I know the Super Frank is classed as a small wave groveler.
it's my only board though at this stage and my question is which fin setup would be best on clean head high waves for the SF?
I'd appreciate any advice on this!

Have you tried stock fins? I'm not familiar with SF, but I would look at a little bigger rear fin(s) if your looking for more control in bigger waves. Fins are pretty personal, I could give a better answer if you were more specific on a problem you want to solve. Maybe some SF owners will chime in but head high clean should be pretty doable on almost any board the problem with grovelers is they can generate too much lift making them harder to get the tail/rail in on waves with more push so you might end up flying past the sections you want to turn on or lose grip in the tail when you do turn. I like c-drives on my wide tailed board.

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slsurf said..
Have you tried stock fins? I'm not familiar with SF, but I would look at a little bigger rear fin(s) if your looking for more control in bigger waves. Fins are pretty personal, I could give a better answer if you were more specific on a problem you want to solve. Maybe some SF owners will chime in but head high clean should be pretty doable on almost any board the problem with grovelers is they can generate too much lift making them harder to get the tail/rail in on waves with more push so you might end up flying past the sections you want to turn on or lose grip in the tail when you do turn. I like c-drives on my wide tailed board.

Thank you. I have only surfed the Super Frank with the stock Jimmy Lewis fins as a quad. They're 4.5" in front and 4" rears
My question is really a theoretical one at this stage since I've only had the SF out in waist to chest high beachbreak and the stock quad felt good but little skaty sometimes. I am planning to travel with the board and I've seen on the forum that some folks find the SF very loose/ skatey on headhigh and bigger.

I do have a set of Quobba thrusters from a previous board but haven't had decent waves to try them out in..people who know more than I do say that you need some speed for Quobbas to really show their benefit??

A thruster set might give more control and be easier to turn at speed, but a lot depends on how the boxes are positioned in the board especially how far back the center fin is.

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scsuperfrank said..

slsurf said..
Have you tried stock fins? I'm not familiar with SF, but I would look at a little bigger rear fin(s) if your looking for more control in bigger waves. Fins are pretty personal, I could give a better answer if you were more specific on a problem you want to solve. Maybe some SF owners will chime in but head high clean should be pretty doable on almost any board the problem with grovelers is they can generate too much lift making them harder to get the tail/rail in on waves with more push so you might end up flying past the sections you want to turn on or lose grip in the tail when you do turn. I like c-drives on my wide tailed board.

Thank you. I have only surfed the Super Frank with the stock Jimmy Lewis fins as a quad. They're 4.5" in front and 4" rears
My question is really a theoretical one at this stage since I've only had the SF out in waist to chest high beachbreak and the stock quad felt good but little skaty sometimes. I am planning to travel with the board and I've seen on the forum that some folks find the SF very loose/ skatey on headhigh and bigger.

I do have a set of Quobba thrusters from a previous board but haven't had decent waves to try them out in..people who know more than I do say that you need some speed for Quobbas to really show their benefit??

On the Quobba fins...I notice a positive difference on slow waves too! I don't bother with big stuff when it gets overhead. I have a similar shape board to the JL Super Frank...it's a quad too. Gets a bit hairy fast on the bigger waves but manageable and fun. Fins make a big difference but rail shape etc too...my New Deal locks in on a wave face with no skatey feeling. It's a 2plus 1 fin set up with rails that hold in right down to the pin tail. For big stuff with more control I would be going for a thruster if you want to reduce speed.

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Slab said..

scsuperfrank said..

slsurf said..
Have you tried stock fins? I'm not familiar with SF, but I would look at a little bigger rear fin(s) if your looking for more control in bigger waves. Fins are pretty personal, I could give a better answer if you were more specific on a problem you want to solve. Maybe some SF owners will chime in but head high clean should be pretty doable on almost any board the problem with grovelers is they can generate too much lift making them harder to get the tail/rail in on waves with more push so you might end up flying past the sections you want to turn on or lose grip in the tail when you do turn. I like c-drives on my wide tailed board.

