hi !
any chance you guys and rachel could post photos of the setups you use on your longboards ?
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these fins now belong to my nephew in vicco
and the back fin’s base snapped [it will start life again as an fcs tabbed back fin , once i put an extra plug in the 6’5 Byrne thruster …]
[ with this much fin area ,
the setup went better in head high waves…]
cheers !
ben
in the previous post , the 2 1/2" [clear glass] side fins , with the 7 3/4" back fin , felt better …more release , and able to slide / drift the tail a little , to set up sideways takeoffs into the tube … i’ll have to try this setup on the 9’4 ‘Cooloola’ soon …
some folks here like Keith and I need an intervention every now and then
these are all old now
take another page to show the new stuff
thanks a lot for posting all those , Bernie !
[I hope you don’t mind me asking a few questions …]
…which of all those setups do you use the most often ?
what do you like about them ?
and
what size of waves do you prefer them in ? [remember , 12" = 1’, okay !]
cheers !
ben
SO…
… Has anyone else got shots of their fin setups for longboards , please ???
there must be more than one or two of you , in amongst the 4000 + users at swaylocks , who ride mals [‘longboards’] and possess a digital camera , yes ?
cheers for your help ,
ben
Sorry for taking so long Ben really busy at work now…
Anyway to keep it short it depends on the tail rocker, bottom and waves.
on a classic HP performance longboard like the green and orange Parmenters a 2+1 with a cutaway center and some regular or large sides bites work but the 7.5" carbon cutaway with the FCS carbon CRV webber curved sides rides real well in power. When the waves get really juicy here it’s best to ride it as a thruster which is why some of the high performance longboards just come with FCS or glassed on thruster setups. The CRVs and a baby squirrel is a nice setup as well…
One of the best all around longboards I’ve ever owned was a 10’ Country Surfboards Shaped by Jim Turnbull. It had an even rocker with 50/50 rails up front going into hard down rails in the rear and a square tail pinching into a 4"-6" tail with alot of curve and tail rocker in the last 24". It had deep bonzer concaves pushing right through the fins which were glassed on 4.5" thrusters. That board could ride just about anything up to 10’ hawaiian and took it’s share of poundings. Ed Searfoss Glassed it superstrong but it wasn’t really heavy for a ten footer. Pretty much the perfect longboard in my opinion. I just wish I had order a dozen more before Jim Turnbull passed away in the 90’s.
On loaded dome or boards with flat rockers, the Wavegrinder, Horan keel and McCoy Gullwing as a single seem to work best.
The new Spitfire from Larry and Noel is a perfect advancement of the Horan keel. These fins have alot of drive and no real chance of spin outs like normal single fins when pushed to hard.
The Bobby Owens football/Boomerang seems to work well with larger thinner sidebites like the probox redthumbs. I think Bobby was riding something similar on his shortboards in the late 70’s.
For full concaves the C-5 setup with Herb’s baby fronting trailers on the outside of the front thrusters seem to work well with deep 6 channels or full concaves.
I’m not too much into flex fins like the surfco’s although Charlie(CMP) put’s nothing else on his boards for safety reasons. But they always seem to wash out on me. Those flex fins need a delicate touch to make the most of them.
I tried the harbour 10" Big Red but it was just too much fin. Maybe for a old classic log it would work well in small conditions but it was way to stiff for my liking. Also those classic single Brewer/Bonzer style fins just seem to wash out on me as well versus those thinner banana style or fins with a little more rake and volume. Probably just my Fat as* style of turning too hard off the tail and rail.
One style I’m very comfortable with is those high volume beak nose needle thin pintail design with either a straight 24" keel or flex style greenough fin. That set up seems to work out well with those long and narrow tails. We surfed an old Yater Ramsey Jay back in the early 70’s that had that design and is was the favorite family Magic board of the time. low volume keels and narrow flex fins seems to be a natural for narrow long pintails.
Sorry gotta go
but that’s the best of my recollection of what I’ve found what works for me and what doesn’t
really doesn’t mean a thing for anyone though…
take care…
good on ya Bernie , you’re a champion !
my shots and comments coming soon …
thanks tenny !
