I made a fook up recently doing my first Quad fin set up and placed the forward fins some 100mm north of the target. After months of inaction caused by denial stress I’ve taken the patient back to the operation room and installed some more FCS plugs in the correct [proper] location. After this enormous time wasting fook up I can’t help but wonder about the dynamics of a six or seven fin set up. I am of the conviction that the next revolution in surf craft design will be concentrated on fin placment and I am certain that by our constant fook ups we slowly make progress.
Just try it. I’d get a few more fins of differing sizes and keep mixing it up. You may want to run a pair of the small twinzer fins in the front plugs. All that variation possible is surely going to work out. Cheers rich
I’ve made and ridden quite a few 5 fin boards that work great, and I know Ace (who posts here) makes some 6 finners that fly. I think its key that the overall fin area isn’t too much and the fin placement (and cant and toe in) is of course pretty dang important too… takes a lot of experimenting to dial it all in. Generally speaking they tend to feel more “locked into” the wave, run fast like a quad, and don’t want to tail slide like your average thruster, for obvious reasons. I prefer them on wider-tailed boards, but can work on narrow ones too.
(just for fun I’d suggest you try mixing up the fin sizes, and maybe play with the cant on your rail fins, but its hard to tell much from that picture).
I have never tried a seven-fin board, but I’m sure someone has done it and has a story to tell.
Yes, I did one in 1971, using the PressLock fins. Dale Dobson was my test rider. Board was considered too loose. It would probably feel OK by todays ride standards.
Quanta, great timely post. I’m working on a six-fin twonzer (twinzer with bonzer canards). Last week, I tried one of ace’s six shooters. It had twinzer canards in the front plugs. Looks similar to what you have going on. The owner says it holds in the best of all his mini-simmons that he has had. If you like to carve, I bet this setup will be fun.
Running full sized fins up front might be too much fin. Little 1-tab fins to get the canard effect could work. Herb Spitzer was making little 1" tall “supercharger” sharktooth leaders and people liked those. Rusty did the C-5 setup which is similar except it was based off a thruster instead of a quad.
My “ears” were burning. It took some time working with some pretty good surfers to get it all dialed in. Was it worth it YES from a surfing point of view. From a “business” point of view a complete disaster. When you get it right it is like there are no fins under the board. It just goes where you want it to when you want to. Full speed turns and direction changes. Had some six finners ridden in some pretty big stuff too.Better have some thick skin or bad hearing for the “got enough fin’s” you will hear in the parking lot.
I never got a ride report on the six fin squish in Oceanside thanks for that.
Thanks for all the comments people. I think we are on to something. I’m starting to think about channels for fins. Just load them up from the back end. Say six canals on each side preset at different angles and lock in-able at any set point with fin size ratio from 1 to 6 and camber equalily factoided in.
It’s been made to sell. If I were to surf it. I’d remove 3 fins. This I KNOW works… especially on the beach breaks around here [The gold coast OZ]
I think the guy that eventually buys it will have a fun time experimenting with different fin set ups that’s for sure. Yes I’m looking for that special buyer… part of a minority breed. The experimentor.
“then again i’ve been hankering for an old school terry fitzgerald single for some reason”
I remember watching him surf Kirra with NO fins. He’s a clasic stylist like Wayne Lynch, Lopez et al in the days before Corporations hi-jacked the sport and turned surfing into clothing.
