So I’ve gone on a fin fast (and I’m going extremely fast)…
who has gone without and what is your experience?
thats a good thread title because the hot curls are not completely finless, but they have that wedge that acts as a shallow fin. I never liked the spin outs of most finless boards but seems like the hot curls are not so prone to that. I have been curious about them for a long time, as you know I even tried to buy one of yours haha, but one of these days would like to try one.
Not much about the power squat you see on an alaia is appealing to me.
Ive found the hotcurl to be very trustworthy in terms of the surfing it does. In headhigh and bigger surf it’s incredible smooth and fast. It’s hold in the pocket is quite amazing.
I find it to be a board ridden because you want to feeling.
as with all my boards anyone is more than welcome to take em for a ride. I know I’m a little drive but your always welcome and there are lots of places up here to surf alone.
It seems that finless boards seem to be a small wave thing??? Mr Hynd being something of an exception but still squatting.
Its the mad hatter’s tea cup effect that I dont desire, but the very few videos I’ve seen of the hot curls don’t seem to indicate that.
Going with the thread title, the topic here seems to be: how little fin can you get away with.
In another thread the comment was made that most surfboards are over finned.
In Bruce Fowler’s thread in surfshop he talks about one of his customers using such a small fin everyone on the beach thinks he’s a kook.
Be interesting to hear more on the subject.
Have you ever thought about bonzer runners on a hot curl? Or widowmakers?
A few weeks ago I had put one of MrMiks single fins in my 6’8" , as my 6’11" was damaged in an incident shortly before. He made some break away screw plates which i was employing, and the tide was low.
I duckdove, ran the fin into sand and the early version of the break away screwplates broke away, so I stuffed the fin into my wetsuit and decided to catch at least one wave, with no fins.
I was a bit amazed how much harder it was to paddle a regular board with no fin(s) Had to completely alter my stroke so the nose would not yaw back and forth wildly. When i caught a wave, before I even got my hips off the deck the board turned sideways and i aborted the attempt to get to my feet and was nearly powerless to get the nose turned back to the beach. Reminded me of the canvas covered eps boards of my youth.
I made no second attempt and added even more respect for those that I see who can ride the finless or very underfinned boards.
As you may know, I build two hotcurls. One rather short (6’10) with a rounded V blending with a concave into the rail and a longer 8’2 with a sharper V blending more straight/convex…
Due to missing opportunities I rode the longer just 2 times. It is definitely faster, but it looks it doesto slide out, at least if you are not fast. The faster is goes, the better is the hold. The shorter one is definitely slower, but it holds its line much better.
The problem is, that I can not tell that the differences are due to the different shapes or length. I never had the opportunity to surf them both the same day at more or less equal conditions. Then I’m not really a good surfer, compared to any local anywhere in the world, my surfing is poor!
What I know is that for me, the short one, definitely makes more fun. My Hotcurls are described on www.woodboardforum.com, search for Hotcurl collapsible and/or “Hot Lucy”
I tried to get in on this with an Albacore Tuna. Not only is true finless difficult but it’s also just not something I enjoy. As much as rails are fun, fins are fun too. It taught me to love the bottom turn.
When it’s busy I rent a foamie mini simmons shape sometimes and put the G0 FCS in there. Goes really well. Just have to be really careful and not dig too deep.