I’ve never ridden a cutaway fin, but am thinking about picking one up. I know that there are some people who love them. I, personally, stick mostly to a classic fin or a barn door for noseriding.
Will the cutaway increase manueverability?
What are some of the pros you feel from your cutaway, and whos fin would you suggest?
I love cutaways with sidebites for “high performance” style longboarding. Compared to a single fin, a cutaway should be ridden shorter, loosening up the feel, but with a loss in drive. Add sidebites to make up for the loss in drive. This setup feels closer to a thruster in terms of turning, but is not ideal for noseriding. For that, I prefer the Harbour fin that has a sickle shape with a crazy long rake, fat tip, and wide base. I ride it just forward of center in the box and it works great without sidebites for noseriding and longer, more drawn out turns or more pivot type turns (think drop-knee style).
A couple years ago Brewer gave me his red 9’2" performance noserider - set up as a 2+1. I didn’t get into longboards until 5 or 6 years ago, so my inclination was to set them up thruster style, with a small center fin and sidebites. We had the board scaned and have made several copies, and now I have them spinkled around so I don’t have to shlep them when I travel to familiar places.
The first copies were finished by Michel Junod in Santa Cruz. When I stopped by to pick one up, Steamer Lane was firing. I brought fins for the board, but realized when I got there that I brought FCS sidebites and the board was set up for Futures. I stuck a 7" cutaway way forward in the box and figured I’d try it that way this one time, and put the sidebites in when I got home.
The board went insane. Super loose… and faster than it was with the sidebites. It’s been over a year, and I’ve never felt the urge to change the setup. I ride it in anything from ankle biters, to wedging shorepound, to double-O+ Ocean Beach.
Now this is my go-to board about 70% of the time. I’ve got the extra volume of a longboard, but I can huck turns like a shortboard. Without the sidebites I can’t bash off the lip the same, but the board will make loose carving turns like nobody’s business… and it turns on a dime… and it goes FASTER. If I really try, I can get the board to loose grip at the tail, but I never feel like that’s a problem. I just depend on my rail and stay loose like the board.
My center fin collection is mostly cutaways… from about 4" up to a whopping 7". I can’t ever imagine wanting more fin than that. I’m planting my rail, and just counting on my fin to hold the tail from spinning. More than that and it feels like I’m standing in my living room watching surfing on TV… everything just gets too stiff.
To each their own, but I LOVE cutaways. Futures makes really nice techie ones. Fins Unlimited makes an even more abreviated one. You can also get good ones from Fiberglass Fins, FCS, Curtiss, Island Fin Co, and True Ames… among others. The main thing I look for is - smooth lines, not too much rake, not too much surface area above the cutaway, and a nice foil.
Try one… you might like it. Give it a while to get used to it. Surf your rail. Swing your body through turns.
Kendall,
are you talking about something more like this (red one attached above still has wide base of fin):
I know a lot of folks who swear by cutaways. Some are surfers, and some are penguins. Check out the cutaway on this guy.
Have you tried cutaways larger than 7"?
–Ben
Cutaways come in great variety. I use them almost exclusively on all my boards. Cutaway rail fins are seldom seen but are of huge benefit on boards in excess of 8’0". I continue to stretch the cutaway template envelope invariably discovering another edge of performance in the process.
Thinking in eleven dimensions, Rich
Thanks Kendall, super good insight…definitely going to give it a go. So, do you suggest that I should ride a cutaway shorter than I would regularly ride on my longboards?
I tried a 7" cutaway as a single once in a five foot town swell at pops and I had to hold on for dear life squirrelly and out of control. I gave that to bammbamm as a dummy install fin. It was fun as a thruster set up though.
I HATE cutaways they are the shittest bloody fins anyone has invented.
so crap.
shit for noseriding and not even positive for turning with or without sidefins.
if you want to loosen up your board…
get a smaller normal fin not a cutaway.
yep… like that one. The biggest one I’ve tried is 8", but that kind of contradicts why I use them - to minimize the amount of fin. I’ve always been about smallish fins and loose tails.
