Hi, I’m new but been lurking for a while and this site has inspired me to have a go at making a board. I’ve got an old damaged board I’m going to strip for a blank for my first go, I think its an old kneeboard. It’s got about 5’2" x 23 x 3 to work with (13.5" wide at tail, 19" wide 1 foot up from tail, and 19" 1 foot down from nose), which I’ll probably use all of for a planned twinnie for knee to chest size waves. I’m 5’10" and 165ish.
Anyway, this question is about the fins, which I’m making first. They’re going to be skateboard deck ply, I’m just not sure which way to put the base to tip curve, curving out from centre or curving in toward the centre, or curving toward the centre but with cant away from centre (think that’s the right word)?
Also, I’ve checked out fin shapes for boards like what I’m thinking of making (fish and mini simmons type shapes), and it seems 10" base and 5-6" height might be a go? Also, would it be crazy to make a perfectly semi-circular fin? Thought it might look novel, haha.
Any help would be much appreciated, sorry about the long convoluted questions.
Whoa, dude… totally out of the box, for sure. Go for it! Curve the fins inward and cant them outward. Toe them inward or keep them straight.
I updated the top thread that Janklow linked to put the pics back in.
I was hopin’ you’d do that. You gettin’ any down there in CC, AL?
Has anyone tried them with no/low cant at the base and the tips facing out? It seems like it could give you a little more ‘bite’ on a walled up face and also slide around nicely with less effort on a mushier day. If you vizualize the board being tipped over for a bottom turn, the outward facing tips would go deeper down into the water, but at the same time an inward facing tip would help pull the tail down into the water letting you drive harder off the turn.
I saw some fins one guy I knew made and they were supposed to do that. He’d taken the outside fins on one of his thrusters and cut 3/4" off the tips, the added some 1" winglets canted outward at ~40 degrees. He said it made the board hold better in hollow beach breaks, but I only saw it on the racks, never in the water.
Thanks for the responses, I had seen those threads, but was just wondering how people had been placing them with the curve. Those replaced pictures help with that. I guess I’ll be putting them curve in, with slight cant (the deck I have has very little concave anyway).
The other things I’m wondering are whether 10" base is too much (I have done a little research on fin design and placement, and your ideal rear foot placement is just ahead of the fins??), and whether 6" height is too much. Finally, semi-circular fins, bad idea?
Thanks again.