Saturday, May 17, 2008

A fistful of rides later...



We have a winner! This JHall Mini-fish Simmons quad is one of my top two fishes ridden, ever. I rode it for a bit with bamboo 101 fin co. lb1/4 template fins. Looked killer but too much rake in those fins for a board with so much true fishiness. Sticky. Threw turbo speedialers in and the top end potential that I could sense was there really emerged.

This board does the traditional fish thing extremely well while adding a ton of man-mover-ability. I'm a sucker for the smooth, lateral surfing of a Lis style keel. Unfortunately I don't live in front of a right point break so compromise is required in my board choices. Either go "pure " (smooth entry, spit-hot speed, smooth full rail turning, you know- small kine glide) , and adjust in the beachbreak, or find boards that retain purity but allow a little more spontaneous surfing in the beachy. This board fits the bill. As you might imagine it lights up like my someday solar panels at a good clean reef or point.

Wave entry= Frye-esque smoothness.
Frontside bottom turn= silk sheet smooth with a bit of lift added by bottom contours and fins.
Lateral swoop and glide speed runs= fast, controlled, fast. Fast.
In the lip= responsive fluidity.
Vertical surfing= really? It's a fish you know. So no WCT spazz outs, but it does it's thing without hesitation.

Sophisto-Tech Fish Surfingboard Dynamic Function Calibration Chart

Lis/Frye classic keel ---------------------------------------- Pavel Speedialer
^
JHall MiniSimmonsQuad
Splitting the difference nicely

I rode a Frye Keel today at the overcrowded beachbreak down the hill from TritonVille. I found a few lined up beauties. It was fun and smooth. I must admit, I was wishing I had brought out this little quad. Like I said, we have a winner!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i know this is an old post but hoping you might respond - wondered if it's still a favourite of yours - also - what size/dims was/is yours -
thanks!!

andrew said...

Yes, still a favorite. 5'8 x 21ish x 2 1/2 ish. Turbo fins make it fly down the line.

Anonymous said...

thanks a lot! appreciate you taking the time.