Contrasting Rocket Nosed Fish to Regular Fish

personal preference but I always thought retro RNFs are way too stiff. that's why I'm a HUGE fan of the ...Lost RNF styles.

 

Jon Ashton makes a sick variation of this.

 

Jon does some things that really makes the board work great in less than waist high. My next one is going to be a quad tho.

 

I think there's some confusion of terminology going on here. The original post was about rocket nose fish and "regular" nose fish. In the discussion the rocket nosed fish has been referred to as RNF -- not to be confused with the Lost RNF, which stands for round nosed fish

 

RNF stands for Round Nose Fish (it was used this way first)

Don't use it if you mean something else; it will just confuse people.
Just because Rocket Nose Fish has the RNF initials doesn't mean you should use it that way.

Just say that it has a pulled in nose or has a nose more like a shortboad or pointy nose, etc...

 

+1 michell pretty much hit the nail on the head with the description of the two. As for your query about the fins, traditional's will have either two large keels that are straight backed or with large foiled fins with rake on the trailing edge. The rocket style fishes will have more or less a regular short board sized fins setup as a tri or two plus a center trailer. If your board has FCS, the trailer fin size I've always used was a "GS". There even fun to put on your short board, I put one on my CI Flyer to loosen it up once in a while. It gives it that skatey feel like a rocket fish. http://www.surffcs.com/home.cfm?region=1

 

Think about what works best in the barrel (or any kind of pocket surfing, for that matter)... I think one of two things: short rail line, or lots of rocker. A rocket nosed fish has relaxed rocker, is sightly shorter than a typical shortboard, and a pulled nose. The pulled nose compensates for the relaxed rocker and the not-too-short length by shortening the rail line. Flatten it out more, and you have too much rail, lengthen it and you don't have enough rocker. Now look at a trad fish: flat rocker, but SHORT rail line. They only work good in the barrel if they're ridden as short as you can go. People who say fish don't work good in the barrel are riding them too f'n long! Now look at your semi-guns: they're longer, but they have lots of rocker, and a pulled tail that makes the nose point more toward the beach... shortening the rail line. Bottom line: you don't want too little rocker, or too long a rail line in the tube, because it's a highly curved area of the wave. The rocket nosed fish flattens the rocker and pulls the nose because it's not short enough to work like a fish, and not rockered enough to fit/turn in the pocket. So the pulled nose helps shorten the rail line and give you a more performance-oriented board than a trad fish, but not as performance oriented as a hp shortie.

 

Yep, The shops I use (Heritage & Surfers Supplies) usually have on or two in stock, and I grab one when I see it. I have a feeling you are up north, but I can't imagine your local shop couldn't order you one.