Firefly Twinzer

Tribal discussion for shortboarders

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steve shearer
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Firefly Twinzer

Post by steve shearer » Tue Jul 31, 2012 5:54 am

I've always hated twin fins. With a passion. Although I had to moderate my views after riding twin keeled simsters etc etc. I did actually ride a twinzer sometime in the very early nineties, a glen minami board and hated that too. Squirrelly piece of shite I thought at the time,this was just before boards went banana, concave and potato chippy. Boy, what a great era that was for the average surfer. Not

I borrowed this twinzer off Mark after getting back from WA and really struggled to get in the water due to injury and an extended run of poor surf.
When I finally did it proved to be a slippery customer, as expected. Sharp, unruly bursts of speed through pumps and a somewhat uncertain handling response off the bottom.

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Sometime I could control it and be somewhere with outlandish speed and sometimes it would squirrel out through the bottom turn or I would lose control between turn transitions. But there was something in that blinding speed and very, very free feeling in the top turn that felt intriguing.

If only I could supply more stability to the centre line of the tail I might get my control and projection back in the bottom turn and wrest back some of the handling through the turn.

I had a little flash: why not put a smaller proper fin in the back slot? So I took a trailing fin from the quad set , a GX 1000 I think and stuffed it in the back slot. Knowing Priddy would probably have a meltdown if he saw it.

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Surfed it today in head high sloppy pointbreak with bits and pieces sections. Nothing amazing but worthy of a paddle.
Holy moley. I had the blinding speed of the twinzer, the two rail fins working in concert plus the control and projection back in the bottom turn. it felt like the best surfing I'd done in an age. I came in thoroughly fcuking stoked. There's something going on here with this fin set-up. It felt like a thruster on steroids......not a loosey goosey twin fin feeling.
I want Nightclub Dwight dead in his grave I want the nice-nice up in blazes

Beerfan

Re: Firefly Twinzer

Post by Beerfan » Tue Jul 31, 2012 11:51 am

It is amazing what the little fin in front of the big ones can do for speed and release. Steve, go as small as you can with the centre fin ( hack up the tip of an old fibreglass fin will do ) til you're a beesdick off being loosey goosey. Fun fun fun. I've surfed similar setups on keel fish, but i found the centre fin dulled the loosey goosey feel frontside, but improved conotrol on backhand bottom turns etc. That's on a fish though, so i can see that shape is much more perf oriented. My latest shed shape is kinda SA mollusc like. Very tempted to give it the twinzer setup.

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Karlos
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Re: Firefly Twinzer

Post by Karlos » Tue Jul 31, 2012 11:58 am

Digging that old wooden tennis racquet Bjorn.

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black duck
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Re: Firefly Twinzer

Post by black duck » Tue Jul 31, 2012 12:11 pm

the back of that van is a little bit scary.

like the plan shape
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Re: Firefly Twinzer

Post by collnarra » Tue Jul 31, 2012 12:16 pm

The will jobson twinzers also have a channel through the tail. I think he was the guy who invented the twinzer.
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Re: Firefly Twinzer

Post by Trev » Tue Jul 31, 2012 12:54 pm

black duck wrote:the back of that van is a little bit scary.
Probably had a bit part in "Wolf Creek"
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Re: Firefly Twinzer

Post by offshore1 » Tue Jul 31, 2012 1:33 pm

looks like fong's shed.
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Re: Firefly Twinzer

Post by ric_vidal » Tue Jul 31, 2012 1:50 pm

black duck wrote:the back of that van is a little bit scary.
bit reminiscent of my own :?

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Re: Firefly Twinzer

Post by pridmore » Wed Aug 01, 2012 3:47 pm

thanks for testing this one out Steve, see ya Friday to get it back from ya and I'll be giving it a whirl with the bigger centre fin for sure....anymore waves on it since the report ? or just tell me Friday mate.... 8)

just shaped myself another one an inch longer and in EPS....

