Hi everyone!
I’m looking for some advice and ROUGH explanation of differences I would be seeing as far as single fins go. The designs I’m considering are in the photos attached. The Alex Knost fin is 9.5, all the others are 9. The fin would be for a 9’0 longboard with a classic shape. I’m an intermediate rider, female, 5’9 and 130 lbs. What are the pros and cons of these fin shapes? Which one would you recommend?
Thanks in advance
Anastasia
Where are you doing your surfing? What type of waves?
Hi Bill!
Thanks for replying. Here in Italy it’s going to be waves in Recco and Andora which are not very powerful nor particularly clean, but I also go to places like Sri Lanka or Lombok for some clean rides with nice thick rolling waves. So I guess that’s my other conundrum. It’s my first personal longboard (no more renting) and I need it to be able to work in varying conditions. When surfing in Sri Lanka I tried nose riding and that was thrilling so ideally i’d also like a fin that makes my board - which is more of an all-arounder - easier to set up for a nose ride if there are the conditions for it. Thanks for your time!
Well, I don’t think you need a fin deeper than 9 inches. For underpowered waves, your best results will be had with fins with the greatest surface area, in the size range that you choose. Larger faster waves allow you to get good results with smaller reduced area, and higher aspect ratio fins. That has been my experience.
You can never go wrong with a 4A greenough. As a fin maker, I’ve based and modified many templates off the 4A. Interestingly enough all the other fins you chose look like modified versions of the 4A.
The knost fin looks like a more upright version of the 4A with less rake and less base. This will allow for a faster pivot and change of direction. If you watch how he surfs you can clue in on why this fin is shaped the way it is.
The last 2 fins looks like the 4A with a wider template, Especially the yellow black one.
Fin choice is to a large degree a personal thing. As you become a better surfer and with experience you will begin to understand what you like. Not everyone necessarily cares about exploring fin options, but it is definitely worth the effort. Try some different fins, if you can.
Guidelines are difficult because so many factors are involved; board shape/length, riders weight, rider’s experience/technique, rider’s style/preferences, fin template/flex characteristics, etc. The right fin and placement can make an average board into a good board. And, the wrong fin or wrong placement can turn a good board into an dog.
For single-fin boards, a basic rule of thumb is “an inch per foot of board length”. So, a 9’ board would generally take a 9" fin; a 9’6" board would take a 9.5" fin, and so on.
All the fins you posted are reasonable choices. Some people like fins that flex, some people hate them - try both. Some people like long rake fins and some like vertical aspect fins. Different base length will also have a different feel.
Whatever fin you choose needs to be “dialed in” to determine it’s optimal position (for you). Different fins will feel right with different placements. Too far back towards the tail and it will feel stiff and resistant to turning. Too far forward and it will feel out-of-control, squirrelly. Even 1/8" variation in placement is something that you should be able to feel.
Once the fin is basically dialed, evalulate it in the largest waves you normally surf. How does it feel in a fully-engaged bottom turn after take-off. Does it feel stable, does it have the “drive” you want, does it project and re-direct energy down the line in the way that you like? Is it responsive to a cut-back in the way you like, how does it feel when nose-riding (if that is of interest to you), etc.
Have fun!
Nice Olson Ad 
I recommend the greenough fin you have pictured above. Good all around fin, plenty of drive on slower waves, turns easy, holds in when things get steep…if you can look up mat young world championships 1966. The fin in his boards is a greenough similar to me above. You can see it allows him to turn, nose ride and maintain speed…
Thanks for the reply! You’re right about the Knost fin being a function of his style…and upon reflection maybe it’s a bit early for me to get that one… Question about the green and black fin - the fact that its a “fatter version” of the 4A towards the tip reflects in what way on one’s surfing? Also wondering about the fact that the 4A is made in china. Normally that doesn’t give quality points but i guess it doesn’t matter in this case?
