Fins - Do they matter that much

[Russholland]

Howdy,

I've recently make the giant leap from longboard to shortboard - might not be that giant - 9'6" pop-out longboard to a 7'2" NS B52 not so short short board.

I'm beginning to think i've jumped down to early but regardless of that i'm finding the board really unstable horizontally when trying to pop-up becasue the back end skips around a fair amount destorying any chance of a decent pop-up and then ride.

I'm not light at 114kg (17 st 10) but i'm not unfit or unflexible as i play quite a high level of rugby and can comfortably pop-up in one motion on my 9'6" therefore i'm thinking (blaming) this on my fins.

my new board came with size large FCS fins which are rated upto 85kg and i don't know enough about fins to be 100% sure whether i should purchace a set for my weight or persist and learn to deal with this instability and put it down to the differences in the boards.

what do you think??

[roberdy]

I'm 6'2 and 98kg mate, ride a 6'6 fish, a 6'8 bonzer and a 9'6 kinda proggy longboard. Only had one pop-out, that was a Santa Cruz so not your run of the mill bic etc (didn't like it either, too corky). Anyway, descsribe your problem a bit more, what do you mean the "back end skips around horizontally" when you try to pop up? do you mean you are not moving in a straight line or that the board turns into the lip (pearls) as you try to catch a wave?

I wouldn't expect those fins to make much of a difference to your take off, maybe to a bottom turn in that your weight could over power them but then you would spin out and fall off, sounds from your description that the problem is earlier in your pop up, is it?

[ATTMFKH]

Have you waxed that puppy

[Chris F]

Could be that you are used to an early diagonal take off on your log, which you could get away with as it was on a less steep part of the wave. Now on a shorter board you are having to pop up on a steeper part of the wave, but still trying to do it diagonally and your weight is too much so one rail is digging in and the fins are lifting out the water, causing the tail to slide out sideways. I'm guessing because I do this sometimes when going between my log and my "fish". You might do better taking off straighter, and then going into a bottom turn once you are on your feet. Or I could be miles off

[Russholland]

It must be the diagonal take off on the steeper waves. it doesn't pearl. the bigger swells in jersey (which i think i was too inexperienced to be out in) tend to jack up really quickly which i imagine can't help.i'll try the straight take off.

i'll let you know how i get on with the bottom turn with the fins (i haven't managed one on this new board yet).

this learning curve is steep!

thank you all for your help.

[bombie]

Yes - you will struggle if you do not put the fins in the board, they are of little use left under the front seat.

[jesster]

Yes, you'll notice especially if you lose a side one!

[slappywagish]

I often wondered about this till i bust my bog standard FCS and said feck it i'll get a decent set. Turn out different fins make a pretty big difference. Straight away i noticed a hell of alot more flex on the board. Almost like it'd bounce back a little on a bottom turn. 7'2 doesn't sound too bad. you could try something a little differnt for a shortboard like a fish or a twinnie,Best of luck with it. you could try grabbing a rail on the take off. That'll pull it in and get you cutting across the wave a little cleaner

[Wave4Surf]

I don't really think that the fins are the problem.
As far as I can say surfing with fins is quite possible, but not as easy. I used to have a board (no longboard) of which I lost the fins quite often when hitting the seaground...

[tireboy]

I'm starting to learn.. thanks for all the infos here haha

[Philshoz]

As far as I can say surfing with fins is quite possible, but not as easy. I used to have a board (no longboard) of which I lost the fins quite often when hitting the seaground...

Classic .........I love this section..

Have you got the fins the right way round?

[flacky]

Sounds to me like your weights too far forward, maybe. Can think of no other reason why the back end should move really, keep your legs together when you paddle, I'm sure you know this, but on a smaller board it's sometimes tempting to open them up to "grip" the board a little with your lower legs. Either this or you're taking off in white water, which is just going to buffer you regardless. Stick at it.

[geosurf]

I recently came across this article talking about fins, http://surfwanderer.com/2012/06/04/what ... surfboard/.