can any one give me some advise on the best spot for the centre finn in the lopez sup finn set ridding 9'3 ripper finns seem to be very stiff the spot at the moment is just back from centre of the finn box centre of the finn. G.R

nah ripper is only thruster option i have been riding my 9'6 wide ripper with a small pc5 as centre and fcs gl's side finns goes great , but the side finns on lopez set look and feel much to big.G.R

Loved my 9'3" ripper but hated the stock fins. Best set up I had was Jason Stevenson FCS fins (not available any more but any mid size FCS would have been fun) with an FCS fin adaptor in the middle and pushed all the way back to the tail. Heaps of drive off the bottom. Miss that board.

May be the lopez set up are not all there cracked up to be , maybe i should try a set up that iam use to but the to boards are completey different . the 9'6 is a swallow tail and the 9'3 is diamond pin and narrower. G.R

Just had a friend complaining about the same thing. I told him the GL fins are too big and making it slow and stiff. He replaced front fins with NORMAL sized 4 1/2 fins and kept GL in rear. He said it transformed his board and he loved the change.

billboard said...

I fully agree with lacey on this one. Too many sup'ers run way too small fins on their sups because they are too lazy or not competent to turn their board properly using the rails and overall curve of the board. Yes its easy to put little fins on a sup and skate and slide it all over the ocean and kid yourself because its looser its turning better - however you will have way less drive, way less hold on the face when you need it and on the rare occasion you actually do manage a nice rail turn, you just wont have sufficient bite in the sides and you will look like a bloody ........ well - stand up paddler trying to flat turn a big board wirh a paddle and no rail buried.

Boy I'm glad you guys said that. I have rabbited on about fin size for long enough, small fins don't make boards loose. Going fast makes a board loose, the correct size fins make a board go fast..... Hence, if you have the right sized fins it actually makes a board looser.

NC Surfer said...

Just had a friend complaining about the same thing. I told him the GL fins are too big and making it slow and stiff. He replaced front fins with NORMAL sized 4 1/2 fins and kept GL in rear. He said it transformed his board and he loved the change.

i did some playing around today on my gerry 'sweetie pie'. first up jerries front shapers s9 centre- not bad, a little hard to paddle.went in swapped the sizes for the am futures.

loose,yes, easy to throw around, but no drive, no real holding power when real pressure was put on.what i would call a 'cheap thrills' setup for that board(gerry sweetie pie)

russh said...

Fin the board to the conditions - small fat choppy waves small flexy fins for speed and joining up sections - larger sucky waves bigger stiffer fins for grip speed off the bottom and using more rail

One size and set up doesnt fit all places and waves and having a couple of sets of fins that work for different conditions is well worth thinking about - small fins do have a place - its just some crew dont have the skill to handle them properley without sliding everywhere

who says you can't slide big fins, some crew can't slide big fins- don't have the skill or power

laceys lane said...

russh said...

Fin the board to the conditions - small fat choppy waves small flexy fins for speed and joining up sections - larger sucky waves bigger stiffer fins for grip speed off the bottom and using more rail

One size and set up doesnt fit all places and waves and having a couple of sets of fins that work for different conditions is well worth thinking about - small fins do have a place - its just some crew dont have the skill to handle them properley without sliding everywhere

who says you can't slide big fins, some crew can't slide big fins- don't have the skill or power

Its OK with practice you'll get there eventually

really? how can anyone here know what you surf, what you like, what your style is like??? would it just not be easier to get a screw driver and change the postion and surf it for a couple weeks then change it again, to get a good feel for what it does in each postion and then go with what you like???

As far as measure ments go Im calling BS on this. If I put the back of my center fin at 8 inches from the tail, the front of the center fin would be further forward than the back of the sides! Now why would you group a thruster set like this???? may as well surf a single! each board is different, and one thing I personally think is the center fins arnt back enough. Im riding a 8.8 and have a 5.5 center fin and EA sides. happy with the drive, but wasnt happy with the center fin location. So I cut the back out of the fin and relocated the pin...now its about 4 1/2 from the back and feels great to ME...and the thruster set now has a more proportionate spread and the center- side has a decent working length.

I agree with BB totally on the surf ability side of things, I knew my board was ok and my fins ok but for me I dont get it over enough and surf a bit flat, so now with the center fin further back it actually helps me draw longer arcs and get the board over a bit more....im still crap though and realise its me not the equippemnt....I have a mate that just buys a board, runs the stock fins in where ever and he tears the bag out of it.........

husq2100 said...

really? how can anyone here know what you surf, what you like, what your style is like??? would it just not be easier to get a screw driver and change the postion and surf it for a couple weeks then change it again, to get a good feel for what it does in each postion and then go with what you like???

As far as measure ments go Im calling BS on this. If I put the back of my center fin at 8 inches from the tail, the front of the center fin would be further forward than the back of the sides! Now why would you group a thruster set like this???? may as well surf a single! each board is different, and one thing I personally think is the center fins arnt back enough. Im riding a 8.8 and have a 5.5 center fin and EA sides. happy with the drive, but wasnt happy with the center fin location. So I cut the back out of the fin and relocated the pin...now its about 4 1/2 from the back and feels great to ME...and the thruster set now has a more proportionate spread and the center- side has a decent working length.

I agree with BB totally on the surf ability side of things, I knew my board was ok and my fins ok but for me I dont get it over enough and surf a bit flat, so now with the center fin further back it actually helps me draw longer arcs and get the board over a bit more....im still crap though and realise its me not the equippemnt....I have a mate that just buys a board, runs the stock fins in where ever and he tears the bag out of it.........

haha, cut the back of fin out, re pinning- as bad as me.

i reckon the 8" is a guide for a lot of boards. start getting down to 8'8's, 8'6's that changes. mind you, that's not a real big centre fin your running.

i never really like going right back with the centre fin personally- things just get a bit weird for me.

cheers

husq2100 said...

really? how can anyone here know what you surf, what you like, what your style is like??? would it just not be easier to get a screw driver and change the postion and surf it for a couple weeks then change it again, to get a good feel for what it does in each postion and then go with what you like???

As far as measure ments go Im calling BS on this. If I put the back of my center fin at 8 inches from the tail, the front of the center fin would be further forward than the back of the sides! Now why would you group a thruster set like this???? may as well surf a single! each board is different, and one thing I personally think is the center fins arnt back enough. Im riding a 8.8 and have a 5.5 center fin and EA sides. happy with the drive, but wasnt happy with the center fin location. So I cut the back out of the fin and relocated the pin...now its about 4 1/2 from the back and feels great to ME...and the thruster set now has a more proportionate spread and the center- side has a decent working length.

He was talking specifically about a 9' 3 Ripper, the 8 inches to trailing edge from memory was about right, which gave about a 4-5" gap between sides and centre.

Everyone is different and boards vary so much there is no hard and fast formulae. On my 8'7 DTM the rear fin is 5" from the tail with sides 5" in front so we are similar there

The call on bigger fins for bigger waves is incorrect BTW, will cause tracking. Stick with same size and position - the style of board will determine how it goes in the big stuff.

I use the Gerry thruster fins only and then have a G1000 or M3 trailer which I run all the way back in the box. You'll need a FCS usbox converter, but they're cheap. I love this setting and use it on most of my boards.

JB

I don't know that it's just the size of the fins. They have about the same surface area as the Controller fronts (but are tall and narrow base) and you won't hear people complaining about those fins being stiff.

I think the stiffness people feel is that it is a tall fin and they do not have a lot of cant; the fins stand pretty upright compared to other fins. Putting those two things together some people probably don't like having to put too much effort into putting their board on rail. Hence, they say the fins are stiff.