RealSurf Surfers' Forum

thanks for that Nick .... that must have been GREAT to have been there , seeing that , eh ?!

cheers !

ben chipper

Hi There, been reading the posts and seen that it would be great if one could customize their fins using the colors and logos of your own. We are going to start a new project that could make this happen and provide customizable high quality fins at very good prices. If you wanna help make this real please take 3 mins of your time to complete this survey using the link below.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NT39N92

Cheers,
Constantino

I have usually used boards with glassed in fins.
I have one board with FCS boxes: if I want to play around with fins am I stuck with the FCS brand? or will other manufacturer's fins go in there too?

No mate several other brands will go in there such as Kinetic, Shapers and Powerbase amongst others.

Sweet. So anything with 2 tabs looks like a goer.
PS it's a MR flying fish with thruster fin setup: any recommendations? I've never experimented with fins before...

Everyone seems to have their own personal opinion on fins. I would start with a good standard set of say 5 template or 7 template fins (depending on tail width and how heavy you are). They should work in most boards and will be a good base set. If they work well then just leave them in and surf the board. Unless you can afford to spend a small fortune on chopping and changing fins and keeping up with the latest marketing hype.

One of the best sets of fins I own was a $40 FCS carbon base rip off from ebay. We just fine tuned them a bit and they are great. It is buyer beware though.
The Shapers fins look pretty good and are a bit cheaper than FCS.

PS even the old FCS fins fit the new FCS 2 fin boxes (not that your board would probably have the new FCS 2 boxes). They will try and sell you some little adaptor thingy but you really don't need it. It just leaves a small gap in front of the fin but I would be buggered if you notice a difference.

Saw a guy out at Bondi the other day on one of the nicer MP Replicas I've seen. He had one of those Ben Lexen/ Shane Horan winged keel fins in the fin box. I reckon MP would have punched him out for that back in the day.

Snapped a fin yesterday, SOAR classic.

Havent ever really experimented with fins, just ride whatever my shaper puts on it...but thought I may see if anyone here has any recommendations

Usual board of choice is 5"11,19 3/4, 2 5/8...semi fish type board wide to the nose, plenty of foam

Riding on the mid north coast so plenty of soft waves

I weigh around 70kg

how many of them?

three

I use custom made fins. Have a new set on the way and will post pics. I never experimented till the last three years and wish i went custom years ago. It's funny that many surfers only go custom boards yet settle for pop out fins. I never woke up to myself till recently. Pics soon

saltman wrote:Hui make those fins digger?

Yes saltman, second to none mate

Here are the two thruster sets I use. Customs from Huie as well so not sure how useful it is. I included an M3 centre fin for comparison.
The top 2 are from a quad that is similar to the board you described. Those ones are really light and stiff. Think they are silky oak and carbon fibre.

The colourful set is more upright, shorter in the base, probably slightly more volume overall. Use them in steep quick waves.

The blue set is bigger than M3. More base, more volume in the tip. Use them when the waves get a bit bigger and I want to draw things out a bit.
Fair bit thicker too, and properly foiled.


On my best days I'm an average surfer, but I can definitely notice having better fins.

alakaboo wrote:Here are the two thruster sets I use. Customs from Huie as well so not sure how useful it is. I included an M3 centre fin for comparison.
The top 2 are from a quad that is similar to the board you described. Those ones are really light and stiff. Think they are silky oak and carbon fibre.

The colourful set is more upright, shorter in the base, probably slightly more volume overall. Use them in steep quick waves.

The blue set is bigger than M3. More base, more volume in the tip. Use them when the waves get a bit bigger and I want to draw things out a bit.
Fair bit thicker too, and properly foiled.


On my best days I'm an average surfer, but I can definitely notice having better fins.

1st ones deffo look like silky oak boo.
All look to have a very wide base, much wider than standard fcs stuff.
I have no real idea about fins, plastic or carbon fibre or in anything in between. Unless they're radically different, the subtlety is lost on me. Not doubting they make a difference but if they are generally fin shape, thats enough for me. Don't really care wether they're plastic or more sophisticated. Size, however, does seem to make a difference in a general sense and i'm sure the other stuff: foil, cant, base, flex, camber etc also make a difference but i don't think i have the skills to care enough. Have a mate who surfs pretty well and noticed one day he had his 2 side fins accidentally in the wrong way, foil inside rather than outside. Seemed to make no difference to his surfing. He said he didn't notice either.

Went to add a photo and the file is to big, was using the iPhone so can't post photos till much later

black duck wrote:1st ones deffo look like silky oak boo.
All look to have a very wide base, much wider than standard fcs stuff.
I have no real idea about fins, plastic or carbon fibre or in anything in between. Unless they're radically different, the subtlety is lost on me. Not doubting they make a difference but if they are generally fin shape, thats enough for me. Don't really care wether they're plastic or more sophisticated. Size, however, does seem to make a difference in a general sense and i'm sure the other stuff: foil, cant, base, flex, camber etc also make a difference but i don't think i have the skills to care enough. Have a mate who surfs pretty well and noticed one day he had his 2 side fins accidentally in the wrong way, foil inside rather than outside. Seemed to make no difference to his surfing. He said he didn't notice either.

Yeah duck, that wasn't clear. I know what the wood is, I just don't know what else is inside them.

You mean wider as in the base length, or thickness?
All are a fair bit thicker in foil, the colourful set are shorter in the base than the M3s.
I think some are based off Sunny Garcia templates. I don't surf anything like him, but I am heavy on my feet. And generally I surf more drawn out (i.e. my turns are barely perceptible from land) so I go for a bit more base.

We spent about 18 months or so with me just riding the same board (quad, so more factors) every time (3-5 times a week) and changing fins regularly based on my feedback to Huie (and him sending me new stuff to try). That was really helpful, and basically completely flipped my ideas about what I thought I liked upside down.
These days I don't change that much, maybe once or twice a year, because Huie matches fins to the board (including making the base sit flush) and they just work.

Every one of my friends that has borrowed some fins, from really average to former semi-pro surfers, have gone out and got glass fins after trying them.

alakaboo wrote:
You mean wider as in the base length, or thickness?
All are a fair bit thicker in foil, the colourful set are shorter in the base than the M3s.

Yeah, was meaning base length.
Given the extra thickness, they must be pretty rigid, not much flex?

Yep.
I used to think I liked tall fins with lots of rake and flex.like the Greenough tuna shape, chosen mainly for aesthetics but also because I did some ecophysiology classes that made me think they'd go well.

Turns out I prefer smaller more upright fins with longer bases.