I've been building this particular board for 25 plus years. I gave it a name about 15 years ago.
It's designed to be an everyday board. Everyday means average surf; most of the time it's the stuff we ride in between real swells. Basically this is a 90% solution.
For arguments sake, the average shortboard is 6'2" 18.5 by 2.3 with an 11" nose and a 14" tail - about a 3" difference between the nose and tail which would pull the wide point to about 2" behind center.
A Catfish designed for the same rider would be roughly 3" inches shorter and almost an inch wider in the center with a proportionately wider nose. The difference between the nose and tail would be about 2" putting the nose at 13 and the tail at around 15. Filling out the nose a little pulls the wide point an inch or so.
The Catfish has modern rails, a single concave through the midsection that blends into a light double barrel "V" through the fins. The rocker is slightly relaxed compared to a high performance shortboard but by no means flat. In fact the profile closely resembles the shortboards of the late 80's.
The most distinctive feature is the two sets of wings and split tail, commonly known as a double wing swallow.
Wings, or template breaks, on surfboards have evolved for over 6 decades. The Velzy Bump in the late 50's was perhaps the first one marketed for it's enhanced turning capabilities. The Velzy/Jacobs 422 a few years later had a more defined bump. Terry Fitzgerald was a proponent in the early 70's with more and more designers embracing the concept by the mid 70's. A hard wing was a key component in MR's tour dominating twinnies of the late 70's and early 80's.
Simon's early Thrusters all had bumps/hips working in tandem with the front fins and bottom. The deep channel boards that we were building in the early to mid 80's were almost always double wing swallows which were natural exit points for the channels.
The basic notion is a break in the outline helps to create a fulcrum or lever to help break the arc of a turn when desired. It also helps to step down tail width without having excess curve. "Hard" or angular wings, also function to create release points for the water.
So that's a little background on the Catfish. It's just a super fun everyday board that, unlike a lot of alternative shapes, doesn't require a lot of transition from the board you might turn to when there is a real swell.
You might even have a hard time getting off the Catfish when the surf does turn on.
- Rusty
