Is it possible to have a REAL fish, then put removable twins on it w/out affecting performance? Or are glass-ons (with their huge bases) the only way to get that insane speed/drive I’ve read so much about? If fcs is a realistic option, will the big carbon fiber twins that size put too much stress on the plugs and eventually blow out…extra footballs? Thanks again for all the advice/help!
Here’s a shot of our twin fin template Matt Biolas gave us.
http://www.redxfins.com/templates/images/xtone.jpg
Clyde Beatty also has some very nice laminated keel fins that fit our boxes.
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Is it possible to have a REAL fish,........... the only way to get that insane speed/drive I've read so much about? ............
hello jpt, ive never ridden a real lis style fish, but i was brought up on twin fins and spent much of the 80s surfing on home built second generation twins. it is my experience that twins do not have much drive at all compared to a thruster. What they have is “fall line” speed. Fall line speed is the light footed trim path diagonally down a wave, the absence of the centre fin will cause this path to lead to the base of the wave rapidly. What happens next is what i call “skate speed”, this is maintenance of momentum during the bottom turn using an equal pressured front/back foot approach with the board riding fairly flat.
attempts to drive it from the tail like a tri fin will give a dissappointing experience. Consequently riding a twin is a much more effortless way of going fast.
I have a post modern twinnie which i call the “blob” - fish front end and rocker, second generation twin fin futures on the rear rounded pin. After being unused for most of the winter i took it to the San Francisco metro beach break a couple of weeks ago. The experience confirmed everything i posted above. Its like greased lightening on the fall line.
Hey MrJ
Not so sure myself.
I’ve bought some twins with 4.75" fins, and your summation is true.
But I made a bunch of sub 6’ twins that had fins up to 8" tall, tails 15-16, and they had drive, holding power, speed, and distance. I never rode them in Hawaii, but for OB and Jalama up to 12’, they worked fine, better than most 7’ single fins.
I think it’s a combination of rocker, fin toe-in, …I never canted, and style that gives a board drive…or no drive.
Certainly nowadays, for surf under 5’, but bigger than 3’, I’d never use a twin/fish with fins smaller than 6x6".
enough talking??Watch slater and dan malloy surf good jbay on little fishes at surfing mag .com video they are going soooo fast!slater looks like he needs a lot more time on a fish but dan malloy and others are going way faster than you think.Also the smaller the fish the better from the looks of the video
hello LeeD, i just measured my future fins, they are 5 1/8" tall. From memory they resemble what i used to use - i had the “star” system, a Mark Warren template and a variety of home grown glass ons and even a locally produced variety, but they were all in much the same category as my present futures. My tails have all been < 15". Fins placed about 10 1/2" up. I really didn’t deviate from this formula so i can’t comment on the tall finned twins you are speaking of. I also set them with very little toe in as the short base 2n’d generation fins just don’t track - at least not for me. OB is a heavy wave i wouldn’t want to take my twin out in overhead waves there. My original twins were used in gutless onshore mush, but i had a lot of fun with my blob at the VFW end of OB last summer where the waves can break quite close to shore. As well as the board characteristics that you speak of, individual physique and body english has an effect on drive. I was a skinny sprat whose first board was a skateboard. With all those hours in the slop i learned to surf a certain way.
g’day jpt, your question of glass-on or plugs 4 a fin as large as a fish fin / D-fin, if your surfing your local break go with glass-ons if you travel alot go with plug fins but make shaw plugs are robust in relation to the fin template, i.e. F.C.S. plugs are a little bit small for any thing over 120mm.base size the drive from the larger base fins tends to degrade the plugs very quickly.
regards rod