First Impressions: 9fish Surfboards Fugu 6′4
Posted on December 19, 2009 by Srinivas Rao
Dimensions: 3″ Thick, 22″ Wide and 16″ Nose and tail
The first time I ever attempted to ride a shortboard I literally thought I’d never bother again. I wrote it off as having to learn the sport all over again and said to hell with it. When I contacted Sunny at 9Fish Surfboards about reviewing one of their boards here at Stoked for Life, he suggested their 9fish 6’4 Fugu because the longer board was unavailable for demo.
Needless to say as a somebody who has been riding longboards, I didn’t really think it was appropriate for me to even attempt to review a shortboard. I thought I’d struggle like hell with it and not be able to give a legit review. But Sunny assured me that plenty of his customers had transitioned from the longboard down to this fish and that I’d have no issues with it, given the amount of time I’ve spent in the water.
When I first saw the board, I thought I was looking at the kind of adjustment that would take a solid week or two of surfing on this board every single day. Surprisingly after about 20 minutes in the water I felt comfortable on the board. Paddling on this board was actually a breeze in comparison to some of the potato chips I’d been on in the past. The dimensions of this board make it quite buoyant and for that reason an excellent transition board for anybody looking to make the switch from a long to a shortboard. Until I tried this board I really didn’t ever think I would move to a short board for at least another year or two. Surprisingly after 2-3 waves I sort of had the hang of the board.
Unfortunately the overall conditions were pretty flat and the wave count was somewhat low, not giving me enough experience to write about the the responsiveness of the board on a wave. So there will definitely be a second part to this review. But, I will say this. If you are a long boarder who thinks that short boarding seems impossible, this 9fish 6’4 Fugu will be a nice surprise when you paddle out on it for the first time.
Comments (2)
I wanna hear how it duck dives too.
Haven’t ever ridden a fish, but I do switch back and forth between short and long boards. Basically, short boards aren’t any harder to _ride_. But you have to nail the popup. You don’t get a chance to shuffle around a bit like on a longboard. If you don’t nail it, you’re going down.
If you do nail the popup, shortboards are a blast. I have 6/6 Merrick round pin that sucks way up into steep faces, stuff that spits away a longboard.
Here’s the funny thing about short boards: you can get yourself a lot more time at the lip on steep stuff than you can with long boards. You’re way further back in the wave.
Looking forward to your next review.
@Dave: Thanks for the feedback. I definitely will have to push my skills on the shortboard a bit more. As far as duck diving the wave count was kind of pathetic so I didn’t get enough chance to attempt it. But, I really liked it. Fish seems like a great way to transition to a short board.