A Weekend with the Clownfish

Last Thursday, while the surf was apparently real good around these parts, I took the day to put the final touches on the Clownfish. Sanded the hotcoat, then glossed and polished her.

Rode her for the first time on Friday morning. Started out using the Ichiro Twinfins pictured. Wasn't quite right. After two waves, I came in and put some Doc Keels in, centered in the boxes. Board worked pretty well after that. Surf was fun, chest to shoulder high and clean. A little on the mushy side but definetaly not a bad day to give a new board a go.

Saturday the surf was real good. Solid shoulder high, sometimes bigger, just peeling perfectly with the Santa Ana winds. For about 1 hour, it was pretty much as good as it gets at that break in that size range. I pushed the doc Keels all the way forward in the box, and boy did that do the trick. The board worked great and I never wished I was on a different board during that session. No pics from Saturday, as everyone was surfing.

Sunday the surf dropped a bit, but still pretty fun if you were lucky and got the right one. I tried the Rusty Keel template pushed all the way forward. It went OK, but not quite as well at the fuller templated Doc Keel.

Overall, this experiment has been fun. Definately not a typcial shape, and finding the right fins with the right placement is a challenge. It's definately not a twinfin. The Keels work way better. I'm presently waiting to get my Bamboo CI template Keels back from Marlin. I think they are going to light the board up. In comparison to a typical Keel fish without the stinger type wing, I would say that it draws a tighter arc, but isn't quite as smooth when carving. I feel I'm able to get further around and more vertical when hitting the foamball on a cutback. I find that I have to work the board a little harder to get the same speed as a keel. It's all a trade-off, but so far, I like the design. And the kids and parents dig it too. So many kids on the beach and in the water over the weekend due to the warm weather. They were all stocked on the Clownfish. Both my boys got to catch a few waves on it also.

Any flaws in the board, and there are some, are all my fault. I completed this board from start to finish, save the finboxes. Thanks to JJR for putting the LOKBOXes in for me on a Sunday.

Also thanks to Tom English at www.alohawealth.com for taking the photos. Check out more photos of the three days on his website. Just click photography up in the right corner.