thanks for the wealth of info, really appreciate it! so where in the fin box would you set a 9 inch fin on a 9 foot board as a good start? Also wondering - if I were to put a 9.75 greenough fin as opposed to a 9 inch one on my board would that make a lot of difference? I found the 9.75 version on an italian website and it costs a lot less than the 9 on other sites. But I ask myself whether that would be a good idea with a 9 foot board…
you’re right, it’s an all around evergreen…however my only qualm with greenough is that it’s the one that costs the most out of the bunch and from what i’ve managed to find out it’s made in china. I guess that doesn’t matter though? It’s just that psychologically speaking spending 100 eu on a fin made in china makes me feel weird.
Go with the 9.75 if you can get a good deal. You can always cut and re-foil it to be a 9" fin later. One of my favorite boards has an older fin that I reshaped into a 4A style fin. It’s an 8’6" and the fin is at least 9" if not bigger. One day a while ago I was shopping for a smaller 4A and a friend told me that little curve up at the front base of the fin is an important part of the fin. Not sure why.
I’m 46, and I’ve been riding old school longboards for 35 years, the first ones being 35Lb+ 1960’s models, and I was firmly in the bigger the better fin with a lot of base and rake and tip area mindset.
This is no longer true. The raked tip now seems like nothing but turn and speed inhibiting drag to me, and adds resistance to turning and more so the harder and tighter the turn.
I am still liking a 9.5 inch depth on a 9’3" pintail and 9’7" round pin , but I like high aspect ratio for less drag and a more pivotal/ tighter turning radius.
A fin is drag, and Drag is control, but what if all the control was still there with less drag? What if there was even more control with less drag? In what world would this be a negative?
Despite the proclivities for catching kelp and seaweed, the fin below is easily the best fin I have used in my longboard, and I will never, ever, unless surfing in a lot of kelp/grass, go back to a conventional looking fin in my traditional railed/ bottomed 20Lb plus single fin longboards.
Since learning how to ride these fins, I’ve had the best, hardest, most satisfying cutbacks I’ve ever had on a longboard, easily. Last week after a long noseride, I had a roundhouse cutback on my backhand, on my 9’7" which elicited hoots from shortboarders who are usually so anti longboard they refuse to even look at one being ridden.
It does not increase the top speed of my soft tailed longboards, but the ability to extract accelleration, to that top speed is enhanced, greatly. Noseriding feels more stable, yet more controllable when all the way up at the nose, and whilst walking up there and back. Sinking the tail when paddling towards a wave, to swing the nose towards shore, happens a lot faster, and one can also paddle in to a lined up wave at a much steeper angle with no worries of the fin busting loose. The board also feels more tippy and slightly faster when paddling.
If one is trimmed all the way at the nose, and the fin starts drifting, it does so gradually and predictably, and then slowly regains traction and drive, where as a regular fin is engaged, or not in my experience. When disengaged you either fall or lose the open face trying to maintain ones feet while riding whitewater straight towards shore. No in between.
But this fin below just slowly loses grip, and slowly regains it, and one can can keep up with the wave, rather than set the fin again, and try for another bottom turn in the flats to get the, projection needed to attempt to get back to open face. Perhaps the turbucles with trailing concaves keep the tail in the water better.
When proned out and angling as hard as one can parallel to the beach in the white water on the last wave in, it is nearly impossible to bust this fin loose. I can scoot all the way upto the nose on my belly, pulling as hard as I can on the nose, pushing with my lower body trying to unset the rail and fin, and the board just goes faster and becomes even less likely to stall the fin. My traditional raked fin would simply blow out doing the same thing at much less pressure, despite having approximately 35% more surface area.
The Wavegrinder WG2 fin does this ‘beating upwind’ even better and accelleration is also better up and riding open face, but that fin likes to track and dictates where to turn, and is not forgiving when at speed.
It seems like most fin designs add one tendency, at the cost of another attribute… this enhancement of feel, at the cost of that. The fin below seems to give up nothing but traditionally acceptable fin design.
