How to surf a fish properly, and should I?

General Discussion
21

hey,

i’ve never surfed a fish.

i surf with my feet quite close together having always ridden single-fin boards from the late 60’s and 70’s.

even when i ride 60’s longboards i have my feet close together.

would this really affect my ability to ride a fish?

i am somewhere between 6’1 and 6’2 and weigh about 78kgs (no clue about pounds except that they’re worth over twice as much as an Australian dollar) and was considering making a fish at about 5’8".

i ride a lot of short singles like 5’7 and 5’9.

if i surf with my feet to close together i probably shouldn’t waste my time.

luke

who cares, i’ll try it anyway

22

hi Lucas !

i think derek hynd , riding his fish [plural] in the film “Litmus” [being one of THE newport plus single finners in the 70s] , has that single-fin-feet-close- together ,surf-off-the-tail style [me too] .

I noticed he stands toward the middle of the board [feet stiilll close together , and DEFINATELY gets speed and the highline happening at jeffreys [check that video cover photo …insane !!].

[ but then , I unfortunately am not in Derek’s league , when it comes to surfing anything in anything , the guy is amazing !]

But , I found that footage very helpful , [as is the "searching for tom curren stuff of tom at small j-bay] for giving me some good style tips / clues on surfing one standup .

I hope Craig makes you that fish mate .

…Also , try and have a talk to the OTHER ‘Luke’ here [surfs Cronulla] …he’s LOVING his fish [at least , he was , the last time I rang him . ] I really need to make him a pair of bigger fins for it too, like the ones Rolly [‘wood maven’ ] sent me …

I found that the twin keels were actually the part of the fish that took me a while to adjust to , as blakestah alluded to , they behaved differently [for me , anyway !] off the top , than a pair of twin fins …larger base , smaller depth .

okay , I hope this has helped in some way … !

cheers !

ben

23

Hi All,

Great Thread.

Ben speaking of Derek check out what this guys doing.

http://www.bushrat.com.au/page/fish_surfboards.html

I spoke to him last week & am trying to get up to NSW to order/collect

one the week after next - awesome looking fishes, timber keels,

bum cracks & nose blocks!!

The story goes that he ran into Derek in a surfshop in Sydney while he was showing the owner one of his flextails (check these out on his site)anyway

one thing led to another & Derek made a trip down to the South Coast

with 2 boards one that had Lis,Frye,Curran,Hynd written on it but was actually shaped by Rich Pavel.

After adding a few different designs to a big pot & stirring low & behold the Derek Hynd Model - looks mighty fine to me!!!

By the way his prices are good & he sounds like a hell of a nice guy to boot!!!

Ant

24

THANKS for that Ant ! [interesting site …WHERE are they located ?]

If only I’d known Derek was on the south coast with a 5’3 fish [I hope someone filmed him ?!]

I wonder if he would have tried the 4’11 that I made Dane , a mate’s son a few years ago now…

ben

25

Ben,

Glad u liked it he’s in Merimbula.

I reckon he makes some of the best looking true fishes l’ve seen

in all of Oz, along with probably SOUTHCOAST in Vicco.

Getting back to Derek there’s an article on him surfing the South Coast

in the latest Surfers Journal, l don’t know if its on a fish as my copy still

hasn’t arrived - maybe another lockian has seen / read it ???

What did you think of the flextails???

Ant

26

re : flextails …

mitchell rae [vicco] and mark rabbidge [bendalong] have been doing them for a while , as has michael mackie [ulladulla]…

27

What would be a good thickness for a 150lb person? I’m planning to shape my first fish as soon as I find a place to shape it. Like Dub Star I’m 5’10 150lbs. A 5’8 sounds good and I’m sure any width over 21 inches should work too. When riding a fish should the feeling be corky? Thanks,

Da Cheetah

28

Those Bushrats are sweet little fish. Hmm. Maybe I could push the wide point forward a bit on mine and go shorter. I wonder if this old sack of bones could ride it. Mike

29

hey Chip,

i surf a lot of boards from the middle with feet close together. it’s funny to watch when i try and surf a thruster. a couple of friends from Florida were surfing Stockton with me one day and we switched boards. Russell jumped on my 5’7 McCoy s-deck and i used his thruster (think it was Al Merrick) and the other two, Andy and Justin, laughed at both of us. Russell can ride singles, just not that one. they said that whenever i got up i had my back foot about 4" in front of the tailpad. and i wondered why they turned like dogs.

i do move my backfoot to cutback and the like, just for takeoffs and bottom turns i am forward, especially when going left (i’m goofy).

i am going to try and make it myself, though i’ll probably get Craig’s advice.

i too am not in Derek’s league.

luke

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