Big Guy Fish

General Discussion
1

I am a newcomer to the site but I have been looking at it for some time now.

I am about to begin building a retro fish. i am about 6’4" and 260 pounds. A competent longboarder. A much less competent shortboarder. Also I am looking for a board to ride in both socal beachbreaks and point break surf. I assume the board i’m looking to build should be quite large.

I purchased a clarke 6’9"A blank with natural rocker from foam ez. the problem is don’t quite know what dimension board would be good for me. i have pretty much always surfer longboards in the ten foot range (but i do have a 9 footer and a 7’8" big guy shortboard which I surf with limited success)

I’m planning on keeping the rails on the fish somewhat non aggressive and the two fins set back parallel to the stringer.

If anyone could help with the dimensions it would be great. I’m planning on not removing too much material from the blank because I fear the blank becoming too small.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Particularly about dimensions, fin placement and rail shape for my size and intended surfing applications.

Thanks

2

It does not compute… If you have, at best, “limited success” on your big guy shortboard that’s 7’8", how the heck will you do better on a board that’s more than a foot shorter?

I’m 6’6" 235 lbs and recently made a 7’0" tri-fin that is fun when the waves are small, clean and stand up nicely. My regular board is a 7’10" x 20" round pin single fin that I’ve ridden for almost 5 years. On the last town swell I took out the small board to Tonggs. Sets were head high to a little overhead; the small board wouldn’t work for beans. I could take off okay, but it just wasn’t there on the wave, I was kook-ing all over. Embarrassed myself. The 7’10" would have been much more comfortable.

I think you’ve gone over the edge and would return the blank for something closer to your present “short” board. If you’re building them yourself, you’ll not spend too much, and you will have something with a much better chance of working. Meantime, use the 7’8" until you get used to it; only after that go shorter.

3

Make a 6ft6 Big guy fish, if it where me i would go a 6ft4 or less but if u have trouble on a 7ft something maybe the 6’6" would be a good idea.

Maybe 6ft6’ 22’ 2 3’’ if your not so competent try using a ‘soft rail’ to help you push through turns with ease, a harder rail will be more responsive but go for the soft.

Are you going to use Glass on or removable fins?

Josh.

PS… if you really want you could try a 6ft8.

4

I think glass ons. I’ve heard issues about removable fins having problems on fishes.

One of the guys at a local surfshop by me told me that they stopped putting removeable fins into thier fishes because they would get ripped out.

I guess the torsional load was too much on heavy turns. It seems a little hard to believe. I mean hi performance shortboard have removable fins.

Either way I like the look of glass on fins particularly because I am going for an old school aesthetic.

5

It’s all good. me and the fellas are actually making a few boards. The fish was the one we had no templates or info for. We are also looking to make a 10 ft LB and a 7’4" hybrid.

I have heard that fishes were generally ridden 4 to 6 inches shorter that a shortboard. The 6’9" blank just seemed to have more material in the middle and considerably more width in the center than longer corresponding blanks. All around this blank seemed to have a lot of volume which I was hoping would make up for the lack of length.

Ultimately if I don’t like the board I will give it to one of my buddies. I am the largest of the group.