 5'4 cause they are as thick as a german arse. and i think the fishcuit rides better but hey, theyre both good boards. have u tried aloha? im pertty sure theyd have as demo board