I will be heading south for the winter. This is my new project. If anyone has a fin that they think would send this board to the “next” level send it to me. I will have plenty of time to surf and give you honest feedback. I am leaving soon so no BS do it quick.
I have had this fin over 25yrs I started using it in a similar board and the results have been very interesting. It is definitely heading so.
What I have so far.
Hey Ace, cool lookin board. With all that concave in the tail, (lots of lift) I think that fin with all the base will go good. I really don’t care for skatey tails and narrow fin base. I’m a bigger guy, so I like more fin. Have fun!
Barry Snyder
You are a smart man.
I like the “Gringo” lam. ¡ Muy divertido !
i still have a fin for you..............i guess i should mail it.
you'll like it.
herb
"i still have a fin for you…i guess i should mail it. "
Ya Herb got your attention…Mail works I’ll PM address.
I have a couple similar boards with softer rails that I have used the longer base fin in, I originally used em in some cross over paddle surf boards years ago. The concave lift also has some “rail grad” potential in turns and I have been pleasantly surprised at how skatey it feels. This board has a harder edge with less Belly to the bottom than the others. Going the skatey on top of the water feel. it is a balance between managing thickness and control. The waves I will be spending time in go from playful mushie to full on grab your butt and go. Plus there are some point and reef breaks north and south of us so I get some different types of waves to work with.
Hopefully it is 3 months of RR and i will have this project dialed in. Thats my plan anyway,
I have other boards down there already so it will be interesting to see what “wins”
Where ya going Ace?
roger
“Where ya going Ace?”
far far away surfing in front of a yellow house on a big beach
maybe see you there…headin south myself in a couple days…
rogelio
"i still have a fin for you…i guess i should mail it.
you’ll like it." Hey Herb I sent a PM but I do not trust em. I am leaving in a few days. Any way we can work this out QUICK!!! I am real curious as to what you have,
I’d be interested to hear how the Cheyne Horan Star fin goes with that board. Have you used it a lot on other boards? It’s one of my personal favorites on my 8’6" longboard. Hope you have a good trip.
The Star fin has been my least favorite so far, I did not like the delay in the turns. Also I found it harder to paddle into waves with it. I have used other winged type fins and had the same result paddling. If the fin is not at the right angle they seem to creat drag, The Star fin is probably the only fin I rode a couple waves with came in an took it out. I am going to bring it with me and give it another chance because a few people swear by em and maybe I am missing something. I will have lots of time with nothing to do but surf,
" I will have lots of time with nothing to do but surf ". Now THAT is a Happy New Year. Enjoy it ACE, you deserve it.
My Dobson fins work well in juice.
“My Dobson fins work well in juice.”
I like those as well
Interesting. I would have thought the rake would be enough to get past the kelp problem. Also, I would never have guessed that tip flexed.
Just offhand it looks like you have a fair bit more base than height, which is different than the Starfin. It’s like a cross between the Reverse-D and a keel.
Weren’t you also using a short/raked fin with a narrow base in the bonzers? I think you called it the football? Or am I just confused and that was this fin?
I am back. We had an xlnt wave season down south. It is so much easier to experiment in 80 degree water with no crowds.
First “MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH” let me eat some words. While my first impressions of the Star fin were not good and I almost left it home, i used it and.
" Star fin" went out not to positive keep an open mind. Still in board after first go out. Fits into the wave “face” pretty good. Not to sure about whitewater catch up stuff could be the waves today. Not very adaptive fin you adapt to it. Seems to be kind of a flat board tail rider with some pivot. Seems to like the back foot on top of fin. Gonna try it again had some “moments”. Had a couple people say it looked like I was “struggling with the board”
Got it to WORK! Likes carving arches turns. you can feel the “wing” flexing in the wave and use that to ride off of. Rides really high and finds the fast part of the wave, I definatly see that you would have to design a board to fit the fin instead of a fin to fit the board to get the most out of it. This board has a "modern rail and slight convex bottom before the concave tail. I think the slight break in the bottom works with the fin,
It still does not like whitewater and seems to bog on flatter sections. BUT in steeper faster hollower waves it really flies and sticks to the face like “Velcro”, speed and confidence.
Again you have to ride it a certain way kind of using legs more and powering it into turns and cutbacks, Definitely something there and it woks well with my wider tailed thicker board.
I got some really memorable waves with it. BUT one of the main reasons I am not going to recommend the fin in my area in San Diego is KELP CATCHING. We have lots of kelp and seaweed and this is a magnet for it.
Not the winner, probably not for everybody and just any board, but not bad ether in the right conditions and with the right board it “works”.
This is all the time I have for now will get to the next fin soon
hi Ace !
glad you gave the lexcen another go [perhaps in good right hand point waves , yes ?]
the "scream in blue" video , " IF " you can get hold of it , shows cheyne horan surfing his 1980s wide tailed single fins , with the winged keel [ .... you call them 'star fins' there in america , eh ? :) ]
though the movie is a bit excruciating to watch at times , some of the surfing footage is worth hanging in there for . I just wish I could copy that [the surfing] , and have an instrumental soundtrack to it .
Persevere with the fin when you visit 'kelp-free' areas , perhaps ? I know it took me quite a few goes [in kelp-free beachies here] to get used to the fin . 'RDM' rides his in big winki and other places ...perhaps he even took it with him on this recent indo trip he's on ?
cheers
ben
If I was really gonna concentrate on the “star/wing” fin I would have to spend a lot of time changing my board designs to maximize what I could get out of the fin. I am getting pretty old and might not have enough time left to start down that road. Also while I got it to work I had to change my style of surfing that has taken me 50+ years to develop. Old dog new tricks. I prefer to have the “hull” be the important part and find fins/fin that fit the board. Not knocking the fin there was definitely something there if you can put all the elements together. Wave style board.
On to the next fin…The “Black jack” fin. this was a “boomerang” type fin I designed originally to go with the Bonzers we were making. It worked really good in them. I made some bigger ones and was very happy with how they worked. They kind of gave a single fin board a “multi-fin” feel. Lots of holding power and drive with snappy tuns. All good EXCEPT they too were major kelp magnets. I could go on about the positives, how I used the fin in several different boards, different style riders and wide variety of waves. I like em BUT the kelp thing has to be taken into consideration.
Two down. Next.
Is the boomerang the black fin in the pics or is it a different fin?
yes the black fin.
I’m currently messing around with raked elliptial style fins so I’m especially interested in this one. Offhand I would not have thought a fin with so much base and tip would be that snappy. If you don’t mind, can you expand a little on the positives of this fin? What are the dimensions like and how does the height of that fin compare to the width of the tail on that board?