If you ride a cutaway that’s otherwise about the same size as your normal fin, you’ll notice some difference. If you go shorter you’ll notice a lot. If you move it up in the box, you’ll notice even more.
It’s all about what floats your boat. Some people don’t like squirly tails. I kinda do. You don’t need to use a cutaway to make your tail looser. You can get to the same place a few different ways.
I figure my board wants to take the path of least resistance… Less fin makes it faster… After 44 years of surfing, I can put my weight wherever I think it should be and not fall off my board… If I want to crank a turn, I can plant my foot over the fin and make it stick… It’s not that loose, just looser.
If I’m racing down the line, I’m not making any sudden shifts that will make me spin out. My control surface is the rail and bottom. On this board, big fins and sidebites just feel like they add drag. I don’t need my board to feel stable, I just want it to go where I want it to when I want. Power turns come off the tail with my weight over the fin. 7" is plenty big for me to make it stick.
Comparing it to riding a bike… If you grip your handlebars really tight, you’ll hit every bump and fight your bike all the way down the hill. If you let the front wheel find it’s own way and just gently guide the bars you’ll make it down effortlessly.
The other thing is… I’m not really a “longboarder”. I never really rode longboards until relatively recently. I’m not so much about cross-stepping and one-footed noserides. I’m more about being in tune with the wave and dancing with it. I’m liking my longboard because as I get older and heavier I’m also getting slower. Now I just wave and nod as 12 year olds paddle past me. Also SF paddle outs and current can be really gnarley. More foam is good.
Hey Rich… I’ve got a couple Reno guns that have glass-on cutaway rail fins. Sorry I don’t have a picture of the fins, but here are the boards:
Yo Kendall,
Cutaway rail fins work great on boards with lots or rail engagement. That gun is a perfect example. IMHO cutaway fins trim faster than full base fins. But in when you boil it all down it’s in the foil.
Yo Greg,
Those “Cik” cutaway twins I made you are pretty positive aren’t they?
No Worries, Rich
Kendal!! You have been holding out! Why weren’t those pic’s posted on the the “Show us your resin swirl” thread? WHY?
Seriously, I have to make another foam board now, just so I can do that kind of color. Really nice. thx.
Hi Greg… I thought I posted these on the resin tint thread… but maybe since I didn’t glass them, I didn’t. I’m glad I forget things, otherwise I’d be bummed that I have such a bad memory.
When Reno showed me the green and purple gun, I just about wet my pants. It’s the most beautiful board I’ve ever seen. Plus, it’s just what I need in macking hollow Hawaiian surf. The only way he’d sell me the board, was if I bought the pink, white, and blue one too. I’m thinking that one is too big for me, so it may be available to the right person.
The purple board is 9’3"… the pink one is 9’8". Their temporary home is in storage at the Surfing Heritage Foundation. If you stop by and you’re really nice to Barry, he may show them to you.
I always hated cutaway fins, they didn’t feel positive enough and where helpless off the bottom… Until i tried Halcyon’s:
I think that if you take fin area from the base, you have to balance that: by adding area in other places, finding a better / more efficient template or a better / more efficient foil.
Now i’m in love with those cutaways you see in the photo: speed sensitive and feel really, really natural and almost dragfree.
I just don’t want to ride stock fins anymore the way i don’t like popout shapes.
That is the essence of it for me… Like with the board itself, there’s more to a fin than its template. Curtis Hasselgrave can make any template work better. Moving it forward or back in the box makes a huge difference.
Cutaway or not… I don’t usually like fins with a lot of base or rake… or too far back. They tend to make boards too stiff for my taste.
Some people like really stable boards. I don’t. One thing I do like is that the “magic board” is totally subjective. We are all right. You’re the only one that can judge how well something works for you.