paging Nick Carroll regarding webber curves

[SharkBoy]

Years ago I remember reading an article where Nick Carroll did a fin test and raved about the webber curves (in contrast to the g5's ) and so on. This was way back, and soon after Freddy P won the US nationals on them at trestles.

They are still being sold but I don't hear anything about them anymore'

What's the verdict now? Too particular a fin? Works but with kinks?
How do they go?
no test drive center here so i have to ask

[Nick Carroll]

Hi Sharkboy, yeah Webber curves, large cupped side fins with a smallish c-fin centre.

I recall 'em as having a lot of lift in turns and letting the tail be quite free thanks to the little semi-circle at the back. Over time I found the volume of the side fins to be a bit of a drawback, they felt clunky at times and if they weren't fully engaged with lifting, tended to drag a fraction and slow the board's response time.

Innovative fins at the time, perhaps they've been a bit superseded now by the numerous high quality inside foil fins like the Futures Vectors and various others, which feel like they provide a touch of lift in turns without being quite as volumey.

Webber took the idea and applied it to a series of curved fins over the past few years, including some long narrow twinnie style ones that some people rave about. He also made a quad set based on same. I don't think any fin company did models of those fins.

[dUg]

I'll put in a vote for the original Carbon Fibre CR-V fins. I use a pair in my 8'2 with an AM-2 center, and they are brilliant. I reckon they knock a foot off the length of the board, turns on a dime, and just hooks in when you fade a takeoff to the point you can be pointing in the opposite direction. Love it in small stuff.

I have tried them in a few of my shortboards, but they were just weird. They still had that "hook" feel when you cranked the board over on a rail but I found it impossible to get the tail to slide one millimeter. Also felt like they cause a bit of drag and the tail was kinda "waffly"... hard to explain. Maybe in better waves or high-line barrels I may have appreciated them more, but they got stuck in the mini mal and there they stayed.

FCS do an RTM / Hex core version now, but they would not be anything like the original carbon ones.

[SharkBoy]

hey guys, thanks for the replies

I actually got my hands on a set to try, so I thought I'd post my initial thoughts.

Generally, I ride pretty standard equipment (5'11x 18 3/8) and my quiver is a mix of pro hand-me-downs and customs.

I got a hand me down from a pro in Spain which was a 5'4" Lost Roundnose Fish shape at 19 3/8" x 2 3/16".
I've had a couple of these from California before, usually slightly longer and with fatter rails, but this was apparently a team version.

I've had good experience with these boards (in the right conditions, lined up and sort of mushy), sometimes with MR twins, sometimes as with standard M5's but a lot of the times with the H2's- In fact, the only times I liked the FCS H2's have been with these boards as they seem to enhance both carve and skate.

So I tried this little pro'd 5'4, both as a thruster and with the H2's. Nothing seemed optimal, I started considering transforming it to a quad and noticed that the side fins were much further back than the other roundnosefish boards I'd tried, nearly an inch and a half.

My guess was that the pro I got it from had a modified set of twin fins for this board and that it was meant as a twin.
Basically, the H2's I surfed with it felt catchier, the k2'1s felt oddly dull and stiff, (which is the exact opposite of how they feel in most of my shortboards). The fins I had the most success with were the small m3's ( probably because the whole set up was pulled back). These allowed me to perform my reportiore of manoevers but I felt clumsy in between them at times and felt like there was little drive in what is ostensibly a rather drivy down the line design.

So, my thoughts went to trying either a smaller set of twins (than the massive MRtwins, which look like they'll pull the fcs plugs right out of this little board) or one of those weird looking fins like the C-drive or the Webber Curves.
I read the thread about he C-drives before starting this thread. Haven't tried the C-drives and the day after I read your responses I got a hold of a set of the original Carbon Webber Curves.

So here are my initial thoughts:
- Me, 5'8 x 170lbs surfer of better than average ability, surf was choppy but peaky beachbreak in the stomach to chest high range, exactly what I wanted to try these fins in.

there were few sections to hit vertically so I still don't know how that will feel, but this was a sort of get speed cutback or float sort of day and this really lifted the board to excel at this. The board felt drivy where the m3's hadn't, they felt responsive where the k2.1s hadnt and they weren't quite as catchy as the h2's (although, like I said, I didn't get many an opportunity to square my bottom turns and snap vertically)

I had some really long projected backside floaters where they were really stable atop the turbulent water.
There were two scenarios that they felt a little different, one was down the line lippers where I felt them catch just a little against the whitewash, nothing major, but I felt it nonetheless. The other, was when I met a very fat section or one that was aerated with white water, where the board just went dead. The first, I think has to do with the tip curved inward, the latter probably is due to that it is hard to get drive in aerated water as it is.

All in all, the volumy sides as you described Nick, seemed a good match for this board. It felt more like the RNF that it is than it did with other fin sets. They seemed to support the skatiness of the shape and in the roundhouse cutbacks I had, they felt solid. Floaters felt stable, and they were drivy and responsive.

Like I said, I have yet to find waves to surf them vertically with, but that's not what I have this board for anyways.

thanks for your helps, for now they are keepers!