First, I wouldn’t call the 7s fish a fish. They’re ugly, but I do know a very good aging surfer that rode his with speed and power. He liked the thing. Glad sd repairman is making some $$ off them.
I think the guy making boards for 100 bucks is full of shit. I make my own and its closer to 200 in materials and that’s if I make my own fins out of wood scraps, no boxes. Mike
I’ve ridden a 7’3 and the 8’ epoxy version: they perform the same as any board that utilises lots of volume, a wide planshape with full nose and tail, flat rocker,concave front to middle, blending into a v’d double concave (rails are lower than centre line) in the tail. They paddle well and catch waves easily and generate a lot of speed in fairly small or larger fat waves.
Downside is lack of control at speed when surfing bigger, hollow, faster waves. Horses for courses. I had no complaints about the strength and durability, but they are significantly heavier than other mass produced epoxy sandwich boards.
I didn’t keep either of them for long as the design was too weighted to less powerful waves. The 8’ can be a replacement for a longboard, but a good longboard is way more versatile. And there are far better fish around than the 7’3
i think u hit a nerve! ;-)
You think so Huck? ; )
Seriously though folks…I really regret/don’t know why I made that statement about undervaluing surfboard creation. I must’ve been having a bad day, was a little too drunk, grouchy, out of my mind, all of the above when I said that piece of b.s. That’s not what I truly feel or think.
The situation with the 7S is that I was super eager to surf a fish type board because I had never surfed one before, but was told that they were an excellent “style” board for the waves of Santa Cruz… soft/mushy beach breaks, crumbling point breaks, fat head high rollers, only a few pitching steep waves (in which case a thruster would be more ideal). I didn’t have access to borrow a fish and I wasn’t sure I wanted to buy one brand new without trying one, so I jumped the gun and bought this 6’8" 7S off the used rack for $300. Luckily, I like it so far, but I’m still intrigued to try a “real” fish shape.
I’d like my buddy to help me replicate a 1970’s John Mel Freeline twin keel fish that his neighbor has. Because I’m 230 pounds, we’ll probably have to supersize the thing to accomodate my weight. Hopefully my buddy will let me be involved with every step of the process, so I can gain a deeper understanding and respect for the creation of a surfboard.
My apologies to everyone for my earlier idiotic post (can you erase posts?) - - embarrassed santacruzguy
This post is so far off base it qualifies for the ‘did he really just say that?’ award for the decade.
Living in Santa Cruz, with an excellent collection of quality shapers concentrated just a few miles from each other, and an ‘over priced’ piece of crap Asian pop-out is the best one can do?
And about “the waves of Santa Cruz… soft/mushy beach breaks, crumbling point breaks, fat head high rollers, only a few pitching steep waves”
uh…Natural Bridges, low tide and well overhead is soft/mushy/crumbling/fat? or Swift Street, Mitchells Cove, the Slot, Sewer peak or the Hook? Not even mentioning the hollow haul ass reefs north of town, and Moss Landing gaping barrels just south.
one of my favorite quotes really applies to this:
‘there is just nothing dumber then a guy who doesn’t know what he doesn’t know’
You just need to shop more wisely.
Icc - Let’s just go ahead and name every break from one end of the county line to the other. You’ve already got a pretty robust list going there.
yea, it’s a big secret, aside from the fact that a main boulevard or A HIGHWAY runs alongside every of those breaks, which have been packed for decades, including with hundreds of UCSC students who clog the breaks between classes.
Suggest stop trying to defend the low ground, and put those energies into improving your board selection.
You want a highly functional mid length floaty fishy swallowtail, go see Ward Coffey, he does a damn fine job of it.
lcc makes some good points. Why anyone in or near SC would buy a 7s is beyond me. So many choices from top-notch shapers. And no, I’m not talking about ‘shop’ boards by Merrick, …lost, etc.
Costco sells surf boards…Why not WalMart and Target?..
I’m with SD Repaiarman…feel free to crush the rails and deck while surfing…call me later …I’ll help you fix it…
I really miss the FCS plugs…my backyard ding repair thing is nothing without cheap products and China surfboards…fixing low grade stuff every week…Good side money.
7S+ = Cheap China crap…I’ve been told the boards surf great!! …so surf…go surf.
Long time hybrid fish fan (started riding the design in '93). I rode the 7S once when doing a repair for someone and the board was what I had in my car when a spontaneous session broke out.
IMO - This is a ho-hum board AT BEST. The materials are poor. What I think you like about this board is the design concept. If you were to take this concept to ANY experienced board builder in SC, you will get a MUCH better board in ride and quality. When you get the replacement, keep the 7S (no need to trade it in when you see the $ they will give), and break it out again after a couple of months. After riding again, I bet it will become the beater you give to your cousin Fred from Wyoming to demolish in the shore-break when they come to visit!! 
no one owes anyone a living. if ya cant understand that then you shouldnt be in business. marketing your product by slagging the opposition is a fools erand in business. you market your product on its merits and if it merits meet up to consumer demand then you have a product worth selling . if you cant make a living out of what your doing either you are unlucky. or just not good enough at running a business.
In theory, yes. However, the majority of surfboard buyers are sheeple or just plain uninformed. (See the recent Shaun Tomson “fish” post, for instance.)
So much snake oil, false claims, misleading info and advertising permeates the surfboard market that Joe consumer has no idea what they’re getting and what makes it work, or not.
Just look at all the Chinese garbage that’s flooded the market in recent years, including those ripoffs of once respected surfboard labels. There was a time when owning a Canyon or Natural Progression was a fair bet that your board was built by surfers who knew their stuff. Now, they are made in China by folks who’ve probably never even seen the ocean.
you guys answer your own questions. most of your market are clones. so dont cast your pearls before the swine. you have a limited market aint nothing gunna change that.
its pointless. make money elsewhere and make boards for fun or what ever other reason. go surfing man
i actually dont buy mags, watch competitions or hang out with other surfers or care what anyone is riding as long as they are not riding near me.
all surfboard factories suck.
make your own boards and be done with it
7s is a surfboard . it floats. whatever man!!!
Same for me. Surfers are boring, for the most part.
i rekon that as well . i know a handful over 30 years that i dont want to punch
;0
Some of my friends are surfers. I don’t hold that against them, though.
I was living in Galicia (Spain) for a year and couln’t bring a board with me so I had to buy one off the rack in a shop there. The only thing they had that was bigger than 6’2" and 2 1/4" thick was a 7S (PIECE OF SHIT) ‘superfish’ - It had far too little rocker for the tank that it was, it was just a bad design, maybe 6’8" tri fin (fish?) and flat with a parallel outline. In addition to being unhuman 3rd world slave labor SHIT it was just a bad design - dunno where they stole the design from or what but it was just BAD.
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Garry Loveridge from Australia did.