Junky on shore wind waves are the waves most available to me, and they are often in the shallows where fins ask for grounding. My in the water experience is only that after trying a few boards I liked a 5' 10" Surftech Rat Boy best, but as I smallified its fins the fun went away. From reading, my impression is that mush wave boards generally rely very much on their fins.
Are there exceptions? Is there a planform and rail or actual board that you know works fairly well and better than the rest with minimal finnage in mush?
Try a quad finned channel bottom… wide all around. Keep it short. A six channel with four fins will let you reduce fin size considerably. Maybe a bit more toe and cant than normal.
I'm listening. Minimal fins and what would help them work in mush is still my question. Hard low volume rails (where?) vs soft full rails? Small tail vs large? Etc.
My little experience plus reading and Youtube makes me afraid there is no pretty good mush board without big fin area, whether quads or other. But that is not what I hope to hear, so I will stay tuned to this thread for a while.
I don’t like a quad on small gutless waves, I find it easier to generate speed on a thruster.
For me what works best in small waves are large less-raked (more upright) fins with a relatively long base on the side fins.
But that may be just me.
Edit: Ow misread, you want smaller fins. I would try smaller side fins with a long base. But I have never tested that, so no clue if that would work. A quad let’s you reduce the fin size for sure.
I’ll say it again… a wide tailed 6 channel will let you reduce fin size, even in small crappy surf. Extend the hard edge forward, and lower the rocker. Keep it short and wide to give you curve through the middle and skatey, while still being able to plane easily.
nj_surfer says channels and hard rails extended forward (how far?) and low rocker to reduce fin size. Less tail rocker I have heard of for reducing reliance on fin area. Low nose rocker too?
Short, and wide including tail, helps to reduce reliance on fins, or just nice for other reasons?
Bingo - from what I understand and what I’ve experienced with the first board I made (glass-on plywood fins about 1/2" thick) the thicker fins work much better in smaller, weaker waves. I’m guessing it has to do with the water being able to travel around the fins in a smoother manner, giving it more surface area to grab onto without making the fins longer
What NJ and Reverb says rings true to my understanding.
Thicker fins are typically capable of creating more lift (aka bite, sideforce, grip etc) for a given speed and angle of attack than thinner ones. A thicker fin usually will keep working to a higher angle of attack than the thinner ones too. Reducing a fin’s aspect ratio (= depth/base) whist keeping the surface area the same will mean they produce less lift at a given angle of attack, but will keep giving lift up to a higher angle of attack.
Lower aspect ratio fins will also produce more induced drag than a high aspect ratio fin of the same surface area producing the same lift, but you’d probably never detect it (more tow-in / windsurf important I’d have thought).
get a fish. with keel fins. Should be a lot of fun in small mushy waves. A fish is what pretty much everyone has been describing wide Board check, low entry rocker check, minimum tail tail rocker check. What else? Oh yeah, fun factor check.