Just a question for all the experienced guys.

I have an underground swank twin tip and am between beginner and intermediate. I know it's a beginners type board 141x42.

I am having a bit of fun in melbournes bay chop turning on small bay waves and carving back and forth etc....

Question is will different fins (larger surf style maybe) help with turning control?
I'm not in a position to buy a $800 surf board yet and I will be shaping my own hybrid type board soon but in the mean time I was just wondering about the fin thing???

Fins will give you more or less grip. They wont increase/decrease turnabilty. But they will increase /decrease the amount of grip you have before the board lets go. So do you want to feel slidy or locked and loaded?

So putting a massive fin on there will help you hold a bottom turn that your normal TT fin would let go from.

But to be honest unless your pushing head high and above you can easily handle small surf with standard TT Fins. Or for an even fruitier idea, take the fins off all together. small wave finless is heaps of fun! but difficult.

If your going to make a hybrid/mutant check out the spec's of my carbon mutant build a few threads down. That will give you a starting point.
Research the following existing product TT/Mutants that are good in the waves.

Axis twin wave
shin speedball
cardboards wave
mako

Thanks for the info plummet, I have seen your mutant board and it looks awesome. The board I am making will be same construction as a surfboard as I have made a lot of my own surfboards before and recently made a surfboard for a mate for kiting.
I am making something roughly the same outline shape as an ocean rodeo mako 150x40 but obviously shaping foam for the core, putting in a 15mm stringer, and using Kevlar and Carbon fibre matting under the glass as well as a thin bamboo veneer.
It will be different to have a TT size board with a surfboard construction but in the past I have found that really aggressive shapes like 20mm concaves and turned down sharp rails tend to be a bit of fun so I'm trying that theory for the hell of it!

Might try a TT type construction after that one!

Remove fins, and silicon up the holes unless you like water spraying you in the face!

So much more fun without fins!!!

Select to expand quote

Daniel1973 said...
Thanks for the info plummet, I have seen your mutant board and it looks awesome. The board I am making will be same construction as a surfboard as I have made a lot of my own surfboards before and recently made a surfboard for a mate for kiting.
I am making something roughly the same outline shape as an ocean rodeo mako 150x40 but obviously shaping foam for the core, putting in a 15mm stringer, and using Kevlar and Carbon fibre matting under the glass as well as a thin bamboo veneer.
It will be different to have a TT size board with a surfboard construction but in the past I have found that really aggressive shapes like 20mm concaves and turned down sharp rails tend to be a bit of fun so I'm trying that theory for the hell of it!

Might try a TT type construction after that one!

Sounds really interesting man. I look forward to seeing the outcome. My gut tells me you should throw more width in. Once you radius the ends of the board like a mako or mine you loose surface area and that board becomes more power hungry. Adding width compensates for that.

Very good point about the width!

All the surfboards I've made have had heaps more volume in them with stepped decks etc... Which isn't so relevant with kiteboarding I guess. I am actually putting a recessed deck on this one like the axis surf boards so the extra width may be a fine idea!
I guess in the end it doesn't matter if it looks weird as long as it works!
I'll start a thread when I start the build in the next week or so!

One more point. If you plan on going backwards and forwards if you have a 3 fin thrust set at one end you need to straighten the fin boxes to similar to a TT or you get a weird squirelly effect trying to ride thrust fins backwards.

the rocker is messed up on the swank, was originally designed to have 40mm it has around 20mm which is way too flat and makes the board near unridable

Perhaps I'm showing my inexperience a bit here but I find the swank really easy to ride. I must admit the only other things I've ridden are a axis surfboard which was great but only got a quick go and an old pickle fork which was the very first generation of twin tips and hardly anyone else has seen before. Perhaps I should try a twin tip with more rocker to be able to comment any further!