Fish to replace shortboard

[sebastiansurfer]

Moving to Gulf Coast and only recieve maybe 5 days of surf a month during the winter but swells from the hurricanes are great.
My 5'11 is surfable but doesnt keep pace with the small crummy waves, and I loved this chunk of a board I borrowed so possibly get one shaped as follows

5'5x19.75 or low 20's x maybe 2 3/8? nice full outline but with a narrower tail for some fun

I am only 5'8 and weigh 145 lbs. athletic and been surfing 2+ years
should this be sufficient? never had a board shaped before

[sebastiansurfer]

no opinions out there?

[IB_Surfer]

Not sure, a fish is usually ordered 5 inches shorter than your shortboard, but that is to allow for the same feel with better paddle. Should be sufficient for small waves but if you get anything under waist high it might still be kind of hard to catch those. No matter what, a fish will be 100% better at catching small waves than a shortboard. If you want a board that will catch tiny waves get it the same length as your shortboard, it will feel like a longboard in small waves...

[sebastiansurfer]

Thats why i was thinking maybe a 5'6-5'8 but if I go with an older fish style I would think I could pull off a 5'6. On the other hand I could get more of a modern design like a biscut and have it tweaked for the mushy stuff. You think a 5'8ish with a wider outline and 2 3/4+ thickness would do better?
My shortboard is 5'11x19x2.25 so it does have some decent volume