Trip Forman: Awesome — welcome to the REAL Board Loft. I’m Trip Forman, and we have a very special guest: Mikey February. Mikey, welcome to the Outer Banks.

Mikey February: Thank you. Stoked to be here — and to be staying with you at Watermen’s Retreat.

Trip: How was your stay last night?

Mikey: It was awesome. It was pretty late when we arrived, but this morning it was beautiful. Good to see you — beautiful views. Glad to be here.

Spearfish Premiere + Why This Board Matters

Trip: The entire Outer Banks is stoked to have you here. Big Spearfish premiere tonight — the movie about the development of your new model with Channel Islands. Everybody’s fired up to see you at the premiere, maybe see you surf locally, too.

Trip: In this video we’re going to talk about the board and a little about the development. You’ve had a huge career in surfing — and a major turning point when you stepped away from the World Tour and opened up what you wanted to do with your surfing, and what you wanted to ride.

Early Influences: Learning to Ride “Anything”

Trip: Where did that background come from — where you can literally look at anything and ride it well?

Mikey: I think it started when I was younger. The shaper I rode for made a lot of fishes — that was kind of his thing. A lot of my younger surf career was getting boards from him.

Mikey: On my 12th birthday he gave me a fish he shaped for me. That was the first time I rode something different. I did start on a kneeboard my dad had — that was at the very beginning — but the fish really opened my mind. It was a totally different feeling.

Mikey: When you’re competing, you’re focused on shortboards and refining them constantly. But every now and again you jump on something else, try someone’s board… I’ve always been obsessed with feeling something different. That’s one of the coolest things about surfing.

Post-Competition: Freedom to Go Deep on Boards

Mikey: After ending the competing side of my career, it opened up space to have more freedom and actually have time to work on those boards.

Mikey: People refine shortboards endlessly — but not everyone puts that same effort into other shapes. Once you dive deep, analyze it, tweak it, you really get the best out of the surfboard. I’ve been fortunate to do that with Channel Islands, and we’ve created some fun boards.

Trip: That’s a great point. At the pro level, you’re getting 15 boards at a time, weeding through them, picking the best one… and then another 15. People aren’t necessarily doing that on the rest of the range.

Mikey: Exactly. Some people ride one twin and say, “That’s how all twin fins go.” But when you dive into it, there are so many differences — fins make a difference, the type of twin fin makes a difference. It’s a fun hole to go down.

Travel Quiver: Matching Boards to Waves

Trip: You partially left the standard thruster and started riding everything. What do you enjoy about that — and matching boards to waves when you travel?

Mikey: When you travel, sometimes you’re going to familiar places — and sometimes places you’ve never surfed. My quiver changed from “shortboard to step-up” into something more diverse: a twin (or two), a couple thrusters, maybe a single fin or bonzer.

Mikey: You go somewhere and you get to see how each board feels in those conditions. One usually stands out, but you have more options. Even waves you’ve always surfed on a thruster — riding something different opens a whole new experience. That freedom is a big part of it.

Maldives Event: Forced Variety, Better Understanding

Trip: You were just in the Maldives — Four Seasons event — riding all your boards. Twin fin division, single fin, CI mid, then a Two Happy in the thruster division.

Mikey: Yeah — that was really cool. Having someone tell you to ride different boards is nice, especially for guys who don’t ride them much. It was cool to see their approaches.

Mikey: For me, the toughest was riding the thruster — but it was a cool challenge. The first day was single fin without sidebites. In a competition format you want everything to happen quickly, but with a single fin you learn patience and drawing things out.

Mikey: That helped the next day on the thruster — suddenly you have so much confidence. Riding different boards helps you understand other boards better. Jumping from a longer single fin rail line to something shorter teaches you how to use the rail differently. It’s all complementary.

Trip: And you ended up winning the thruster division.

Mikey: Yeah — definitely didn’t think I was going to.

Why the Two Happy Thruster?

Trip: With all the CI shortboard models, why did you gravitate toward the Two Happy?

Mikey: I still ride thrusters often at home — I enjoy that feeling. But for a long time the Two Happy has been my choice. I like the rocker — not as aggressive as a CI Pro, not as flat as others. It’s an easy transition when you’re riding other boards and jump onto it. It’s my happy place on the thruster side.

Fish Misconceptions: Not Just a “Groveler”

Trip: Let’s dive into the Feb’s Fish. There’s a misconception — people hear “fish” or “twin fin” and immediately think “groveler.” What does a fish mean to you?

Mikey: Originally, the fish idea was a really short board — flat — kind of skatey. Easier to ride in flatter waves. Not necessarily something you rode when it’s steep or critical, but you could draw cool, enjoyable lines.

