Hello there all, I have a fin placement question. I have done a lot of research on this matter and have found a lot of conflicting views so I thought I would ask the masses here. Anyone who noserides or builds noseriders would be especialy welcome to comment!
Where would you place the finbox/fin on 9’6 noserider? Single fin.
The board is a fairly classic soft railed design with a blended nose concave and a mildly rolled bottom. Im using a 10.5 in FU box.
I have heard a few " rules of thumb " such as -
"Another good rule of thumb for a soft railed noserider is to position the fin so tha the tip is in line with the end of the tail block. This gives good pivot turns and great hold on the nose. "
and ...
As a rule of thumb, you can place the fin you intend on using on the bottom of the board with the base of the fin flush with the bottom of the board on the center stringer line. Don’t include the part that goes down into the box in this alignment, just the part of the fin’s base that matches with the board’s bottom. This gives you a gauge of HOW MUCH tip of the fin will extend past the rail of the board on hypothetical turns. If you opt for 1/3 of the total height of the fin to extend past the rail that is a pretty good estimate at where you might want to position the fin.
I have tried to play around with a fin on the board and have yet to fully understand either method. I may just be being stupid here, but if anyone can throw any light on this subject, that would be great. Thanks again.
For a noserider, I would put the box as far back as thickness would allow. Usually the limiting factor is how much foam you have to work with with a decent foil.
On a modern all purpose longboard, with hard down rails in the tail a 10.5 inch fin box is placed about 6.5-7 inches from the tail.
The soft rails in the tail as you describe definitely need the fin placed farther back than the same board with hard down (tail) rails. As stated above, a good rule of thumb would be about as far back as thickness allows.
You baisically want the box to allow the fin to be slid too far back, and too far forward, so that you can experiment to find optimal placement.
To be more specific I would reccomend 3 inches from the tail…but it depends on the board…and who you ask. With a 10.5 inch box at 3 inches, you can always slide it farther up.
For a noserider, set the box 3" from the tail and push that fin all the way back.
The way the board turns will be more dependent on the rail shape, tail shape, the fin you choose, and the amount of rocker shaped into the tail. Setting your fin box 3" from the tail gives you more versatility if you plan on trying out different fins. If you’re glassing the fin on, measure it out so that the tip of the fin is directly over the very end of the board. Most importantly though, NEVER install additional fin boxes for sidebites on a noserider…
This is all based on feedback from personal experience and feedback from friends and acquaintances who are professional “traditional” longboarders.
I like to think I am a good nose-rider having learned the skill in the 1960s, when it was an important part of ones’s stylistic repertoire. I would never choose a fin based upon how it nose-rides. For me, fin choice and placement is about how the board rides when you are NOT on the nose.
A person skilled at riding the nose doesn’t need a big fin placed way back near the tail. The box on my boards is a typical 6" from the tail, and fin placement is near the middle of the box. The same applies to most of the other supposed “nose-rider” design elements. Nose concave? Not necessary. Big vert or D-fins on the tail? Not necessary. Tail kick? Not necessary. Low rocker, Yes. Softer rails, Yes.
Here is how I did it…Place hand down at end of board, little finger at tailblock, thumb towards nose, put your marks at thumb distance. This works good for everyday board. For oldstyle board just use four fingers…Taught to me long ago…
Thanks so much for all the input here… I think this goes to show how subjective the art of surfing and building surfboards is. Very interesting answers, lots to think about, Thank you all.