has anyone ridden a thruster set-up longboard with H2’s? just wondering if any has any input on the ride/feel or if anyone has any theories as how it might ride…
to much board for a fin like that to make a difference…
They are designed to loosen a small highoerformance board design up.
I think the mechanics of whats happening torque wise between a 9 footer and a 6’2" are way different.
I find the same probelem with my 9’ Parmenter longboard with FCS plugs…
You either have no drive or it’s too stiff.
I’ve used the:
Occy’s
Rusty’s
Carbon TC1’s
Carbon Simon Anderson’s
Carbon CRVs
Inside Curve FG7’s
and a combination with the new Redtip as a center with not alot of success compared to my other 2+1 set up longboards. You’re gonna feel more from the interaction of the rail than you would from such small fins…
I guess it depends alot on the outline of the mal but I’d swear the H2’s weren’t designed to be put on a mal type board…
The Infinity Rad Cluster fin design i,e, close cropped with big sides is a better way to loosen up big boards than some high performance 4.5" fin with a heavy cant. Even a quad set up on a longboard would be better than a thruster with H2s.
But again, why listen to me…I’m just a hacker/hobbiest.
Rich, Bert, Jim and the 2 Bill’s might know… Blakestah as well
I rode the H2’s on some of my shorter longboards like 8’ and I didnt like them at all. I tried them with various trailer fins and pretty much the same results… It was a little looser feeling but the speed and drive didn’t impress me.
I had them in the box and even offered to give them away once but the guy didn’t want them. One day I was fooling around with fins on my 12’ board. I was going to try the curved FCS ones then thought what the heck, try the H2’s… To my surprise it was the biggest improvement to that board! I couldn’t believe how much it loosened it up and the speed gains in bigger waves was incredible. I caught the biggest waves with those fins and to this day I only ride those H2’s with a 7.5 cutaway trailer… 6-8-10’ North Shore surf and the fins are awesome! Awesome holding power and you can jam some turns… What a surprise!
I figured they worked so good I went out and bought a set of the Large models they just came out with. Those SUCK on the 12’ board. Way slow and stiff. I got pounded wave after wave on a solid 6’+ day at Laniakea with the large models… I went back to the regular ones and they work great. I got some of the best rides of my life with the regular H2’s and the 7.5 Cutaway from Island Fin Design… Who would of thought??
thanks for the input…i have found the same with using carbon lite G-5’s being too stiff and by using the FG-5’s the board feels really solid on bottom turns by pivotting of my hand planted on the face. the board also performs well on white water re-entries and off the lips but lacks in roundhouses. the board does not seem to drive well through the turn and by the time i rebound off white wash i am lacking speed…i’m sure alot has to do with my technique as well. the board is 9’0" x 22" x 2 7/8"…the board lets me cheater five and a quick tap five but i’ve only been on it for a few weeks.
Thanks funny cause although I normally ride my 9’ squash with a 9" island design cutaway with small FCS sidebites.
when it really starts cranking I find I can switch to the webber curved CRVs on the sides with a small carbon 6"-7.5" sailboard cutaway I got from surfnsail in the 10" box centered like a thruster between the three and it works well. Alot of guys ride those CRVs with a small center fin on 9’0’s when the waves get heavy…
Probably the same thing is happening.
But again we’re using a 7’.5" cutaway center fin versus the stock 4-5" thruster H2 center for a little added drive.
In my pure FCS plugged thruster setup no matter what I use I can’t get the same result as I get using a smaller cutaway box center and different sides even the redtip in the back FCS plugs didn’t feel the same…
The nice thing about the CRVs is that you can really put it on the rail without worrying of slipping out. Maybe thats what the H2’s are doing with their striaght up profile and heavy cant… By $90 for longboard sidebites?.. I don’t know almost as bad as $60-$80 for the Redtip.
I use the same set up in a 9’1". CRVS with a 6.5" cut away in the center.
Yeah, I was blown away from the first wave I got with the H2’s on my 12 footer. I had to catch a few to make sure I wasn’t just imagining it! It just didn’t make sense how much of a difference it made and believe me, I tried over 30 different combinations from an array of single fins of different shapes and sizes to small side bite to large side bite combo’s to thruster combo’s even to the darn Red Tip which I DID give away! Haha!! Aipa swears by that thing but I hated it…
So far, this set up on my 12’ Mickey Munoz Superglide works the best… I really think it could just be my weight, ability, style of surfing, where I stand, the spots I surf, etc, etc, etc… Also remember that a 12’ board draws totally different lines from any other board… Loose is relative to 12’. A loose 9 footer is a totally different loose!!
The H2/Cutaway combo…
good thread , and one I am paying close attention to , because …
i know there are alot of input on having a longboard for nose riding and a more performance oriented ride and that it is either one or the other…do any of you find that using the CRV fins it affects nose riding? good to hear the input with the different fin set-ups does anyone else have any fin combos they prefer?
I used to use the CRV’s or Free Willy’s as I call them on all my longboards with a thruster set up. They worked fine from the nose as a thruster even… I liked them a lot and they even made one board that was a dog work a lot better…
Because I went to the H2’s with excellent results I never tried the Free Willy’s on the 12 footer yet… Well, no better time than the present!!! I’ll bring them with me today and see if the waves are mellow… I learned not to try new combo’s when I can get my butt kicked… Haha!
Maybe this will help (I know it’ll help Chippy)
Anyway this is the Parmenter RP 9’0 I haven’t found an answer for yet other than some carbonlite AMs
I found this 2+1 set to work quite well on the south shore and westside
They come in different sizes but The small one’s don’t have the same effect on my 9’0’s
Alot of guys I ride with like these fins as singles or 2+1s on their longboards I heard the small squirrel as the center of a thruster design works well although I haven’t seen it.