… that’s a WHOPPER of a fin , eh ?
what are its dimensions, please ?
cheers
ben
Yup…It’s a monster…
Dims:
10" base…
10 1/2" length…
And 6 1/2" in the middle…
wooooweeee !
that’s a noseriding fin , then , i take it ? [what with all that area and weight ]…
okay ,
thanks for your replies , guys ,
i hope there are some more coming from the fellow mal riders here … [ 'josh/ kickten"??? …for example , hint hint !!]
well ,
of course
i have a few pics too…
here are a few of the setups i’ve tried in my 9’4 and 9’er so far …
7 1/4" back fin , 4" side fins …
in headhigh lefts …
occassional sideslip takeoffs , and ‘taildrift’ pigdogs.
very pivotal off the bottom and top. lack a bit of drive compared to other setups. loose , though. felt nice forehand , taildrifts into foreward trim chest high tube squats …
c 5" deep curved webber sideys , c 4" deep winged tip [? john harris?]
tail lift !!
it felt really good on one memorable , nice righthander …where i squatted right near the nose and felt the tail hold in well.
very loose backhand off the bottom and top.
i did one [completely unintentional !!] tail spin around [backhand] “helicopter”-type manouevre and thought “s*** , now what do i do ?!” … riding backwards is not my goal , generally …
- with homemade Carbon fibre sideys
THIS felt more stable and positive , off the bottom , off the lip, and pigdoggingg backhand tubes.
it can still drift into sideways takeoffs tubes , which is nice , nice to ride a ‘thruster type’ setup for a change on my 9’4 [i ride “2 +1” and “widowmaker” setups a fair bit on that board. plus , single fin , of course …]
an 8 1/4" back fin with GS sideys …
more hold and a bit more drive.
i like these sideys as a 2+1 setup with the 7 3/4" deep , 5 1/2 base multi fins back fin . more drive and hold [i’d like a fibreglass version of them , eventually !]
This goes along with the other pic I’ve posted about the 5fin setup on this board – this, obviously, was before I added the center box.
Sorry it took me so long to get these pix up, chip. Hopefully better late than never.
Riding this board as a quad is super fun. If the surf is small but nice, it’s my favorite setup for this board. On the borderline of too loose. Adding a small center helps keep that loose fun feeling when it gets a little bigger, but prevents the tail from washing out on a hard bottom turn.
thanks !
today i rode my 9’4 with the green bonzer runners sized side fins and the 7 3/4 back fin
fun fun fun !
and josh sent me THESE ! … [THANKS, Josh !]
[his comments …
" Fins are 7 1/2" fibreglass back fin (if i’m out to do threesixties or helicopters i use smaller but for surfing hollow and long point breaks without a legrope I like the balance of a 7.5.)
with GL side bites. (perfect) "
this was fun for noseriding …
for turning …
the “sideslipper” [4 3/4" back fin , with 2 3/4" deep , 4" base runners …]
with the 8" back fin [which definately held in better , needless to say !] …
Hi there Etmo,
what sort of Vector II’s did you put in it? And where are the other photos?
Quote:
Hi there Etmo,
what sort of Vector II’s did you put in it? And where are the other photos?
Hey Deanbo
I’ve used a few different sets, but my faves were the 460 fronts with the 400 rears.
The other pics are eluding me, except this one:
http://www.swaylocks.com/forum/gforum.cgi?post=377281;#377281
Thanks etmo.
8'' dolphin all the way back on my 9'1''. Should be enough fin, as the tail is a round pin, and its all the way back. I did the "lay the fin over" trick, and it overhangs the rail, so it shoudn't slip out. Could be fun if it did though :)
I tried out a 7 1/2" greenough flex, made by someone here in my longboard this morning. It’s meant to go in my egg, but the waves were longboard perfect, and I left my other fins at home. I put it all the way back in the box and went out. It went extremely well!!. Drivy enough, but very manouverable as you’d imagine. Best of all, my longboard is a round pin, and it did not slip at all once. It went so good I’m going to keep it in there for the time being. I will post pics later on, it’s a beauty of a fin.
Funny, it’s a small fin but I had no trouble flying from behind sections today. I normally use a 10" commercially made greenough.