Post
by Cpt.Caveman » Tue Mar 13, 2012 10:23 am
I've been playing around with fins a lot with my quads in the past and the more I swap boards with friends the more I realise how personal fin preferences are. More recently I've been surfing my semi-finless a lot which has changed my tastes towards slightly less fin and more rail/edge control in my HPS boards. For example I've surfed a friends 5'4" wide-tail MG Retro Fish, very similar in planshape and all to your dim-SIM kookster, but since surfing semi-finless a lot I actually like having very small fins and having tail release available when I want it.
For background I'm 5'11", around 86kg. For another example, in my 6'0" quadfather I tend to like KFin/G1000, however my friend who has a very similar 6'1" quadfather and is a little lighter and taller than me, he prefers carbon G5/tiny weeny nubster trailers. I surf it and think it feels to skatey but he loves it.
I used to use PC3/G1000 in my 5'11" Swinger but since surfing semi-finless a lot I now prefer PC3/MR-TX(rears).
I've surfed a friends quad fin fish that is very similar in planshape etc. to your dim-SIM kookster, and the wide tail can effect backhand pivot to some degree but fin size, vee, tail rocker and the rest can make up for it easily. To give you an example, this board had the Future Fins equivalent of M3/GX fins and it was more than capable of top-to-bottom surfing both back and forehand. M3/GX is not much fin area at all, so it require some sensitivity to surf off the rail/edge/concave some more, but I enjoy that. I know how MP designs his boards, hes always trying to keep them free in the tail so I would hesitate to guess its the fin size/spread thats the problem.
My general rule for tweaking the fins in a quad for what you like are as follows:
1) Start with a pretty standard template and size spread (e.g. M5/M3 or M3/G1000). Surf it for a little while and feel it out, spend a couple of sessions paying attention to finding the sweet spot. Thats super important in all quads I've surfed, the difference between on and off the sweet spot can make a big difference to how it surfs.
2) Think about how you want it to perform differently (lets say you started with M5/M3 for example):
- If the board feels too stiff off both the front and back foot (e.g. difficult to do pump turns, stiff to throw over into a turn), decrease the fin size both front and back (e.g. to M3/G1000). The same goes if you want more tail release through turns, drop the whole fin area down.
- If the board feels too stiff too turn off the front foot or to do trim-pumps, then use a more upright front fin (e.g. K2.1, TC Aqualine instead of M5 or M3).
- If the board feels too stiff to turn off the back foot, i.e. its turning radius is not sharp enough, decrease the size of the rear fins (e.g. M3 down to G1000, or G1000 down to GX). Always use double foiled rear fins, single foiled just feels terrible for responsive surfing.
- If you feel you have lost too much drive from dropping fin size down you have two choices. Changing from glassflex to a fibreglass construction will give you a big boost in drive and slightly stiffen the board too (e.g. changing from M3 to PC3 will boost drive big time, but keeping the rear fins glassflex will still keep some of the forgiving feel). I've also really enjoyed a twinny and stabiliser type set-up in quads with a pulled in tail (e.g. MR-TFX front/MR-TX glassflex rear). That one was a nice blend of super fast and tail release.
I would hesitate to guess you might like M3/G1000 in the dim-SIM kookster. I know it might seem like very little fin at first, but remember if you add up the fin area of all four fins your always going get a little more than similar fins x 3 (thruster), and you're always going to have another fin close to the rail helping out when you lay the board over. If you're only surfing the board in smaller waves I reckon you might also like a fibreglass M3 equivalent with GX or similar in the tail. That will be very easy to throw around. If you're in Sydney or are ever down here I'd be happy to lend you some fins.
Davros wrote:Ego saved - surfing experience rubbish.