Mikey: For many people, the basic fish was an intro to twin fins. Then everything evolves from there. We developed the Twin Pin — a more progressive twin fin for good waves — and that was my first model with CI. I’ve connected with it for years.

Back to Basics: The “Old Fish” That Sparked This Model

Mikey: There are so many twins in the market now. One day at the CI factory there was an older fish — I asked if I could take it out and try it. I connected with it right away.

Mikey: It had a lot going on: epoxy, fixed fins that had been moved, original fin placements visible — a weird baseline. But it reminded me it was good to go back to basics: the origins of twin fins and fish… use that as a base and revive it with tweaks that open up new ways of riding a fish.

Trip: Was it more “old-school” — beak nose, thick rails, straight outline?

Mikey: A little bit. It had some fish characteristics, epoxy, a bit of a beak nose, flat deck, chunkier rails. Tail pulled in a bit. That first session opened my eyes.

Design Goal: Glide + Drive + Pocket Surfing

Trip: What did you want to change from a classic fish — performance or feel?

Mikey: A fish can glide across flat sections. With that original one, I felt like you could also approach steeper sections and attack them — which was exciting for a fish.

Mikey: With this one, the goal was to keep those loose, glidey characteristics — but add drive, and be able to turn in critical parts of the wave, stay in the pocket, and come out with speed.

Trip: From the camera it can look like “another classic fish,” but in hand you notice no beak, more nose rocker, narrower nose, more foiled rails, pulled-in tail — a lot of tweaks for that direction.

Mikey: Exactly. More nose rocker helps steeper sections; the pulled-in tail tightens the turning radius while keeping drive. The bottom contours through the tail add a lot, too.

Backside Performance

Trip: Backside is always the conversation with fish — people love them frontside, but have hangups backside. Did you do anything specific to address that?

Mikey: I don’t really think, “Will it go backside?” when working on a board — but it happened naturally. At lefts the board went really well.

Mikey: On a very small board, backside you can lean forward more. The nose rocker helps keep the nose up. I’ve had as much fun backside as frontside on this fish.

Rider Stats + Board Size + Wave Range

Trip: What’s your height and weight?

Mikey: About 6'1"–6'2", and 78–80 kg.

Trip: What size fish are you riding?

Mikey: 5'5". About 30.5 liters — maybe 1 liter more than my normal shortboard.

Trip: What wave range feels best?

Mikey: From as small as you can get… to about 6 feet for me. Double overhead is kind of pushing it, but it works in good surf. Point breaks — it flies. Beach breaks, too.

Fins: Futures Signature vs AMK (Al Merrick Keel)

Trip: Let’s talk fins. You developed a fin with Futures for this board. I’ve got an AMK (Al Merrick Keel) and your new signature fin.

Trip: Similar rake, but yours is more hollowed on the trailing edge with a bit less tip. What were you looking for?

Mikey: Originally the fixed fin set on that old board was an AMK. Same base and rake, a bit less tip. With Futures we took a section out to add a little more rake and a narrower tip.

Mikey: Same base gives drive. The rest adds liveliness and release. I haven’t gone super deep on fins historically, but doing it now makes a big difference — you really feel the balance of drive and release.

Trip: My first impression is it loosens the board up and adds release without sacrificing too much fish drive.

Mikey: Exactly. Drive is so important with twins — speed is amazing — but you want to harness it, not just track straight. This helps you turn tighter while keeping that drive.

How to Surf It: Lines at Pointbreaks vs Thruster Lines

Trip: When you take the Feb’s Fish out at a wave like Rincon, what line are you drawing that’s different than on a thruster?

Mikey: With this board you don’t sacrifice speed — you’re always flowing and can draw longer lines. On a traditional fish you can’t really surf in the pocket. With a thruster you stay in the energy pocket the whole time — if you go too far out onto flat, you lose speed.

Mikey: With this one, you can go into a flat section, then come back with speed and still hit a critical part of the wave. You still have the planing area — it feels like “all access.”

Better Waves + Barrels: The “Underground” Performance

Trip: People think fish are for groveling — but we see people riding them in good surf, even heavy days, traveling with them to places like Skeleton Bay. Talk about that.

Mikey: For sure. Even in barrels, I enjoy twin fins more — subtle movements generate speed. In certain waves you don’t have space to drive hard; a fish accelerates with small movements.

Mikey: That same feeling of being able to be on the face and in the pocket — and dealing with flat connections — helps when the waves are bigger. Good waves aren’t perfect everywhere, so having that freedom matters.

Wrap Up

Trip: Mikey — thanks so much for joining us and sharing your insight on the new Feb’s Fish from Channel Islands, and the new Futures fins.

Trip: If you have any questions about the Channel Islands Feb’s Fish or want to order one — stock or custom — call the shop at 252-987-6000 or visit realwatersports.com. Thanks for tuning in.