Hello, I'm searching for a good slalom fin, for choppy waters, with confort and easy downwind... Is the drake venom still a top fin for these conditions or there are new better fins? Thanks guys.
Cheers
Tribal Slalom MK1. Well designed by Chris Lockwood in G10, good value, easy to repair, great in chop and fast downwind. They are a favourite among GPS sailors. Check out the website.
tribalwindsurfing.com/en/
www.bugfins.com/ they offer a good high quality slalom fin that is good in choppy waters.
Select to expand quoteStretchy said..
Tribal weedspeed is good in chop off the wind too
I would have to agree there, I have a collection
But if weed it not issue, as John said.
Check out Atomicfins.com. Really enjoying the weapon slalom fins, amazing grip in rough water. Fast too in flat water. The Lockwoods are great too. Both are designed by Aussies
Thanks for answering... I'm away from windsurf about 5,6 years, and there's is an option to buy in a local store a drake venom 40 cm for rrd xfire 71 wide and 7.0 warp.... Is still a good fin now, or is obsolete? Is a good match for choppy of 1meter and wild conditions?
Select to expand quoteGabrielM said..
Thanks for answering... I'm away from windsurf about 5,6 years, and there's is an option to buy in a local store a drake venom 40 cm for rrd xfire 71 wide and 7.0 warp.... Is still a good fin now, or is obsolete? Is a good match for choppy of 1meter and wild conditions?
See the buy & Sell for cheaper options. I just picked up a Tribal Carbon, beeyoutiful!!!
Select to expand quoteGabrielM said..
Thanks for answering... I'm away from windsurf about 5,6 years, and there's is an option to buy in a local store a drake venom 40 cm for rrd xfire 71 wide and 7.0 warp.... Is still a good fin now, or is obsolete? Is a good match for choppy of 1meter and wild conditions?
The original C3 Venom's where well known to be fins that gave a lot of control when it got choppy and rough. But that was back in 2006/2007 when they first entered the market. Biggest disadvantage is the lack of drive and lift the Venom's give when not fully powered up.
The Drake Venom's are copies made by Starboard to be used under their freerace boards. Dunno the quality of those.
What I do know is after switching to C3 Stings in 2010 I sold all Venom's because the Stings are better in every aspect. A 38 cm Sting points higher, is easier to sail downwind, can handle more pressure, gives more lift and has a better topspeed compared to a 40 cm Venom.
However the Stings all have gone out of my bag and I now use Z-Fins SLM S-. Not saying you should buy Z-Fins but if you want to get the best out of your slalom kit spend the extra bucks and get a proper carbon fin. Compared to the G-10 fins from 10 years ago and certainly the Venom it will give your board quite a performance boost.
Just because a fin is carbon does not nessasarrily make it better or faster than a very well designed G10 fin. IMHO, carbon is not usually much of an advantage in slalom fins under a certain size, around 30 'ish cm depending on design. But I admit I have not tried a great many larger carbon slalom fins.
Highly raked weed fins must be as stiff as physically possible, which is optimised by carbon. But weed fins are also subject to a lot of abrasion in many tyes of weed, so that skews the advantage back to G10.
And then there is the fact that certain boards just like certain fins. Those that were your favourites in one board, may not have the same magic in a another similar, but different, board.
As always, it's horses for courses, and in the end, you can buy the most highly recommended fins to reduce the chances of it not being ideal, but that is still no guarantee. It still often boils down to 'suck it and see' to find that one 'magic' fin. 
Select to expand quotesailquik said..
Just because a fin is carbon does not nessasarrily make it better or faster than a very well designed G10 fin. IMHO, carbon is not usually much of an advantage in slalom fins under a certain size, around 30 'ish cm depending on design. But I admit I have not tried a great many larger carbon sla...
You're spot on about the smaller G-10 fins and bigger weedfins. However when you go bigger with regular slalom fins the newer carbon ones are the way to go. It's difficult to explain but lets just say that G-10 fins from 10 years ago where at the limits of what could be done material wise. My 36 and 37.5 SLM's give better performance and ease of use compared to the 38 and 40 cm Stings I've used before. Plus they weigh considerably less.
But it is as you say, certain boards like certain fins. And even then it all comes down to the rider. For instance years back using the old JP slalom VII 68 wide me and a couple of guys got great results with the Stings. However a buddy of mine just couldn't get the Stings to work and opted for Tecto Talon's which gave him the performance he looked for.
So yes it does come down to rider and board combo. But to go back to the question asked about getting a Drake Venom.. Go for a newer fin. And when possible try some before you buy. It will open up your eyes how far modern fins have come compared to a 15 year old G-10 design.
