Evening Session - 8/11/2026

The wind was a little up and down this afternoon - at least that is my excuse for going surfing!

The surf was pretty good!

Nice high tide.  And some wind - actually enough to parawing with a 5.0+

This is the real reason I wanted to go surfing - getting to know this board more.

I switched out the twin fins to the Futures Rasta Vector 3/2 - and they worked really well!

I still couldn't replicate the over-rotated top turn that I can do on the Boogie Fish with the Futures K2 keels, but these felt much nicer turning

I caught multiple waves (an easy thing to do on this board), and three of them were long rides with several great turns.

I think the prudent thing to do is use this board with the Rasta fins but no canards - that way I can tell what the canards are doing.

The wind is supposed to be a notch stronger tomorrow...

PF:11/W:3/PW:92/FD:58/S:22

The Anointment of the J. Splee Big Fish

The anointment of the J.Splee Big Fish I custom ordered from JC Matthews occurred at this morning's dawn patrol

There was a really thick layer of clouds - which dampened the wind.

And if you were patient, there were waves (and if you were smart and sat inside, there were plenty of good waves to get onto).

Before leaving the truck, I swapped out the 0 degree canards for the 4 degree set.  I felt opening the gap  between the canard and the main fin would accentuate the twinzer feel, and serve as a good baseline before going into full fin testing mode.

This board paddles into waves easily, felt balanced, and was on the upper limit of me being able to duck dive it.  I asked for a durable glass job - and I can tell by the weight it's there.  I prefer my surfboards to have more glass than less - I feel you can build momentum and it smoothes out the ride.

I had about 10 rides in just over an hour.  And as you would think, the more waves I caught, and the more I rode the board, I was feeling the board out for how it wanted input in order to maximize energy extraction from the wave.

My last few waves were pretty darn good - lots of turns and really long.  That's mostly due to the wave been good shape and the tide supporting the breaking - but the board certainly played its part.

I really like the feel setting into a bottom turn - generates speed going through the turn.  I didn't quite figure out the top turns, especially having a mental image of what I normally get out of the Boogie Fish.  The DNA is there - but this being almost two feet more board, there is physics that needs to be worked out in order to find the "over-rotation" ability that the Boogie Fish has.  I think I'll swap out the TW1 fins for the TA High Pro twins next and see if the smaller fins open up that top turn.

The second to the last wave, I was riding in front of Dennis who was paddling out his Foil Drive setup - he had a front row seat to the turning capacity of the Big Fish.

This is going to be another great partner in the quiver!

PF:11/W:3/PW:91/FD:58/S:21