RealSurf Surfers' Forum

Who here rides a twin-fin as their go-to board? and what type of board is it?

I'm also curious to see how many people are riding twin-fins in their performance board as a valid replacement for modern quads and thrusters?

It seems as though quite a few people have shaped twins that are designed to be a valid competitor with our typical HPS thrusters, but I don't see many people surfing them or ranting about them. Some I can think of are by Webber (he even shapes twin-fin pin-tail guns), Griffin, Daniel Thompson, and another Hawaiian guy that shapes for Rasta (can't remember his name).

I think Akila Aipa does some nice modern twins that Rasta rode for a while - Gary McNeil does some of his boards as performance twins. The only real twin i have is my dim-sim, although i did try the tomo richter i have as a twin. It way too loose and skatey. His V3s look like they'd be a solid twin though.

I do believe one Mr J Dowling is found of a "set"..."of twins"..."twin fins I mean"....you know.....

any other ride reports on TOMO'S ?

Not to hijack, but i bought the richter 2nd hand. 5'6, 18 3/4, 2 1/4. Interesting board thus far. It has both thruster and quad set-up and i use it as a quad with the powerdrive fins that tomo designs. So far i've ridden it in a few conditions. It paddles quite well for such a tiny board, although it is too lightly glassed for my liking. It doesn't like chop or slop. It does handle fatter waves, because of the speed you get from the quad set-up, but doesn't really like to be driven hard like some other quads i've ridden and can slide out a bit. The best surf i had on it was 2ft glassy a-frames at my local beachie. I just took the bottom turn and the board did the rest - It had some good turn and release for a quad. For my average ability, i can't seem to get it to work for 4ft plus - just not enough foam under my feet and it felt too skatey. I would be interested in getting Dan's opinion on what would work for me and would certainly not get PU construction. Plenty of interest in his boards in the states right now.

Back to twins - i rode my alien as a twin in smaller waves and loved it - super loose and fast, lots of tail sliding at the lip - great fun.

Prior to escaping Sydney, I rode a 6'2" round-nosed 'fish'. Forward wide-point, flat-to-panel Vee, hard edged single-flyer swallow with 'modern' (neutral) rails shaped by Mike Phillakis. A great all-rounder for Sydney beach-breaks up to 3 feet (translation: 87%). They take time to get your timing wired, but once dialed, they are simply too much fun! The downside: busted way too many FCS plugs using the original MR carbon fins... and once they blow, they continue to do so. So-much-so I eventually glassed the fins into the plugs.
Highly recommended.

Hey Capt. Yep, I've been fond of the odd twinny.

Fin placement, size, rake etc are multiplied in importance. Too small or too far up and you get a thrustless thruster - spin-city.

They'll be magic in many situations, then just buck you off, put you flat on your face out of the blue...

But there's no reason why a twinny can't be made to give just about any characteristic - Imagine big rakey ones set way back, as if a split single fin. Drive, hold, you name it...

They're not good for the ol' FCS - the fin area can so easily tweak out the plugs. This is why there's not so much experimentation done with twins "IMO"

JD

speedneedle wrote:Hey Capt. Yep, I've been fond of the odd twinny.

Fin placement, size, rake etc are multiplied in importance. Too small or too far up and you get a thrustless thruster - spin-city.

They'll be magic in many situations, then just buck you off, put you flat on your face out of the blue...

But there's no reason why a twinny can't be made to give just about any characteristic - Imagine big rakey ones set way back, as if a split single fin. Drive, hold, you name it...

They're not good for the ol' FCS - the fin area can so easily tweak out the plugs. This is why there's not so much experimentation done with twins "IMO"

JD

What sort of planshape are you finding compliments it nicely?

I've been noticing that a lot of the performance twins (e.g. Aipa, Al Merrick MTF) all have super tight tails, like a hard hip or flyer coming to an unusually tight tail. Then you have the Daniel Thompsons which are ultra wide in the tail but the fins seem set back quite far, have huge fin area and a large powerdrive rake.

So many variables...

i think i need to ride one. i'm liking the quads with smaller and smaller rear fins.

Apparently these go great - Clyde Betty Rocket Fish. Looks like to bigish singles but in a keel shape, not like MR's TX's. Looks like a full weapon.

Found this on ebay.

A little small for me but would imagine it goes really well.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Webber-Mini- ... 500wt_1156

I have a Webber Mini Fish that I love although at 3" thick it's very corky and rides on rather than in the wave. I got Webber to custom make one for me, 6' 3", pinched in overall to 20" wide and 2 3/8" thick. Obviously it's a bit harder to paddle, I'm 95 kg, but it's just as fast as the stock board and gets into the wave more like a high performance board should. I'm ecstatic about it, although it does need a little trailer fin in between the oversize red twins when it gets over about 4 ', otherwise you're really digging your toenails in on fast turns.

mackie: http://www.mackiesurfboards.com.au/designs

check out the new futro flex rocket fish - now that is interesting.

Little wrote:I have a Webber Mini Fish that I love although at 3" thick it's very corky and rides on rather than in the wave. I got Webber to custom make one for me, 6' 3", pinched in overall to 20" wide and 2 3/8" thick. Obviously it's a bit harder to paddle, I'm 95 kg, but it's just as fast as the stock board and gets into the wave more like a high performance board should. I'm ecstatic about it, although it does need a little trailer fin in between the oversize red twins when it gets over about 4 ', otherwise you're really digging your toenails in on fast turns.

Same thing I found with my mini-fish, super skatey as soon as the waves had some push. It lacked range and a whole spectrum of turns requiring hard back foot pressure. I loved the speed though, and it mopped up small waves. Had a very fun but hairy surf on it at big Dee Why point, that was interesting.

mackie: http://www.mackiesurfboards.com.au/designs

check out the new futro flex rocket fish - now that is interesting.

Looks ugly as hell, but I can imagine it would be super fun to surf. Looks pricey too, lots of new and alternative tech.

Im thinking about a twinny with a rounded tail pulled in, not sure if it would work but I just love clean smooth outlines. I dont think I would muck around with the bottom too much, just very subtle. I reckon they would be heaps of fun in anything up to good 4 foot and am eager to find out if it works.