Surftech 6'6" Randy French fish (surftech house brand) tons of float, quick, manuverable, easy to paddle so you can surf all day (if you can get away with it). Just a nice fun all around board. It's a bit of a fish short board hybrid so it doesn't have the retro fish tail on it, that said the tails plenty wide and there's still good volume forward.

The best part of the surftech's is because they use a differnt foam and resin = lighter boards they don't really get that thick and give more float per volume than any poly board I've used

LENGTH: 6'6" 198.12 cm
NOSE: 15.38" 39.05 cm
MID: 21.00" 53.34 cm
TAIL: 15.38" 39.05 cm
THICK: 2.50" 6.35 cm
FINS: FUTURE

There's a couple of more retro fish in there that look like fun too
www.surftech.com

I got the 6'3" byrne surftech mullet fish for a fish board- and put the MR fcs fins in it for drive and a loose tail- (it is too wide to rail to rail turn, so has to turn off the tail).

It is good for any mushy or fat surf- once it gets steep and sucky it is too wide to hold a rail. I'm 88 kgs 6 foot, and it floats me really well- you would be able to paddle it into anthing at 75 kgs.

For something not as wide the surftech bushman 6'3" does the same thing but being narrower has more rail to rail ability.

Surftech does rental boards- so you can try it and see if you like it first.

The website that crazy canuk posted has all the surftechs- search by shaper- I would suggest one of these;
the byrne mullet fish 6'3", the bushman 6'3" pancho sullivan or the weber afterburner 6'2" (arranged from most fish to less fish shaped).

If you want to go really fishy try the m10 hogfish 6'2".

hope this helps...

why is the fish shape making a comeback and clearly so popular?

Personally if i were you i would pick a local shaper to make my board, go to his workshop and talk his head off about my style of surfing, what waves i plan to surf where i will surf etc etc etc and develop a design with him.

Generic off the rack boards are fine but there is nothing like the feel of a hand crafted custom board suited to you, for where you will surf the most.

the hype for the surf-tech boards is that each shaper makes up to 10 versions of his boards- tries them out, and then decides which one will be the template for the final epoxy board.

They are infinitely reproduceable- if you lose your "magic board" you go buy another exactly the same. You can even leave them at home- fly to Bali- and rent the exact same board there- surf it- without the excess baggage etc.

I'm loving mine-after 15+ yrs on traditional shaped boards through different local shapers with very variable results, I prefer the reproduceability and range of the epoxies.

Downside is the expense, and they "feel" different underfoot to the polyester boards- less flex, and don't transit as much vibration through them- they feel a bit less "alive" (don't know how to explain this one) getting onto them from the polyesters.

My 2 cents....

The expense of a Surftech is accounted for in there ability to outlast a Poly board. The construction technique used with Surftech is superior to the way a polyester board is made and there for last longer and handle abuse better. That said you still can damage them but it hurt me more then it hurt the board

As for the fact that they feel different under foot you can try out the New "TL2" board that they make it with the same core but they changed the way they put them together to make them feel more like a traditional poly board.

Sorry for pimping Surftech so hard I just really like them and that’s all I’ve bought other then my first Polyester board that I learned on (and traded in for my first surf tech) and my hand shaped Takeama Mal (which I got second hand and snapped last month opps).

Hey Joe Question on Bali. What boards and where can you rent them Bali. My girlfriend and I are thinking of heading up there around the end of Aug to go surfing.

hi crazy- the site for surftech rental is www.surftechrental.com- this is for the gold coast- try before you buy..

for bali- the guy to email is darryl at o and e coolangatta- [email protected]
he put me onto the idea of leaving the boards at home for bali.

Like blaster said -the webber fish are pretty sick- I'm going to go rent one of the 6'4" afterburner webbers soon- I can't decide to get the 6'4" or the 6'6".

I am resisting going to 6'6" because it means i'm getting old and lazy; a paddle board is only a few steps further down that road!

I'll let you know expenses/experiences involved with renting one of these boards

I saw that surftech has it's own strapped pads for surfboards

http://shop.surftech.com/product_p/stpd-0002-psa-black-fslash-gray.htmboards-

they look pretty sweet.