bonzer 5 fin setup as viable kneeboard option?

Anyone with any experience or ideas as to the functionality of a 5 fin kneeboard?

I was thinking a 5 fin setup, somewhat similar to the prawn but for a flex fish kneeboard.

quad for smaller days, high aspect flex fin as 5th for larger, lined up or hollow surf.

Let me know what you think, I would love to hear everyones ideas/experiences/suggestions.

Jamie

jamcclel55@hotmail.com

For sure, but consider narrowing the width of the board to account for deep concaves and all those side fins.

I’m 5’10, 185 and trying to cut more weight down.

how narrow do you suggest?

i had thought about 5’ and 22.5-23" but that may be too wide.

have you every tried one?

thanks for the input

Jamie

I only surf, but I have 3 friends who kneeboard OBSF regularly, and I think all have tried some form of concave multifin bottoms.

Both Tim and Rich say the boards are good for smaller surf, with the deep double concave and side fins, compared to their normal 22.5" wide belly bottom to slight V out the tailed shapes.

So you narrow down the board to allow easier banking over, since kneeboarding doesn’t allows as much leverage as standing up, and it will be fine.

Both guys are much heavier than you, closer to 200 and 220 lbs., so maybe 21" wide is wide enough with all that bottom shape.

interesting ideas,

what do these boys consider “smaller surf” in OB?

personally, i have found all the leverage i need without standing up, if a board has some flex, but i do see your point if a board has a little stiffness to it.

keep the ideas coming at me,

Can’t seem to find it at the moment but someone at http://www.ksusa.org/Forum/portal.php?sid=48cb5cdde7be0af47b42e54e1fe1338d Jon or Surfhorn I think converted a 4 fin to a five fin option and swears it is the ultimate answer.

What fin attachment are you planning to use and how design the flextail? Fellow KB’er here wishing to know. I getting ready to make a flex tail fish myself…

Most of the kneeboarders here don’t bother surfing unless it’s at least head high and OBSF moves in faster than most places in California.

The kneeriders, 5 that I know of, range from 6’5" and 210 down to maybe 6’ and 199, so all are big guys who have lots of leverage to sink the rails.

Their normal boards are 22.5" wide Lis fishs, but when they ride boards with concaves, they can’t seem to hold the edge in for long, powerful bottom turns. Function of too much planing surface with the concaves.

I can’t tell you how much to narrow down, since I’m a standup.

But for sure, the standups who really lay out their bottom turns ride narrower than 19" most of the time, flat to V the preferred bottom shape for head high and bigger.

Not saying Bonzer’s don’t work, but you need to ride them narrower if you have the juice like we do.

Notice the standup Bonzer’s in Oahu. They are narrow, semiguns, narrower than the standard Pipe boards.