A Deep Dive Into Classic Fish Design with Steve Brom
The Classic Fish
We had master shaper Steve Brom build a fish for the 2025 Boardroom Show, Best In Show, featuring the Fish. Steve built his all-time go-to board, the Classic Fish - a heavily refined and tested speed and flow machine. Jeff Svoboda did some incredible glasswork. Paying homage to the bright, fun colors of the Classic Fish's era, and dialing in all the details.
Shaping
Born and raised in Los Angeles (and totally not responsible for the “Hollyweed” incident of 76’) Steve Brom, is often known for his great contributions in popularizing the modern day fish design we ride today. Stretching out Lis’s design in both performance and length, we had Steve recreate one of his original models, paying homage to the era in which it came from.
Like an extremely successful episode of storage wars, Brom rolled up the garage door in which we were greeted with a variety of classic sports cars all guarding a tucked away shaping bay in the back of the unit. We talked story and watched as Brom took the first couple passes on what was soon to be a prestigious “Rocket Fish”.
Glasswork
Elbowed between the Santa Barbara Airport and a frog full marsh, Jeff Svoboda’s shop appears as humble as any, but upon entry is a workshop that breathes a life of its own. From the hand scribbled labels, paintings, cassette collection, repurposed pottery, ceiling plants, and hell even a disco ball, Svoboda’s shop signifies not only the mark of a true craftsman, but breathes a palette of personality through its attention to detail.
Silently smiling behind all your favorite surfboards, Svoboda isn’t just the man behind the laminations of boards from Lovelace and Trevor Gordon, but also produces some of the finest shaping and glasswork under his own label “Surfer’s Delight”, making him the perfect man for our job.
Connecting over which of the handful of fickle spots we’d scored this season in Santa Barbara and coincidentally my high school English teachers, we were lucky enough to step alongside Jeff as he poured the first hot coats on Brom’s rocket fish. Huge compliments to the chef as he perfectly canted our Chuck Ames’ foiled wood twin set and painted an inlay so nice you could confidently bring it home to mother.
We couldn’t be more excited about the board, process, and people involved. It was a big hit at the Boardroom Show!
Although we can't exactly get you these beauty's on the Rocket Fish, we can get you even better suited glass on fins to accompany any of your custom creations.
Check out a couple here and scope our whole collection on our Glass On page!