These are popular too in our line up but I didn’t like them and got rid of them
Like CraveNalu these are my two favorite 2+1 lonboard center fins right now. Good release and drive
For juicy situations like the country this is the setup I’ve used. This is on a Makani McDonald full concave bottom 9’0. I usually use the Curtis carbon cutaway from above with the “free willys” but this is a fiberglass BC Rudders sailboard fin I also like with thr CRVs.
BC Rudders makes some reeally unique fiberglass fins that I really like. I get mine from Strong Current or SurfnSail
For a big lani’s or sunset type of waves I find that George Ku’s c5 Canard setup works wonders in distributing the power especially paired with smaller thrusters.
Finally I gotten rid of most of these traditional highperformance longboards you’ve seen and trimmed down to a 7’11" McCoy nugget which has the same paddle power but is way looser in the hook. The keels and gulls are excellent fins for these McCoy tail and bottom designs… I can out paddle most long boarders with my Surftech 7’11" or Carroll 6’8" horan and still carve circles around them like a short boarder… But I still prefer shortboards…
Finally like CarveNalu you can go big with really small fins.
This is a 1990 Jim Turnbull Mal I had made for personal use and tandeming my nieces. Its 10’x24.5"x3.5" but it shreds like a 9’0". Heavy tail rocker and a deep 1/4"-1/2" double barrel through the tail suported these 4" thrusters… In the early 90’s when I was hot to get back into surfing this was the machine I used everywhere even in 6-8 Alii… I love this board and so does everyone that rides it… I wish I had bought alot more of them before Jim died…
Oh no, here we go… I was perfectly happy with my set up but now you got me going with those sail board fins! Aggggghhhhh!!! You’re as bad as me!!! Fin-aholic!!! I can’t talk with you guys now, I gotta go down and get me more fins to try!!!
thanks for the response and i’m sure alot of other surfers enjoy the input. any other fin set-ups/combinations surfers enjoy? i have been surfing for around 5 years much of this time has been shortboarding. last year i had picked up a 9’0" and had really enjoyed it and had quickly grown to the liking of these boards but i sold that board for shool tuitions. during the christmas break i had sold an older board and scraped up some money to pick up this board. thanks again for the posts…
You know I’ve been doing this surfing thing since 67-68.
I don’t know if that means anything if that makes me an old grumpy fart(at work they think so) or not…
But I really can’t say that anything tha’s come out fin wise since then is any more a earth shattering milestone that what alot of us were doing in the late 60’s early 70’s… Okay fin systems maybe, but now what are you telling me that I’m stuck buying all my fins from only you now… Come one that’s retail/microsoft mentality…
Again maybe it was the combination of being a teenager, pakalolo, hashish, free love and worrying about getting sent off and dying in vietnam, but we tried just about anything and everything you could do to a board or in the water. Stainless steel fins jammed into woolworth foam cooler boards, fishes, 21"x3" keel fins on ultra pins, glued on trifins, raked flexible singles liek afish fin, ultra thick and stubby double foiled greenough high aspect things, foam fins ply fins, 1/4" flexing glass fins. Fins that pivot, two fins in a row, fins put on backwards to help you do 360’s, and no fins at all.
Alot of stuff was tried a long long time ago… And still look at what we ride today… Not much that much more different if not more conservative than what some of us longhairs were experimenting with back then.
So I don’t know what it means to get all crazy about some of this stuff…
Try it for sure if you can afford all the toys to play with… But whether it’s the cats meow and gonna change the world for ever I just don’t know based on what I seen since then…
You think we’d be on anti gravity hydrophyllic self powered smart devices by now… with their own intelligence and form shifting capabilities. Ride that porpoise/killer whale concept… Since that hasn’t happened I reckon it was all about just having fun anyway… Just like Ambrose and Chip are here to remind us…
So don’t worry, you’re not missing one thing as long as you have the “fun” thing down…
i resurrected this thread cause i just picked up some crv sides for my 9-0. can’t get out til tuesday though so i’m just picturing it in my mind til then. right now i’ve got a 6" with g-3000 sides on a 9’ x 22" x 2 3/4" w/ a 12 1/2" pulled in baby squash. the 6" looks like this:
6" fu mm
overall it looks like it might be too much fin w/ the crvs.
i’m thinking of a goin with a cutaway which others seemed to have success with or a smaller thruster type. here’s what i had in mind:
4.75" fu/kanoa k2d2
or
5.5" ta walden cutaway
any feedback is appreciated. the waves are fickle east coast beachbreak. this hp board mostly sees conditions chest high on up - mostly mushy but once in a while juicy and steep. i’ll try them with the 6" first but since i can only mind surf right now what can i expect and how do you think my other 2 choices will fare?
i resurrected this thread cause i just picked up some crv sides for my 9-0. can’t get out til tuesday though so i’m just picturing it in my mind til then. right now i’ve got a 6" with g-3000 sides on a 9’ x 22" x 2 3/4" w/ a 12 1/2" pulled in baby squash. the 6" looks like this:
6" fu mm
overall it looks like it might be too much fin w/ the crvs.
i’m thinking of a goin with a cutaway which others seemed to have success with or a smaller thruster type. here’s what i had in mind:
4.75" fu/kanoa k2d2
or
5.5" ta walden cutaway
any feedback is appreciated. the waves are fickle east coast beachbreak. this hp board mostly sees conditions chest high on up - mostly mushy but once in a while juicy and steep. i’ll try them with the 6" first but since i can only mind surf right now what can i expect and how do you think my other 2 choices will fare?