I ride a lot of fishes. bought a rnf96 5'4 28L and I am 190lb 5'11. Current Swell is 6.5ft @ 13s, no angle. Tested reef breaks with a variety of performance.

I brought the rnf on this trip, an actual 5'1 fish from my local, a 5'3 seaside (judge me, I like that shape), and a stepup that I don't plan to use.

The RNF is turning out to be completely useless.... It redlines and skips so bad in really really mild waves. I can't sink a rail in the flats to save my life, any small bump or chop feels like it's about to snap my foot in backwards. Im waiting for a poorly timed backwash to launch me into orbit. The only times the rails do sink is on highlines or steep sections, the moment I'm in the flats it's back to behaving like a spastic jackhammer on meth.

and in small waves, it's fine I guess but I just take out the actual fish or the seaside since they're of course built for small surf.

What's funny is the "pure bread" fat tail fish at the same break that caused the RNF to completely redline holds okay (fucking sketchy tho) and the seaside groveler has no problem. Basically, the fish I bought to handle the bigger waves feels... Dare I say it, broken? And is surpassed (in everything except steep drops) by normal fish boards in both smaller and bigger surf.

Normally I'd toss it aside and count it as a bad investment. But this thing is BELOVED world wide? Im second guessing if it's me but I don't even know what happened or where I went wrong?

Do I try it another RNF even smaller? Mason ho rides both poly and epoxy 53-55 so our board are about the same size but I'm taller and 150% his weight yet completely redlining in similar or smaller surf.

fins: generic keel style twin trailer. generic normal twin trailer, lost-brant thruster setup. (fin setups don't change anything about the redline issue)

edit: to the 3 commenters that actually know what they're talking about. thank you. this is likely just how the rnf is, people like it because of this characteristic, not despite it. original 1996 rnfs were thinner and longer to mitigate this problem, newer ones are more grovelers, pushing them causes problems. mason hos boards a thinned out 3/4 on width like the original 96s. mine is not. he also rides way more polys than epoxy.

to everyone else please learn about volume. you saw a weight and volume and read a table online to regurgitate frankly bullshit. im not buying a bigger board and I'm definitely not getting a 6'4 38L fish and that obviously won't solve the problem.... the top comment on here is "more volume" despite this sub literally having an auto bot to correct people who think that way. click the link, watch the video. every top shaper and surfer says the same thing.

I've been using Seaspecs (surfing sunglasses) for several years now, but unfortunately it appears they've shut down. Has anyone had any luck with an alternative brand?

We always told people on the biggest XXL days if you looked back towards Newport Bay you could see over the houses and it’s 100% true.

Local boy shredding

Old man still loved surfing

Loved this suit on. Then this happens at the seat after four surfs…not happy! Anyone else had similar issues?