Hey guys, so I recently shaped a 5’3”x20 1/2” traditional-style fish. Since I know most fish are designed with good, down the line waves in mind, and because the waves where I live are generally terrible (SE NC) I made some adjustments to my keels to ensure the board would stay really loose. Basically I scoured the forums for all the posts that talked about keel placement and used what would lead to the loosest combination. I used smaller, more modern-styled keels (blending curves template) that are 5” height and 6.5” base, set at 7” up from the tips, 1 1/4” in from the rail and toed in 1/4” with a 4* cant. This lead to my board working but feeling squirrelly. Ive had a couple sessions in fairly clean/semi chunky chest high surf and I feel like I’m having to nurse my turns frontside to keep from spinning out. (She doesn’t go backside at all but I expect that from a fish)
So my options at this point are
- deal with it. I’m good at adapting but that doesn’t allow me to tinker with anything in my garage and therefore is the least fun option.
- move my keels back to 5 1/2” from the tips in order to tighten her up
- larger keels set at the same place
- switch to a twinzer setup with 5 1/2” deep main fins and 2 1/2” canards and set at whatever is suggested.
- twinzerize my current keel setup with the little canards I made and the current keel placement
- sell the board and ride a thruster because that’s what I do my best surfing on anyway
So what would you do? I like the simplicity and look of a board with glassed on keels but need something drivier than what I’ve got.
Pics in order that they’re posted:
- current setup
- twinzer fins I made
- keel with twinzer
- board outline
The fins are made from some regular 1/8” plywood that I had left over from another project. Pretty happy with the way it turned out even if the foils are kind of funky
