Fish Quest, Part I

I've decided to add a fish to my current 3-board quiver (5'8" Xanadu Rocky, 7'2" Becker Supermodel, 8'0" Cobalt Fusion). Summer's almost here and with it smaller waves, but after committing myself to the shortboard I hate to go back to lugging around the longboard - especially since it's too big to bring through the secure doors of my work building when I'm surfing on weekdays. But mainly I really need to increase my wave count; I'm so stoke depleted I almost can't remember what it feels like.

Plus Al Merrick says I should have 4 boards.

So today I visited 3 surf shops in the City, with patient S in tow (a margarita at lunch helped with his patience). Being unsure just what fish to get, I told the friendly salesguy at Wise my surfing background. Oh, and that I want an epoxy board. That kinda stopped him, since he said they don't carry many anymore, as they're falling out of favor. Perhaps I'm just not enough of a board snob, but I prefer them over fiberglass. At any rate, he grabbed a catalog and suggested I look elsewhere for an M10 Hogfish or a Randy French Soulfish, maybe around 6'0".

I dunno, getting a longer board seems like going backwards, especially as the web advice I've seen says a fish should be shorter than your shortboard, even 8" shorter (5'0"), or about your height (5'3"). M says that only applies to people who rip, which I obviously don't. And N said if I go that short I might as well just get a boogie board! No matter, no one seems to sell fish that short, but I think I'd like to go maybe at least a couple inches shorter than the Xanadu.

Mollusk didn't have anything that looked promising, a lot of boards with glassed-on fins, no thanks. And the salesguys didn't even bother to come out from behind the counter much less talk to me or the other (potential) customer, so that was a quick stop. Aqua was having a swap meet and there was a used Xanadu Rocket Fish that might have worked, but it was all white, too boring. I didn't see what I'm vaguely looking for inside the store, but the nice salesguy gave me a bar of Sticky Bumps free (maybe because he thought I was cute or maybe because he was busy entertaining a toddler, I don't know).

The search continues next weekend in Santa Cruz.