Whale-of-a-Fish

General Discussion
1

Turning the corner with the completion of the “Born again Brewer gun” , I was looking for a new challenge to partake. I had the pleasure of meeting Neal Norris (owner and shaper from Wailuku Maui Valley Isle Surfboards at La Jolla Shores last weekend. I told him about my next project that I was brain-storming Whale-of-a-fish and that I had special ordered a blank with those ideas incorporated. The basic guidelines that I was looking for is:

  • A fish big enough for a 250 lb person
  • Around 8-0
  • I wanted to bring flared stringers out to each end of the fish tail
  • Stringers are redwood with blue glue
  • Added 2 ea. ½ blue foam strips to each side of the center stringer (to add to the art and working width)
  • Looking at a Quad fin configuration

Neal talked with me and shared some pointers that he uses with his Koi (fish) surfboards (http://www.valleyislesurfboards.com).

Gotta love ya Keith, he suggested that I call it Boston (as in Boston Whaler) ha ha.

Now to find a good template or at least a general direction toward one. I plan to bring it down to the Halloween Shape-A-Thon at Keith’s (depends on the kitchen pass).

The blank was received with a 1/4 in. wide, 1 in. deep and 1 1/2 in. long gouge on the bottom near the flared stringer. I was thinking of the foam plug/resin idea to fix the gouge.

<>Attached are a couple of pic’s of the ordered blank.

JohnF

2

Hey John, since you can work on it for Halloween, (and it has a big gouge in the bottom anyway) how about turning it around and making the world’s scariest pickle fork board???

Imagine those redwood points coming down the line at you!

Talk about yer crowd pleaser!

3

since you went with a clark you should try a 7’9E with the stringer glued in reverse(shape it backwards). their great blanks…i’ve used a bunch for the adult sizes. since the lazer zap thread started, i’ve been obsessing on a new project using one.

4

… I just wondered at what approximate length and width does a “fish” cease to be a “fish” ?

All the 18yos around here seem to think any thruster under 6’ and over 18 1/4 " wide [but, don’t go TOO wide … “mate , 20” wide ?? THAT’S a ‘kneeboard’, man !" ], can be called a “fish” !!!

They even call squashtail thrusters ‘fishes’ ?? …go figure! And the kids working in the surf shops don’t know any different. Some of our ‘surf mags’ here in oz say the same, adding to the confusion.

Now …we have an 8’ “fish” ???

Why not just call it a longboard, and stop fooling ourselves. [Don’t hear 6’ boards being called ‘mals’ often, do we ?? Except maybe by disrespectful or clueless 15yos on boogie boards , who think they own every wave.]

I’m sure Steve Lis would have had problems kneeboarding on an 8’ er, back in the late '60s, early 70s !

[From what I’ve read, they WERE kneeboards, after all…]

So , I have to figure… as well as the original 4 ’ 11s or whatever, they’d have to have been not unlike a stubbie’s planshape, but with parallelish rails from [our] hip down, a WIDE FISHTAIL [I always understood that was how they were given their name in the first place, right or wrong ?]. And , in america at least, twin keels ?

The only ‘fish’ I saw in the early to mid 70’s in Sydney were actually fin boxed single fin kneeboards…23" widths, approximately. Wide nosed, wide fish tails, fairly flat rocker, sometimes with a bit of nose flip…the Crozier comes to mind, for the Aussies on this site.

fish questions : -

today’s “fishes”… when do they revert to being “kneeboards” ? [at what sort of width ? shortness ? thickness ?]

when does a “stubbie” become a “kneeboard” ?

when [what size] does it become too long to be reasonably be called a " fish" ?

why not kneel on a ‘stubbie’ ?

why not stand up on a kneeboard ?

why not kneel on a “fish” today ?

why not also stand on a “fish” ? why not… [ah heck, just go surf , ben !]

                    "chip"
5

edit : -

to a person who rides 12-18’ boards, I guess an 8’er WOULD be a “fish” …

‘relative…chip’

6

“and the times they are a changin”…

Bob Dylan 1964
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I guess the lines are getting blurry , classifications change too , or maybe …

" you may say to yourself, how did I get here ? "

    David Byrne, talking heads
8

Hey MoonDoggy. I have a template you could use if you want…The template is 7’-11.75" long for a 17.875" nose, 23.375" wide point and 17.50" tail… this template was made for a board for a big guy who wanted a large fish type board,

I can bring it to Keiths Spooky Holloween Shape-A-thon. Here is pic of the outline templated on white paper so you can see what is looks like whole… let me know and I will bring it

Ben

9

Thank you, That looks like a great starting point. Hope I can make the event.

Let’s see… Skip Frye has a 11-0 and 12-0 fish that he does. A true Whaler! I have also seen a 11-0 Larry Gordon fish tail at Turmo. The beat goes on…

8-0 Pickle, too late, there is a guy out at Kaizer bowl that takes that place.

Later, JohnF

10

Herb Spitzer has a eight something fish in the photo archives. Mike

11

The “Fish” part of the name “Fish” comes not from the tail, but from the wide point being distinctly forward. In boatbuilding - everything from sailboats to kayaks - “fishform” is literally like the body of a fish - widest right behind the pectoral fins.

Applied to surfboards, it has nothing to do with length, tail shape, fin configuration…although I certainly agree that it means, de facto, a low-rocker, thick board a little shorter than its rider, with a wide swallow tail and a wide rounded nose.

12

Does anyone here have any photos of the La Jolla Surfboards double pintail (superboard?) It was a twin fin. Little paddles as I recall. The board supposedly inspired Steve Lis, or maybe that’s just urban legend. I remember seeing those double pintails up at the shop near Bird Rock, but I never saw one being ridden.

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the true fish…

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Quote:

the true fish…

That’s a kneeboard right? :-]

15

Although I’m not disputing what you’re saying, the problem with that definition is that practically all kneeboards have their wide part forward of the board’s midpoint, and the original Lis fish was a kneeboard. So that still does not answer the question, why was it called a “fish”?

Maybe it is an urban legend, but my understanding was that it was called a fish because that’s what it looks like when turned on its side. But that could just be a myth…

16

kneeboard? What’s a kneeboard?