I have been developing my fish designs over the past 18 years or so, out of a deep personal feeling for this beautiful shape. The fish can be blended into many variations, which I am still customizing for each personal order, by hand.
There have been a few people I have had as major influences while developing this shape. The first is Steve Lis who without we would have not had this great outline. Many thanks to him for his intuition in first developing the fish. Skip Frye was integral in the fish resurgence as he shaped a couple for Derek Hynd in the early nineties shown in Andrew Kidman’s film Litmus. This set forth the revival of the fish and many other ideas and ideals within surfing culture.
The snowsurf genius of Dimitrije Milovich was very influential for me in as far as the sidecut I use throughout the tail section of my fish. The further influence of snowsurfing came through in some of my flextail designs of which George Greenough also greatly influenced.
I would not be where I am at today without first acknowledging these four major designers. Many thanks for their visions
My fish today are a mix of traditional and modern concepts from outline to profiles to fin choice.
Construction wise I personally ride EPS/epoxy though I still do polyurethane construction if this is your preference.
EPS/epoxy fish come as a basic clear fish with either a 1/8 or a 1/4 cedar stringer. This provides a clean simple look to my boards.
Clear or coloured are available in my PU range tints or pigments the choice is yours.
As for fin set ups I do either set wood twin keels or the Futures plug system in either 4 fin or the now popular 5 fin set up, which allows for either a quad or tri fin board.
Thankyou for taking the time to check out my site.
Michael Mackie