I am glad I found your blog again since your original blog went down at some point. Back in 2012 I purchased a used Semi-trad fish for 300 EUR here in Cologne, Germany. I was super broke back then and really wanted this board since I was super into fishes and mini-Simmons' at the time. My girlfriend (now wife) wasn't pleased by the idea (because of the 'broke factor'), so I borrowed 300 bucks from a close friend to buy it. Fast forward to the following summer which we've always spent in Southwest France (Landes) and stayed for 3-5 months. Guess who's been loving the board most >> haha, my girlfriend, now wife. I also surfed it a ton but got it wrong in the first years as I was miseducated about fishes in general and mainly used it as my "small-wave-board". A couple years ago I discovered the story of the fish and how it was used to tackle super steep waves by kneeboarders etc. with the "double-pin" design. I was still too much into shortboards to really give it a go. Last summer my asym and my shortboard both were heavily dinged and I resorted to the idea of surfing the fish exclusively in EVERYTHING. The theory totally held up. I surfed everything from waist high mushburgers to easily one and a half to two times me low-tide fright trains. The board simply delivered! Gets me into waves early and just flies!
For reference: It's 6'0 x 22 x 3, I'm 2m tall and weigh around 90 kg.
Here's the board, you originally made it for a guy named Roman: https://www.soul-surfers.de/wp-content/uploads/IMG_20120831_174443.jpg
I just wanted to share this story with you as the board is still going strong and will (hopefully) accompany me and my family to Portugal this winter and definitely to France next summer.
Thanks for making boards that work, thanks for that beautiful blog of yours and all the best from Cologne, Germany,
Hey Rob,
ReplyDeleteI am glad I found your blog again since your original blog went down at some point.
Back in 2012 I purchased a used Semi-trad fish for 300 EUR here in Cologne, Germany.
I was super broke back then and really wanted this board since I was super into fishes and mini-Simmons' at the time. My girlfriend (now wife) wasn't pleased by the idea (because of the 'broke factor'), so I borrowed 300 bucks from a close friend to buy it. Fast forward to the following summer which we've always spent in Southwest France (Landes) and stayed for 3-5 months. Guess who's been loving the board most >> haha, my girlfriend, now wife.
I also surfed it a ton but got it wrong in the first years as I was miseducated about fishes in general and mainly used it as my "small-wave-board". A couple years ago I discovered the story of the fish and how it was used to tackle super steep waves by kneeboarders etc. with the "double-pin" design. I was still too much into shortboards to really give it a go.
Last summer my asym and my shortboard both were heavily dinged and I resorted to the idea of surfing the fish exclusively in EVERYTHING. The theory totally held up. I surfed everything from waist high mushburgers to easily one and a half to two times me low-tide fright trains. The board simply delivered! Gets me into waves early and just flies!
For reference: It's 6'0 x 22 x 3, I'm 2m tall and weigh around 90 kg.
Here's the board, you originally made it for a guy named Roman: https://www.soul-surfers.de/wp-content/uploads/IMG_20120831_174443.jpg
I just wanted to share this story with you as the board is still going strong and will (hopefully) accompany me and my family to Portugal this winter and definitely to France next summer.
Thanks for making boards that work, thanks for that beautiful blog of yours and all the best from Cologne, Germany,
Till