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Re: Firefly Twinzer

Post by Donweather » Wed Aug 01, 2012 3:54 pm

Mark, given Steve's glowing report, what's happening with the next traveller board?

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Re: Firefly Twinzer

Post by pridmore » Wed Aug 01, 2012 4:25 pm

its on hold for now mate, too busy buidling a new home and a few other projects that are draining my pockets dry...

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steve shearer
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Re: Firefly Twinzer

Post by steve shearer » Wed Aug 01, 2012 4:27 pm

bring a crowbar so you can prise it out of my hands.
I want Nightclub Dwight dead in his grave I want the nice-nice up in blazes

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Re: Firefly Twinzer

Post by pridmore » Wed Aug 01, 2012 5:28 pm

what about subway and a coffee ???

Beerfan

Re: Firefly Twinzer

Post by Beerfan » Wed Aug 01, 2012 6:13 pm

Is that one a styro mp??.

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Re: Firefly Twinzer

Post by pridmore » Wed Aug 01, 2012 6:19 pm

my newy thats still on the racks is...the one SS has is PU.... 8) bring ya thoughts and ideas for your own version SS, we'll whip you one up... 8)

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Re: Firefly Twinzer

Post by pinhead » Wed Aug 01, 2012 9:07 pm

Ah Steve isn't what you have there called a Bonzer?

Priddo - do yourself a favour shape yourself one of these:

http://www.griffinsurfboards.com/modfish.html


Rail fins for drive, centre fin for rail to rail engagement. Makes a 16 inch tail feel like 14.

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Re: Firefly Twinzer

Post by pridmore » Sat Aug 25, 2012 7:31 am

yep seen them pinhead, they could be fun, but pretty different to where I am at with this one...there are so many fin set-ups that work but most arent even tried or considered ....

SS, have only had one surf sinceon the Twinzer with a bigger centre fin and you are spot on, its like a twinny on roids but with no squirrel in the tail, felt super positive and secure when I got a section, waves werent ideal but this is something I will continue to play with when I get the waves.....have a new shape on the racks for me, basically a tweaked version of the one you rode but in E-CON, designed to perform in smaller waves....cant wait.... its feels like a fin set-up you can really dial in with lotsa options, no back fin sometimes, then increase in bit bigger waves, then a 3 or G1000 when waves are head high and above....all feel good to me but if ya had it dialled, reckon it covers alot of bases well....thanx
8)

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Re: Firefly Twinzer

Post by pinhead » Sat Aug 25, 2012 7:55 pm

pridmore wrote:yep seen them pinhead, they could be fun, but pretty different to where I am at with this one...there are so many fin set-ups that work but most arent even tried or considered ....
I've been surfing for 25 years - have ridden singles, twins, twinzers, quads, and thrusters and this is the set up I've found to work best with short flat rockered boards with a lot of straight rail in the tail. For me anyway.

I've been looking at what Dan Thompson has done with some of the design aspects of the mini-Simmons.He's taken the short length and straight rail and applied it to a HPS thruster.

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By taking the width down to 17 1/2, he's made the thing go rail to rail easy. By keeping the rail straight right through the tail, he's achieved the surface area and volume you need to paddle and take off (obviously also keeping the straight rail drive as well). With the wide tail the front fins are further apart - this coupled with the loss of swing weight means the board can whip through turns just like a normal shorty. Check Stu Kennedy riding one on You tube his turns look really sharp and he's getting tons of drive as well.

In order to get a bit of control back into the wide tail Tomo is fooling around with all sorts of channels and bat wing variations. But I'm thinking the Griffin fin set up might actually work better - so I'm going to make myself one with a Griffen set up.

I punched the shape dims (5'2" x 17 1/2"x 2 3/16") and outline into Aku shaper and the volume is the same as a standard HPS. So If I scale it to my usual volume - 26 litres - I get 5'3" x 17 5/8" x 2 1/4". Should be interesting.
Last edited by pinhead on Sat Aug 25, 2012 9:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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