thanks Lee, I’ll give those fin recommendations a try !
ben
Hey Chipfish,
The reason that board feels corky is you got way too much tail thickness. Unless you weigh 7 stones it’s going to be a bitch to bury the tail. The bigger the surf gets the harder it is going to be to sink the tail. Next time thin it out to where you don’t think you can get a set of FCS plugs in.
-Just my 10 cents worth…Jay
One more thing too, thin out the nose too, and put in more tail rocker. Then it will turn on a dime, if thats what you want.
I don’t think anyone really needs to sink the rails in bigger waves, if a less powerful turn does the job equally well.
My Wiamea 9’6"er, ridden twice at Pinballs and once at true 26’ Wiamea, was not only 4" thick at the center, but about 2.5" thick right at the single fin box, and I weighed about 140 at the time.
All my 8’6" guns were over 3" thick, with over a 2" thick tail at the finbox.
Most of my 7’6" semis for 10 Pipe were over 3" thick, and at least 1.75" thick at the single fin box.
You gotta balance wave catching, paddling, deck shape and bulk, to the lower center of gravity and feel you like.
Sure, given a parameter of say… 7’6" and 18.5" wide, what’s better, a great feel or 7 more waves each sesh and paddle ability to NOT get caught inside, and wave catching of a board a foot longer.
I don’t surf like Slater, so any wave I get is better than feeling great about the 3 I missed due to too small a board.
Point taken Lee, but there is a difference in big waves, your talking about Oh Shit size Northshore waves, and for normal human discussion I was thinking of 2x to 2 1/2x size Sunset Cliffs or Blacks size waves. Yes Wiamea, Outer Logcabins on a big day does constitute a 9’6" gun. But I would argue that Pinballs, Sunset, Pipe, Army Beach, everything except Chun’s goes better with a 7’6" Chapman Brewer type board. Something like 21 @ 3 1/8 thick. Your standard pro big Sunset board is about 7’2" @ 18 1/2 and thinned out. I use a 7’10"-8’0" on big days, but then I’m an 42 yearold 6’2" 200lb old fart, and need the extra paddle power to fight off the surf ratz. But I digress.
In my opinion it certainly feels good to get to the bottom of a nice macking wave, sink that rail to the point where you can skim your hand on the wave face, get the board pointed slightly north, and project a nice smooth arc across the pursuing lip…and then do it again. The only way I’ve learned to do that with confidence, is with a board that has purchase in the wave face. Thin hard rails with GR or Occy FCS fins. But the beauty of surfing is that everybody has different styles.
-Jay
Well, I certainly agree with your preferred style of surfing, but you seem dead set on finbox FCS, the weakest system needing the smallest fins.
Go Locbox, and you can use taller fins, which hold in and do the same thing without physically “sinking” the tail.
I DO kinda see you point thos. When I was surfing lots, one of my protege’s was the author of Essential Surfing. He started off using my style of thick railed, flat decked, heavy V boards and progressed to his own style of domed decked, front foot, thin railed, small fin forward designs.
I like my back foot heavy style, he likes his front foot speed trim style. To each his own, I always say.
When I really turn my 8’ Brewer, with 4.85 fins, I break them loose. Too small a fin for me really, for solid OB 6-8’ waves. I’d prefer 5.25 all three.