I’m currently building a board that was supposed to be a retro fish, but due to bad blank selection the tail got a little too narrow. This however threw over all my plans regarding the fins. I figured reading the archives would help but actually only got me confused. I planned to build a twin keel, but after reading all about the differences between a quad setup and the twin keel I’m not sure anymore which way to go. To cut to the core…
The board is a 5’10’‘x20 1/2 x 2 5/8, the nose is 15’’ wide at 12’’ the tail is 16’’ wide at 12’’ from the tail.
The swallow tips are 9 1/2’’ apart the crack is 5’’ deep.
The nose rocker is 3 1/2’’ the tailrocker is 2’'.
It has a flat bottom and a sharp turned down rail.
I intend to use the board in a wide range of conditions but mainly steep and hollow reef waves 6’ and smaller. The board should anyhow be able to handle sloppy waves too.
Now taking all that into account what would be the best “can’t go wrong” setup for that board, plus how should I setup the cluster?
I really need some help on this since this is my first fish I’ve ever built.
the tail isn’t too narrow for a retro board. it depends do you want this board to be higher performing? if so make it 4 fins. if you want more of a swopping carving board, go with the twin. there is nothign wrong with that template.
Thank you. The way you put it, I’d like to go with the twin, but I’ve heard that they spin out pretty quick especially if the tail is narrow. Would that concern my board or could savely go with the twin setup?
I once put Twins on a 6.6 with a 14.8 wide tail and swallow. I surfed 6ft waves with it, and it works.
The only thing i feel, or believe, is that your sweet spot is so much smaller, so you need the feet in the right place to surf the board to its extreme.
If you add 2 fins to make it 4, you add some stability, and more of a directional feeling.
Do you do glass ons ? If so first dop twin, and just add 2 more if needed.
I’m doing proboxes (that gives me a little space to play and tweak with), so once it’s on it’s on… After doing a little bit more of reading I figured, that I’m going to stick with the original plan, since I’m taking 2 thrusters with me on my trip something different then a hard turning board would be a treat I guess. What I found out though is that there is also some room for speculation on which kind of keel I take. Someone wrote in this forum that the lokbox pavel fins (the asymetical ones I belive) have a greater tendency to turn then the standard doublefoil keel. Is there anything significant to it?
