keels are so hot right now...

The third(?) rise of the keel fish is coming, mark my words!

They may have been the design that spearheaded the "ride everything" alternative shape revoloution in the early two thousands, turning plenty of thruster riding shortboarders onto designs with more volume and flow and coaxing longboarders onto something shorter, but the humble keel fish hasnt really been the board du jour in more recent times.

They flat out work though, in a wide range of surf, not just mushy junk waves ( the design was basically born in san diegan barrels) and ive long believed that with a log and a fish as a quiver you've got pretty much everything covered for everday waves.

Auralian Asher Pacey and his self shaped 5'4 along with Ryan Burch and Bryce Young in california have bumped the design back into the limelight. Burch's section (most of which is above) in Psychic Migrations from Volcom in particular shows the keel in bigger more powerful surf than it is often associated with. Burch rips.

Over here Gulfstream make an amazing keel fish. If you havent ridden one, its a design that deserves your attention, whether you're concerned with being "on trend" or not!

head over keels

Over the last four years i've been nursing a serious obsession with fish, particularly those of the keel variety, there's just something about the feel and rhythm they produce as they move down the line, drawing lateral rather than vertical lines. This beauty was my now departed 5'10 gulfstream, copied from a fish shaped by jimmy blears just after he won the 72 world contest, complete with glue on rubber leash disk. My current fave is a magic 5'8 Larry Mabile classic keel replete with double foiled ply keels and a glass job to die for, definately a keeper and a board that i can honestly say i have never had a bad surf on.

Weirdly fishing does nothing for me, probably something to do with my inability to sit still!