Xtreme Board's Fish

Met Gary from Xtreme Boards on Sunday and picked up two boards to test and demo. His 5’4” Fish and his Skate. I haven’t ridden them as yet, but found the design of the Fish rather interesting.

Currently, most of the ‘surfstyle’ board manufacturers use a very flat bottom, even though the majority of shortboard shapers are using a single to double concave bottom. The Xtreme Fish is shaped like most modern shortboards. A VERY pronounced single to double concave exiting through a diamond tail.

Theoretically, the single concave offers more surface area than a flat bottom, and so will speed a board up, but that additional area negatively affects turns, because you have more force to turn against, so…again theoretically, the shapers add a double concave at the tail to loosen things up.

This Fish would appear to be the truest to it's shortboard roots of all the surfstyle boards currently available.

Further, the board has a double wing. There is a substantial amount of theory as to why this works or doesn’t, but I think most users of a winged surfboard suggest it offers a more decided pivot point. So, my guess is that this board will offer a nice combo of drive and rail-to-rail responsiveness.

I can’t wait to give these boards a rip…and I’m impressed with the fact that the Xtreme boards aren’t just another “me too” offering.

(Message edited by surfdad on April 10, 2006)

can't wait to hear a report, the boards look pretty cool

Jeff, have you tried the Fish out yet? I have been looking at that board and really can't decide what board to buy. I have been looking at the inland surfers as well. I kinda wanted a board that will fit in my board racks.

Brannon

Hey Brannon, I'm running a bit late right now, but I'll post my impressions of the fish and the skate, later today. I don't have pictures yet for posting, but should within the week.

From Saturday (thanks Dennis! )

We had a good outing with the Xtreme Boards over the weekend. I had 4 folks of varying skill levels and weight ranges ride the Fish. James weighs in at about 140'ish and while he was able to air it out (picture above), he felt it was slow compared to his current ride. He wasn't able to generate the sort of down-the-line speed that he likes for his various tricks. Also, James is incredibly talented and can sense 1/8" difference in nose rocker...so he can feel things that most folks can't.

Next I had Dennis ride the board. Dennis weighs in at 270 pounds and has ridden surfboards most of his life, being on an exhibition team for Gordon and Smith at around age 8. Dennis obviously swamped this board, BUT he was able to ride it and carve the wake...but just barely. Dennis rode backside on this board, a further testament to the range this board can handle. I think 270 pounders would be hard pressed to find the Fish fun, best to step up to Xtreme's Long Board.

Next was Ali. Ali is a female college student and is about 100 pounds. She has some experience wakeboarding. It took some correction of bad habits, but we had her free riding on her third pull...total of maybe 15 minutes of instruction. This seemed to be the most telling example. Ali "believes" she rides goofy, but we had her riding regular on this board. I bring that up to give you an indication of her actual wakeboarding experience.

I rode this board and found it to be faster, down the line, than my custom board. Rail to rail it was a bit more sluggish. I do believe that folks wanting a bit more performance out of the board will find removing the trailer fin and perhaps swapping out the side bites for 3.25" will loosen it up tremendously.

Overall, my observations are that the board likes to be ridden tail heavy. Folks that come from a wakeboarding background will find this board an easy transition. Some of the OTHER boards available won't ride as easy in this tail heavy stance. The outline has more of a tail orientation and the double wing stepping the outline down allows more weight on the tail without slowing the board too much. I also found that this board is a bit weight sensitive. 170-180 is probably the optimum weight for that board...it can be ridden easily by folks outside that range, but those in that range will find it to be more responsive.

I think the fish would probably be one of the BEST options for folks that wakesurf occasionally and wakeboard or wakeskate frequently. The stance and riding styles would transition much easier than most other commercially available boards. During the winter we snowboard extensively, mostly off-piste with swallow tail pow-sticks. The transition to a more balanced stance on my wakesurfer, each spring, always leaves me feeling rusty. This Xtreme board requires less of a transition.

Hey Jeff, When you get the time let's hear some details.

btw nice pic

Scratch that

Must have crossed paths?!

Jeff, How did you and your crew like the skate ?

Only James got to ride the skate. The weather turned incredibly nasty on us by the end of the day. By the time we switched ballast around, and rotated riders on various boards we just didn't give the skate a good workout. We go to FL this weekend and AZ next weekend, so...not sure if we'll be able to wring out the skate before we have to return them to Gary.

Jeff,

Just got off the phone with the guys at xtremeboard company and they have me sold on the surf driven design and manufacture concept, but I'm just not sure about their boards specifically.

I’m 220 and new to wakesurfing, but have surfed for 15 years (shortboard). My style is more carving and speed rather than airs and technical tricks and I'm hoping you can provide me with some suggestions on what other boards I should be considering.

The xtreme board I'm looking at is the 5’7” longboard (which Gary informed is nowadays more of a longer fish shape than what it used to be.)

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hey MTR,

One thig I know with folks is that as they progress, they can step down in size. So, someone that starts out riding a 5'6" will be able to ride a 4'6" the following season. Gary is pretty good with demo's, you might seriously give consideration to his 5'4" fish.

With your years of surfing, I'm sure you'd be happy with the performance of the Xtreme Board. I haven't ridden their "Long Board" which I believe is a 5'9", but they do have two new offerings in the 5'7" range that are suitable to your weight range. Specifically their fish is a sized down short board, single to double concave and an outline that probably looks like your favorite shortboard. I'd bet it is the closest thing to what you're already used to. I also know that Gary is constantly developing new products. Like that 5'7" I mentioned above and he's going to hook us up with some new boards specifically for groms and EXPERTS to test. I've got a picture of the prototypes here somewhere. Anyway...my point being that Gary ISN'T positioning his boards as a "me too" product.

I would think the only other manufacturers you would consider with your size and preferences are Shred Stixx and Shoreline Lakeboards...of those three, Xtreme's are, IMO, the closest to a shortboard.

This, I do believe, is a picture of the Grom proto.