LESS Fins!

General Discussion
1

Balsa’s “enterprise” thread inspired me to start this thread, just gathered some pics to kick it off, I really want to shape something just for the hell of it and the learning experience so show me your finless creations and thoughts on successful themes and I hope it takes some of the guesswork out of when I get round to creating my own ‘enterprise’. Just got a few pics which caught my eye off the net,

thanks to anyone whos pics I have used, some cool looking stuff, should include Herbs induction board here but it already has its own thread!

Here goes:

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2

to be honest, I havent tried much variaiton in board length, I have had a 6'3", a 6'0" and now shaped a 5'11". all getting smaller but thats to get better manouverability more than anything else, plus they've worked well so not drastically going away from what works, also I want them to paddle great and catch waves very well....there is definitely movement on the boards, probably much more than you can see, fairly subtle but its there and has to be for controlling the slide, even just weight movement while not relocating the feet,

bottom shapes have been fairly subtle for me so far, the latest is quite radical in its design, still learning alot as I go, both in the shaping and the surfing.....my son who weighs approx 35 kgs has had a few goes on my finless boards and he cant spin them, seems not enough weight, so it looks like it is more about weight than length of board, and I know the les volume, the more they wanna spin, plus the more curvey planshape the more they spin.....dunno if that answers the questions, but I still got plenty of questions and am getting the answers myself and enjoying it alot......

3

interesting to see what ya feet do and where ya actually stand on a less-finned board when ya see a pic…

www.MOREsurfboards.com

4

http://www.vimeo.com/15411277

 heres some semi-finless footage of my Fish-Finger design in action.....

5

thanks for posting that

 

  i wish i knew how to get footage up on sways , and photobucket ??

 

  do you have any footage of / thoughts of it being ridden BACKHAND , please ?

 

  [i couldn't get any sound to go with the footage , unfortunately , so my apologies if you were explaining that in the footage ?]

 

 cheers !

 

  ben

6

backhand is hard, I have only just been able to go right the last few months, and can now do spins and a few diff slidey tricks which are fun,.. not any footage of anybody that I have seen going finless ( or almost finless ) on the net, it is much harder but it can be done....I did go right a few times during the filming but the cameraman was positioned for the lefts and 80% of the decent waves were lefts....

7

cheers

 

  you need a natural footer to ride that board there maybe ?

8

maybe but I am happy just to be able to show people that the board works and what it can do, better surfers could do amazing things on the Fish-Finger....words arent much proof so I arranged this footage....and hopefully I'll get alot of different surfers to ride the traveller version that I am planning in next few months.....

If anyone in Oz wants a great film guy to work with, contact Steve Shearer, he knows his stuff....

9

Thats great stuff Mark, well done. Just shows that a mere mortal ( Vs Derek Hynd) can ride finless. You must be stoked.

10

and the rest:





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11

ride reports on these beauties would help too, i’d like to know how they ride compared to alaias. anyone?

cheers,

12

It seems to me that the challenge is to be able to make a board without fins that will pivot in a carving way..... i.e. hard, on rail turn. A lot of the finless designs look like they would be fast in a straight line........& the ones that look like they might turn almost [by the extent of the bottom contours] have fins....or the birth of them...........when does a fin become a fin?

The key is to get the board to smoothly transition from flat to rail without going into no-mans land.

I love the idea.......& will probably have a go.

13

seems like these guys hit upon the idea of merging an alaia template with concaved/channeled boards to come up with higher-volume-yet-still-lightweight hybrids that don’t require fins anymore. maybe those crescent rail cuts help execute hard turns ?

…hmm those fin-like ridges look pretty tough to shape if attempted in HWS hehe

14

"maybe those crescent rail cuts help execute hard turns ? "

But would it be a tight turn?.......I could imagine them doing more of a long bottom turn.

15

hmmm there has got to be some logic to the placement, size/depth & number of those cuts in that board, after going thru various beta versions… 

ride reports, anyone?

16

 

 

best way to say, at least for my few, it is more like drifting…

alaia with the thin sharp rail has a sharper more engaging turn.

the epoxy fish works great at shallow reef’s with lots of kelp, where the alaia becomes silly.

watch derek.  that is what it is all about…

in my opinion.

cheers

oh, the best part is figuring it all out

17

Harrison Roach carving on an alaia - Mentawai Islands 2009

Photo by Dane Peterson

http://www.danepetersonphotography.com/

18

Do not compare what a normal person can do on a finless board to what Harrison Roach can do. But he is a good example of what I could never even dream of attaining in my surfing. He is a freakishly talented surfer. Want proof? Check out Picaresque.

T

19

what about boards that dont have ridges, grooves and variations of channells to give hold and grip to the wave ?  seems almost like you may as well have fins to me ???

20

I'll chime in with a few obs..

1/. There seems to be 2 camps of Finless shapers/designers...

the guys who build finless from a standard board, you know , fins off and then reshape an old board

and

 the guys who shape a finless specific design, from the ground up....Dedicated finless craft design.

 You can decide which one is more likely to produce a unique Finless craft.

2. I agree with others about the apparent inability of finless craft to do functional sharp turns, Certainly straight lines and 'Photo-op', 'once off' slashes seem to be prevalent but not a lot of functional 'linking' turns like powerhouse cutties that lead on to other 'power' moves.

 But that brings up a question of future direction, is it

a/.  all about the modern slash and burn technique, destroying and dominating every wave

 or

b/. all about the subtleness and finesse of finding the highest quality of control, demonstrating an almost organic understanding of wave and water that riders of finless boards require ?

 Is it Jerry Lee Lewis or Beethoven ?

Which way will be prevalent in the future? Both approaches show control and domination of the medium. But will fibreglass finless boards be just a sideline like wooden Alaias or move into more mainstream useage and account for higher board purchases ??.

Ive spent a few evenings with Shane Herring and Peter Crawford (RIP) discussing this and Shane had a great deal of passion for explaining how once a rider moves beyond the basic destruction of a wave he can exhibit a higher level of control by showing his ability to move with and with-in the wave, extracting quality manouvers thru timing and understanding rather than just belting the obvious positions time and time again like a drone.

 A bit like Currens understanding of the medium led him to be peerless not only in radical function but also in style.

 And pro surfing does suffer from a relentless repetition of top turn slash/bottom turn hook/top turn air/bottom turn hook/.....

My moneys on the brainless "death and destroy" attitude to continue and prevail into the future but it is a pleasure to think that, maybe, all the years of refinement and intelligent surfboard design might result in a higher blending of control and fury instead of just outright thrashing around like a stabbed seal.