To get a fish or not

[still-learning]

Hi Guys,

I have been surfing a beach break for 5 and a half months now. I surf a 6.8 x 20.5 x 2 5/8 thruster short board. I am 5.10 and weigh 175 lbs. I surf regularly (3 or 4 times a week) and am able to ride the green face an do simple turns etc

I met a chap that is selling his "fish" for dirt cheap and i was wondering if i should get it. It is a 6.10 x 21 1/4 x 2 5/8.

Would surfing it offer me any assistance in my development? here is a pic of the board and it's general shape (not the best pic i know)

fish.jpg (20.96 KiB) Viewed 948 times

let me know your thoughts etc...going to view it in the next 90 mins.

Thanks

ps: after looking at the pic again...it doesn't really resemble a "normal" fish...more like a hybrid of sorts with a swallow tail ...or what? if so is it even worth getting?

[still-learning]

fish 2.jpg (20.83 KiB) Viewed 944 times

here is a view of the bottom deck...let me know what you guys think.

Thanks

[drowningbitbybit]

I reckon that'd be a step backwards compared to what you're surfing now. It's got loads of volume so would catch waves easily, but it looks more like a mini-mal with some fishy bits rather than a fish to me.

If it's dirt cheap, then yeah add it to your quiver for really small days, but as a replacement for what you're on now? No.

[still-learning]

Hey DBBB, yeah i was thinking the same.... had a look at it yesterday, needs a few dings repaired etc and some of the pressure dings are rather large (apparently it happened in transit to Indo when the chap's luggage got re-routed to China by mistake!). I was planning on adding a Mini-Mal to my quiver for small / weak days during the summer but am hoping that by then my surfing would have improved a bit for me to start messing around with a true fish which i can use then for the small days. So, do i wait for a nice 7.4 / 7.6 mini-mal to become available and get that (or wait for summer to come and assess my skill level to decide between the mal and a true fish) or do i take this board that does not have that much more volume than my current board (or at least i think it isn't that much more)?

Better yet hopefully get a mal and fish! Provided i can get the idea past my missus!!

Thanks for the advice!