RealSurf Surfers' Forum

haha I feel bad for ya mate, can anyone help the man?

I've never ridden a modern single fin so I'm not sure what formulas seem to be working well. I guess it really depends on the type of shape, the planshape, length, etc.

People do all sorts of things from deep doubles with vee, to full wide-tailed channel bottom mini-simmons style boards, to Bonzer style singles... Really depends on the shape and I know diddly about singles.

What makes sense to me is only buying it if it has the adjustable fin box where you can move the fin up and back depending on how much hold and drive vs. responsiveness and release you want. I surfed a mates single which had the fin too far up and it would side-slip on bottom turns, and I'm sure it would have surfed better with extra hold (e.g. deeper concave, thinner rails, less hard edge, etc).

Anyways, maybe MP can comment, hes been shaping some 2 + 1's called the MP3.

Ask a better question Ron and I'll bore the fcuking pants off ya rattling on about single-o's.
Single into double is standard on anything these days.

The total tail area is probably more important and the way that area is distributed.

OK, so it's a 7'2 single fin.

McCoy style shape ? Mini-mal-ish or sort of semi-gun?

Sounds like a cruiser that would be a blast in OH slopey point or reef surf but pretty sluggish in random beachbreak.

You wanna surf 'em like Wayne Lynch in Evolution or Sea of Joy, getting that first driving bottom turn up into the main trim line of the wave and setting up speed and rythym from that move.

Fun with a wall, fairly boring if your used to multi-fin acceleration and options.

I also think, with few exceptions (those being big heavy boards) they go better with as a 2+ 1 set-up. ie two small side-bites.

I ride my wifes 7'1" 2+1 as a sort of clearing house when I feel my surfing is turning into dirty laundry and needs some airing out, if you get ny drift.

It could be fun as a stepping stone but it is a mid length and as such suffers the same drawbacks as mid-strength beer.

I love my "single fin" setup as a thruster, forward projection, but come off the lip beautifull. I only surf my singles as singles in tiny surf. Steve, I brew lots of mid strength beers, they are far from "flavourless", but that's another story, as,im sipping on a 7.1% AIPA. Pm ya adress i'll send one up, along with a mid strength with lots a flavour.


PPS, I can throw my 7'10" around like a 6'6" when its a,thruster . Round house back to foam no worries. Not boring at all.


PPPS, RR, my singles are super fun as singles, you just need to throw your whole body into the turns. It's all about body weight

Will do.

Cheers, Beery.

Hey Mark,
How's your SG?

Grabbed some great little OH waves the other day on it finally. Actually surfed it as a thruster. Went insane!!. Forward projection, but easily stallled to slow down. Could have got barrelled, but had to dodge traffic, so missed out. Super fun board!!, just needs hollow punchy waves. Need a full size thruster centre fin that fits the lb box. Mine is an 80's twinny centre fin that is smaller than standard thruster fin.

single fins work best with a spiral v

or flat bottom

concaves just this decade fad >><<

Hi Mark,
Good to hear the SG's the goods.
Buy an FCS M5 with a fin box base rather than the 2 tabs for plugs.
Yes they exist.
If the fit isn't snug use a shim.
I mentioned the one I got didn't fit well to the shop owner and he tossed me a little white packet which only had a couple of fcs shims in it.
Stuck one on the side of the fin base and perfecto.
Usually use tape but the shim worked way better.

Cheers mate, i'll see how i go at xmas!. Been eyeing off a 5.5'' Ruben Roxborough fin from shapers too. Think it'd work well in the 7'10'' and 7'2'' as a thruster, with my probox fibreglass sides. Love fibreglass fins!

FYI the M5 is a PC (performance core) not a glass flex.
I recall paying somewhere between $35 and $45 for it.
Excuse us...back to singles!

Cuttlefish wrote: If the fit isn't snug use a shim.
I mentioned the one I got didn't fit well to the shop owner and he tossed me a little white packet which only had a couple of fcs shims in it.
Stuck one on the side of the fin base and perfecto.
Usually use tape but the shim worked way better.

hmmm....if your fin is a little loose as i think u suggesting

dont u just rub sand all over the box /plugs

and the sand fills the caps and makes it tight :? like...everyone knows that...right

this must be going over my head...sorry, u have be joking fcs sell shims to make up for a piss poor product

Well I'm off to tangents to find out what carnage RR has wreaked there.

I didn't pay for them.
Stuff that!
There's lots of ways to get a fin to fit.
I've had plenty of boards with fin boxes and the variation can be in the boxes too not just the fin.
I've got fins that fit perfectly in one board and loose in another.
Having said this the FCS was loose in a couple of different board's boxes and that's why I mentioned it to the shop owner (as I was thinking the same as you) and that's why he tossed me the packet.
Problem solved FOC.

Ron to answer your original question single to double is fine in a single fin. Back in 'the day' most singles and twinnies seemed to have some sort of V through them to assist those wide fat boards in going rail to rail. These days most boards tend to have some sort of concave configuration. With the board you are talking about the double in the tail would create a V and assist the board in going rail to rail. So single to double is a great combo for a modern take on a single, though I myself would not want anything too deep with such a board. The board may even have some V in the tail as well. Single to double with a bit of V off the tail is pretty standard in modern single fins these days.

My MSF has single into double into V concave around the fin, dims are 6'5"x211/2"x27/8". The double concaves are quite deep, havnt actually measured em, but my eye says somewhere between 15mm or 20mm. This board is far more lively and responsive than just about every other single fin I'v ridden, most of them had flat into spiral V or simple V bottoms all through. It is very responsive to different fins and fin position and I rode it for about 18 mnths before I found the set up I like.

Ya big sook buy it... if you don't like it leave it at, say, Long Reef car park

Too many variables Ronaldo, think the package... what’s the rocker like, are you going to be trying to push a banana through the water, how much tail lift, flat entry, foil distribution, et al? If they float they work, some just work better than others.

Currently riding something that is probably mainly flat through the guts and rolled V through the pintail, so quite old school mal-ish and really is just a very compressed mal in spite of what Mr Takayama thinks. As it is 'modern' it has many a fin configuration. Have ridden 2+1, but prefer quad, and the difference is pretty marked. Will try a single to satisfy my curiosity one day, but I suspect it will be once only. There is a message there somewhere.

Go to tinypic.com , easy as to post pics. Just select the file, select message board size, copy the img code and paste it into your post.

I wanna see it! :p