I’ve been thinking of getting one for a little while now, I might finally do it sometime in the next couple weeks to use for fun on my noserider and with my new egg…anyone used them? Any idea how well they actually work? They look pretty interesting. Anyone used them or seen someone using them? I can’t seem to find anyone who actually has tested the things out! Here’s a picture for anyone who hasn’t seen them, 57182_vlt_1.jpg. Hopefully someone has some idea how they work because I’m pretty curious.
I had the fin that one is based on on a late-60s, 7’2" Weber
Performer years ago. I also had one on a Soul Mini Gun pintail made a year or two later. Neither of those boards worked particularly well but, to be fair, they each suffered from short-comings other than just their fins.
For it’s day, that fin was “all that”, but unless you’re
on an historical re-enactment quest, I think that nowadays there are
better choices, especially for a dedicated nose-rider shape.
Personally, I would choose eithier something like this Harbour NoseRider
fin (11" depth, 7-3/4" base):
or this FU Malibu Classic (10" deep, 7" base) instead:
Either
of them will do an excellent job of holding in your tail while you’re
on the tip, probably quite noticably better than the Joe Motion
pictured. In terms of turning, the Harbour will give you more of a
pivot while the Malibu Classic offers a bit more drive. In addition,
those two fins, having more base and area, will probably do a better job
of helping a big, heavy, 50-50-railed noserider maintain forward
momentum while plowing through soup (which is something that type board
excells at if properly finned).
If you’re looking for a
fin with a flexy tip that will give you snap and drive out of turns,
Harbour’s HP fin (9.5" deep, 6" base) work very well indeed:
Is the Joe Motion made of molded Lexan (like the original) of fiberglass?
Lexan is a much flexier material than fiberglass. Anything made of Lexan will need to be redesigned in a substantially thicker variant to get reasonable performance properties. I personally do not consider Lexan a suitable fin making material, but as a design problem you COULD get it kinda close, but only if the dimensions were different from fiberglass (polyester-glass) or G10 (epoxy-glass) or glass loaded plastics like nylon (with 40+% glass by volume). It would simply need to be thicker.
Looked up his website and checked him surfing on YouTube. The fin (which is polycarbonate, to answer my own question) certainly seems to work just fine for him. And I will admit that flexy fiberglass fins (such as the Harbour HP pictured above) do tend to develope stress cracks over time (though I haven’t had one actually break yet).
I would just be worried that your tail might have a tendency to break loose with that fin when you’re on the nose. But then I thought that would be the case with the HP til I tried one.
Guess the only way to find out for sure is to try one. If you do, let us know how it works for you.
Yeah the fin I have on my board right now is a 10" heritage noseriding fin that works great, turns from the tail no problem and will even respond well about 18" before the nose, and it holds on the nose perfect for me…I’d just use the Joe Motion fin when I want something a little different, some snappier turns and such. If I ever come across a deal where I find the Joe fin for maybe $30 or $40 I might get it, but I’m not so sure I want to drop $60. Dansen messaged me and told me they’re not so great, if I want to get flex fins there are better ones out there. Who knows, I was hoping to find someone who had used it!
Joe definitely rocks it though, but you gotta take into account he’s a pro surfer, so I’m sure he can rock anything. Just because Tudor rides single fins and twin fin fish boards at pipe doesn’t mean I can, :P.
