Surfing Waves

Whats Better For Small Wave Surfing?

I have never ridden a fish so dont know a lot about them, only from the obvious stuff you read about them - good on small waves, 2 fins, short + wide boards, turn easier.

But I know how easy it is to catch small waves on longboards, but recently have been reading surfers quivers in magazines and most of them say they have a fish for small days.

a fish fits in your car, and you dont look a wally trying to carry it to the sea on days when its blowing a gale
Actually i was out on my thruster last week when it was really small and some longboarder made a snide comment to me as i paddled out about my board being too small for the conditions, i went on to have a great time catching a ton of waves while he sat outside and caught next to nothing. i think its more about the type fo waves youll be surfing than the size, id take a fish on small fast waves, but on a slow peeling point break a longboard will be more useful.

Cool, good points made. Funny enough me and my friend went out last week and my friend on his 6'10 thruster asked one of the women who was coming back from surfing on a foamie longboard 'what the surf was like'. She said "its a bit lumpy" , and looked at his board and added "ooo you will have fun on that" and laughed.

When we got out we had an awsome time catching these small choppy waves.

I thought fishes looked a bit gay and that I'd never get one.

But after reading about Wishkids board and other forums about fishes, I'm seriously tempted to get one

Even though I'll look gay

Due to their flat rockers and relatively high volume retro fishes take off really early, ie on much less steep sections of waves and they continue to make these types of sections really well., due to thier ability to carry speed. Where they aren't so good is when the surf is steep due to the twin keel set-up. They tend not to be able to utilise the power of the wave so well as the twin fins don't get as good a drive as say a thruster set-up would. Hence you can find yourself under gunned and running out of wave real quick.
Oh and their hilariously funny to ride, they just make you laugh and i think this is perhaps more of a reason as to why people are riding them, not because there that much better, there just more fun! But they do seem to catch everything, whether or not you can ride it weel is another matter! I love falling off mine!

KS

Fishes and longboards - both dead easy to catch weakish waves on.

Where a longboard is best is where waves are weak/mellow due to the beach - so you've got a long wave which you can catch way out back and ride for ages.

A fish, on the other hand, wont catch a wave so early and is best for weak days (rather than mellow breaks) so you get a shortish ride (compared to a longboard) but you can catch the waves and pull maneouvres that you'd struggle to do with a shortboard.

So, if you want to surf a shortboard break on weak days, get a fish, but if you want to surf a mellow longboard break, get an... er... longboard

I have a longboard and a fish, as has been said the longboard is best for gutless waves, the fish for small days at a decent break. Saying that I have seen Carwyn WIlliams ripping up a solid 8ft hossegor on a fish.

drowningbitbybit wrote:but if you want to surf a mellow longboard break, get an... er... longboard

you were dieing to say fish then wern't you lol


thanks for the replies guys

So just to sum things up, Fish's are:

easy to paddle with as they are wide?
easy to catch waves with?
easy for turning?

get a longboard, there great fun and you can catch any thing on them even 6inch ripples

Laguna wrote:So just to sum things up, Fish's are:

easy to paddle with as they are wide?
easy to catch waves with?
easy for turning?

Thats all more or less true, but one thing people dont seem to realise is that while a fish will fly off a small wave, it'll also lose its speed really quickly.

So you either have to surf like a whippet on speed (pumppumpturnpumpturn) or you get real short rides. You can make it over crumbly sections etc but if the wave is really gutless often all you'll get is the take-off and one turn (maybe).

Still ridiculously fun though

drowningbitbybit wrote:
So you either have to surf like a whippet on speed (pumppumpturnpumpturn) or you get real short rides. You can make it over crumbly sections etc but if the wave is really gutless often all you'll get is the take-off and one turn (maybe).

all the more reason to get a longboard then

Phil wrote:all the more reason to get a longboard then

Thats kinda what I meant but couldnt quite bring myself to say it

a fish is more manuverable but if you get the right longboard you can learn to chuck it about