Hi Tom, hope thinsg well your side?
any more new fin developments happening on your front?
cheers
dean
Dean,
You should be receiving your fins any day now. I've been getting very favorable reviews of the Quad fin sets we've been putting together. I just got back from the North Shore doing some field testing on a few thruster sets and came home to a combo swell that I immediately went into quad fin testing on. We just got some more Ultra material in. I'll see if we can't make yoou a few NGX-4 samples with your root on them.
Tom can’t wait!
i got a call to say they will arive FRIDAY, here’s hoping…
anyway would LOVE to try the new 4 way NGX4 in Ultra, after i modified the tab from the sample fins i had a bit too much play but they felt pretty good considering.
anyway, i will mail u privately regarding those…
thanx for your contributions, it’s great to get the technical low-downs on the fins both Lokbox and 4 ways to all the surfers/shapers out there who are interested.
Regards
dean
Okay this will be a review for many of the Swaylock’s regulars, because a lot of the theories that influence my designs evolved through different conversations/debates right here on this BB.
Primary theory: Fins provide two distinct functions. The most obvious is manuevering control. The less obvious is providing lateral resistance to aid in kinetic pumping.
These two functions are diametrically opposed. The first function can be optimsed by smooth continuously curved surfaces, while the second likes flats and hard edges. Since the average surfboard operates at very low Reynolds Numbers, the traditional flat sided or even concaved inside surfaced fins do not produce excessive trubulence until you really start to haul. Then those features that helped resist the lateral force of a pump and direct it forward, cause turbulence as flow rates rise. Now on average the old tradional flat sided fin works pretty damn well through the middle of the average performance curve. The concaves work a bit better at the low end. The flat sided have a little bit higher end before they cause excessive turbulence. But, when you really start to haul ass a smooth and continuous curved surfaces with no flats and a foiled leading edge will maintain laminar flow attachment to higher flow rates and through greater changes in angle of attack.
I designed the Next Generation X-2 foil by taking the X-2 template and driving two NACA curves from the base out to the tip so that there were no transitions aside from the leading and trailing edges. The inside foil is 20% of the max girth and the outside foil is 80% of the total max girth. These fins work insane when you’ve got plenty of power that you want to carve with control. But, when they are down speed they shead the water when you try to pump.
At the same time that I was developing a new technique for creating our mold designs, I was out searching for a stiffer, more resilient (snappier) material than glass filled nylon. This was three years ago prior to “Glass Flex”. I found the material I was looking for and molded the Next Generation fins with it. This is the Ultra material that you can order in any of our templates from 4-Way.
Inorder to deal with the times when (all too often in Southern California) we actually do need to kinetically pump up some speed, I made the Next Generation X-4. Again I drove two NACA curves from the base to the tip. But, this time I only drove the inside foil up the forward 30% of the inside surface and transitioned into the aft 70% as a flat surface. This smoothed out leading edge turbulence while giving a nice flat trailing surface to pump against. It also ended up with a very fine flexible tip. Combining this foil with the Ultra material really gives you a fin you can swim without the top end turbulence. I still recommend using these fins in head high and under conditions and moving into the Next Gen X-2 overhead. But, everyone has got to find their own prefrences.
Since performance quads have been so hot lately. We took the NGX-2 fin and removed the bottom 5/8" of the fin to make a 4" 80/20 trailer. We’re producing most of these in glass filled nylon and combined with Ultra X-2 fronts on my Cole FireFly works great. I’ve got the NGX-4 in front on my Fish Quad. Both setups work even better a quads. But, I just got back from a trip to the North Shore where I jumped back onto a four year old 6’5" squash tail thurster with X-4 fronts and X-1 back and a 6’10" round pin thruster with NGX-2s and there was no transition. Both boards worked great like slipping on an old favorite pair of slippers… while driving your Lotus Esprit at pace.
thanx Tom,
that’s why i can’t wait to ride the new ones, adjust where i need to for the boards i have done and see where else i can push design.
Great work, keep it coming…
cheers
dean
just to let u guys know there’s an interesting debate (futures/ 4ways etc…) on the thread “futures in firewire” thread…
cheers
dean
Hi everyone,
Even though I am one of Deans team riders, these are honestly my experiences with 4wfs. I used to use FCS before switching, I had the a whole selection of FCS fins. Then I found that merely changing fin template made a huge difference as to how one of my boards performed. Its incredible what the slightest change of fin placement will do, let alone fin template. When ever I get a new board I ride it and give Dean the feed back, we chat about how it feels, what it does well and what is not working so well. This translates into little changes in the placement of my fins. I have literally transformed a good board into a “magic” board. Some people find the freedom in set up a bit too confusing, but by making little adjustments as you surf is super easy. I often even take a fin key out in the water and make adjustment.
As for strength of the product I had more missions with FCS than with 4wfs. I’ve snapped fins off at the base twice, once by skim boarding into the surf (hit a sand bank) and the other whilst surfing. But the same has happened with FCS and in those cases the plugs went with the fins. I have taken my boards with 4wfs on several Indo trip and have had no problems. Another positive point is that you don’t get the wobble often associated with FCS fins in the plugs with 4wfs. They always fit in nice and snug and the screws are a tag bigger and don’t strip the thread like FCS, which most of the guys I know using FCS have to deal with.
I think they’re great and I say that from experience.
just in case anyone wonders…
NO i didn’t pay Launchpad to say those good things about 4 ways…
cheers
ddean
Altho… i might need to get launchpad a beer after that
…not often a team-rider can give more than a one-liner of feedback!
cheers
deano