Has anyone played around with different fin shapes, to improve drive and upwind performance on surfboards. FCS have an enormous range but a bit of a minefield determining what to choose. Currently liking quad but have the tri option.

Which fins are you currently using?

Pends on what conditions u ride. Shories and I prefer thruster setup, anything decent and I want quad for that locked in solid drive feel.

Go a fin weighed up for a surfer slightly heavier then urself to start with, so if ur 70kg then shoot in the 75-90kg fin range. Flex in the fins will make the board wobble through the current, but let u snag tighter turns.

In short, grab a new set of fins and compare the feel on the water to ur last set and learn what suits ur style

yeah there are so many options and they can really change the way the board rides in significant way. most places that sell FCS should have a few demos in the popular models.

my fav is the H3 nexus. expensive but man the performance boost was worth it.

Some of the FCS dealers are demo centres for fins, so you can borrow different sets and see what works for you, I ended up with FCS TC Redline, fast with stacks of bite when you need it, and predictable release when you want to slide, trying different styles was a real eye opener for me, the difference is incredible.

... not only different models make a difference but different sizes make a huge difference too.

I ordered some H3 size quad set for one board and H4 size thruster size fins for another I have, put them in the boards and whoa nelly,,,, boards got way more bitey and grippy. Afterwards I pulled all the fins out to compare them and found the original (H2 size) was only milimeters different to the H4's. I actually thought it was a mistake. How could so little make so much difference???

One of my surfboards orignially came with H1 size and when I put in H4,,, bloody thing would almost throw me off it was so grippy,,, I figured that the board needed a little sliding or crabbing to stay comfortable,,, bigger fins if only by a few millimeters made it way too raily/bitey and un-comfortable, sure upwind was a little better but turning was more technical and off the top slides was just about impossible.

Have fun,

cheers,

Robbie

Thanks for the responses. I was using M-5's on the front and GX fins on the rear (basic cheap moulded fins). Realised I'm undergunned on size as I weigh 90kgs (thanks gcdave). Bought some M-7's and put on the front and put the M5 on the rear and have a significant performance gain as far as drive and ability to do a full smooth carve, so stoked.

The japan region version of the FCS website has a fin selector guide that rates performance characteristics of each fin i.e. drive, pivot, hold.
Don't know why the aussie site dosen't have this !! http://jp.surffcs.com/jp/products/fins/finguide.aspx

You can also try M7 in the front and GX in the back. M5 is a large fin for the back.

Also, you'll get more drive from a fancy stiff fin rather than it's plastic b-grade.

I have GX (cheap) and GX-Q (fancy) for the rear of my quad surfboard. Same size but GX-Q has a lot more stiffness so increase the drive. Switch back to plastic GX to loosen up the board. So maybe try GX-Qs in the rear instead of M5.

IMPORTANTLY - plastic FCS fins are subject to snapping at the tab. I snapped out my rear fin on a thruster board yesterday and had to complete the downwinder with a twin-fin set up. You don't usually get this from more expensive hex/glass/carbon fins.

Yep get a decent quad set, I'm 100kg and Surf the PC5's and then kite the PC7's. I don't mind the plastic ones (for surf atleast) but lots of guys complain about them feeling flexy which would definitely be noticeable under kite type loads, there is a marked difference in feeling between the glass ones and the plastic ones IMO.

I kite on quads and surf a thruster. (Unless I take out one my paddle surf boards). Playing around with fins can move the pivot point of your board. I prefer large fins 7's in the front of any combo I kite. A lot depends on your board, weight, waves and how hard you are pushing it, before you want it to slide. I get my fins off these guys. Surf eclipse accessories (SEA) The carbon bamboo thruster fins are good. I use the Margo quads in my kite board. They are fcs (or future) "compatible" fins. They are probably the highest quality of the low priced fins around.
Disclosure... I pay but they look after me
P.s. You just have to try them. We aren't all going to like the same things. I have a friend who loves the H series, yet I've had a couple of sets and wasn't into them. I found when you push them really hard they break into a fast less controllable slide, to a more traditional shape with more tip.