XPS Performance Fish

SolidWorks-designed performance fish with cotton fabric inlay — July 2021

Board Design

With leftover materials from the XPS shortboard build and a desire for a board better suited to New England's often lackluster surf, I set out on a performance fish. Inspired by Pyzel's Astro Pop model, all design work was done in SolidWorks.

To avoid the glue seam issues that plagued the first build, I modelled the cross-section carefully so the seam between blank pieces would fall at a depth corresponding to standard 2×4 dimensions — keeping it hidden within the board rather than appearing on deck or bottom.

Build

Lessons Learned

Cotton fabric inlays take significantly more resin to saturate than expected — I ran so low on resin that I had to drop to two layers of fiberglass on the deck instead of three. The board is still plenty strong with no pressure dings after ~10 outings.

Ride Report

A wave-catching machine. I do wish it had a bit more volume in the tail — it can drag in very weak surf — but the shape works beautifully in anything with a pulse.

On my first session someone stopped me and said "that looks like a really fun shape." In ~15 years of surfing, that had never happened with any board I'd ridden, professionally built or otherwise.