An Ongoing Experiment: The Fish Frye
The Big Sun Fish Frye. Introducing the first experiment in our new Mt Maunganui factory. An ode to the San Diego Fish, Steve Lis, Skip Frye and the Litmas fish. We explored three different lengths blending our own outlines, rail and bottom templates.
The Big Sun 5’8 Omanu Fish. Our take on the original fish. 5’8 x 22’ x 3’@38L. This is a small board with a lot hidden in the trunk. Super refined nose, tail and rails. The rail entry is 50/50 giving it a slight hully feel, then the rail turns down to a sharp edge out the business end. A classic single to double concave paired with the litmus influenced 5’ inch keel and 7’5 inch base.
Then we have the Skip Hull. A wide surface area midlength with a hull entry. 7’2 x 22’ x 2’1/2 &45L. Details include 50/50 rails into a sharp down rail. A hull to double concave vee out the business end.
Finally the Long Fish 9’2 x 23’ x 3’. A big board appropriating a lot of elements from our Maunganui Chip but a wider fish tail and our classic 5' inch keels.
So far the fishing has been good. We took the Omanu Fish to Bali and tested it in big and small. We had the goal of stuffing a big board into a little board in order to orientate surfing towards upright surfing - feet together and hips forward - like midlength and big board surfing. All the speed and manuverability was there and initially I kept defaulting into short board surfing and trying to overpower the fish with a a wide stance and too much pumping. Once I learnt to relax and let the board and the wave do the work things really started to click. Less is more. The Omanu Fish proved popular and to minimise an oversized baggage fee (we were stung $700 on the way over) a lucky local purchased it and the board now lives at Times Warung. I'll be shaping myself a fresh one with a slight asymm in the tail as soon as I get these summer orders under control.
Returning to NZ we were lucky enough to roll straight into a swell and our favourite right hand point - a.k.a the Blowhole - was full of sand and breaking well. Perfect testing for the Skip Hull. Again all the speed was there. The wide surface area proved a challange to transition from rail to rail but when you found the right line you could certaily push as hard as you wanted and it gave back with more than expected.
The Long Fish we've only tested in small stuff. The keels release differently to a 10.5' inch sinle fin so that was the first difference. The wide flat exit felt good though. It had a sweet spot and the board zoomed out from me on a cut back once which was a pleasent surprise, although must have looked very kooky. It trimmed well.
Looking forward to trying both the Skip Hull and the Long Fish out in bigger and cleaner surf. We will keep you posted.
Happy sliding.