I know it looks wrong, and the pivoty nature of it takes some getting used to, as the board will come around faster than expected when turning. It often catches me off guard on hard backside bottom turns, and I am a little late transitioning to the other rail, but this can be learned and anticipated.
But the only unlearnable downside I have found, is in Kelpy/grassy conditions, and depending on the amount of grass stuck on the leading edge, well a minor amount stuck to the top 3 turbucles, just makes it feel like a regular raked fin with a good amount of tip surface area.
I truly believe that the turbucle’s gradual forgiving stall nature can be expolited by better surfers than myself, and applied to multifin HPshortboards, and be able to push the limits of how a wave can be surfed. I would be surprised if fins still appear as they do today, in several more years. Less drag but more control, seems like nothing but win win, if applicable to multifin HPSB’s.
I cannot vouch for the fin shown below in multifin setups or lightweight longboards with shortboart type rails in the tail, but in traditional shaped railed longboards surfed mostly traditionally, it easily, without doubt, outperforms any traditional looking fin I have ever used, and by a good amount. I was a bit embarrassed by riding a traditional old school style longboard with such a crazy untraditional looking fin, at first, but now simply do not care how it appears to others.
Part of me wants to hide it and keep the advantage for myself, the other part wants to scream it from the rooftops despite the guaranteed mockery from the establishment sure to ensue.
Not sure MrMik is ready, or even will, offer these for sale at some point, but he deserves Kudos for the design and build method and I am honored to have played a small part in testing and feedback.
His harftub6.5 S13mm is not just a novelty, it flat out does everything I want of it, and is showing me just how inhibiting regular traditional raked fins have been to my longboard surfing for 35 years. All this time…
His harftub9.5 is even looser and mor even forgiving and nearly as quick in most parts of the wave, but the harftub6.5 s13in my 25Lb 9’7" is pure bliss and simly adds stoke, and desire to surf in marinal conditions.
In super weak and small longboard waves, the Wavegrinder WG2 fin is a machine. MrMik sent me a 3d printed version of this fin that is less flexible. I broke the winglet on it, but rebuilt it out of a hardwood, reducing its angle so it would ‘dig’ less and perhaps better match the excessive tail rocker of my 9’7". This printed fin is even better than the WaveGrinder WG2 accellerating and maintaining speed in the trough, but the Wavegrinder WG2 seems to have more squirt and ability to extract energy higher up in the wave.
I made my 9’7" in the summer of 2003, it has been my primary longboard ever since, and 99% of my surfing on it, with MrMik’s and the Wavegrinder fins has been at the same 3 surf spots that I am Very familiar with, in all sorts of conditions, so comparison of a fin’s attributes is not dismissable.
Do you wear a wetsuit? Where is it made? Do you wear Patagonia product? Where is it made?
Do you wear a wetsuit? Where is it made? Do you wear Patagonia product? Where is it made?
Yep the 9.75 is the one I have one in a 7’8" v bottom hull. Works great. Also in a 9’ 6" nose rider…
You might consider the true Ames Liddle flex fin a 9.5 wide base on. It’s what I ride in my 9’ 2" spoon longboard…tried and true…
A 9.75 Greenough 4A from True Ames is $71 US.I think those fins are made in the US.
There are several 4A style fins on ebay for about $70 US.
true ames is out of Goleta, ca. they use to make all their fins there- been there to have fins made in the past. I guess some may be made in china now…
say would I be out of line to consider how far up from the tail the fin box is?
is it a ten 1/2 inch box?is the tail square and over or under six inches?
these considerations will play instrumentally instructional in the interpreting of ins
and outs of fins and performance.I’d say get one of each and swap 'em’a lot
and develop a familiarity through experience you just may have a style quirk
that makes you more adaptable than the adverage bear… Up the revolution!
…ambrose…
aloha from waipouli…