Thank you. I have only surfed the Super Frank with the stock Jimmy Lewis fins as a quad. They're 4.5" in front and 4" rears
My question is really a theoretical one at this stage since I've only had the SF out in waist to chest high beachbreak and the stock quad felt good but little skaty sometimes. I am planning to travel with the board and I've seen on the forum that some folks find the SF very loose/ skatey on headhigh and bigger.

I do have a set of Quobba thrusters from a previous board but haven't had decent waves to try them out in..people who know more than I do say that you need some speed for Quobbas to really show their benefit??

On the Quobba fins...I notice a positive difference on slow waves too! I don't bother with big stuff when it gets overhead. I have a similar shape board to the JL Super Frank...it's a quad too. Gets a bit hairy fast on the bigger waves but manageable and fun. Fins make a big difference but rail shape etc too...my New Deal locks in on a wave face with no skatey feeling. It's a 2plus 1 fin set up with rails that hold in right down to the pin tail. For big stuff with more control I would be going for a thruster if you want to reduce speed.

Thank you that's helpful! I don't plan to surf the Super Frank in anything overhead but will try the Quobba thruster in chest to head high. It works real well as a quad in smaller stuff.

I have JL Worldwide and surfed it with the Quobbas M center and L sides for a while, but found that I now prefer it with the stock quads.

At the beach breaks I surf, from chest high to just overhead, I could have a fun day on my groveler, shortboard, or longboard because the waves are so variable, even just sitting in one spot and especially if I roam around.

I am running my SF with Gelly Lopez Quads (GL2). I don't have the stock quads. With the wide tail the board gets really fast when the waves get bigger. I am going to revisit Controller Quads as those work well on Simsups. I have not tried 3 fins on the SF, but will next time it gets bigger..
For my Worldwide I am running Keel fins, feels perfect.
Did not like Keels on the SF.

This is a very interesting topic for me personally ,as I love Jimmy Lewis boards but have had zero success with any of them as a quad! Stun gun,striker,Destroyer,For me the quad fin positions are way to far back, no matter the fin combo I always found all the boards way to stiff and tracky ,for quads I tend to like the Sunova quad set up as it's a much tighter cluster ,probably me being old school 2+1,or thruster

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justaddwater said..
For me the quad fin positions are way to far back, no matter the fin combo I always found all the boards way to stiff and tracky

I dont know for the JLs, but on my Gong quads, which also have a McKee setup (rear boxes close to the stringer and far back), drastically reducing the depth of the rear fins, and using symmetrical foils, adds tremendous nimbleness to the board behavior

E.g, I cut the rears to a depth of 73mm:

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slsurf said..
A thruster set might give more control and be easier to turn at speed, but a lot depends on how the boxes are positioned in the board especially how far back the center fin is.

I tried the 8'6' x 32" SF in head high waves with Pancho Sullivan thrusters and it felt bloody good. I weigh 90 kg. Thank you for the suggestion.

I have have a JL Super Frank Lean 115L x 8'0 x 30. IMO it is a good board for beach breaks and really is in its element in smaller thigh to should high conditions. It IS a groveller, so it has a flattish rocker and a generally wide planing area, which makes the board fast. BUT, when the surf gets juicy (steeper waves with more curvature to the pocket, or head high and up) this board gets squirrely and lacks the rocker to handle hollow, critical sections. Bigger fins may give you more control, but my personal experience in bigger surf is that they are not going to change this board's core dynamics, which are shaped for softer, weaker surf.

I find the stock JL quad set on the stiff side, but have really like the board with two large Quobba sides and a medium center (Rick Week's preferred general configuration). I'm 165 lb in board shorts.

Another thing: this board's profile changes pretty dramatically between the Lean / Wide shapes, as well as with length and volume. The larger, wider shapes and sizes have fairly wide squash tails, while the lean and shorter versions slim out. That also will change the board's surfing dynamics. The wider the tail, the less suited to large waves.

In the photos below, the green Frank is a Wide 9' x 32.5" x 156 and the red/yellow Frank is a Lean 8' x 30 x 115L board. I would guess that quads will generally work better in the wider tail models and thruster setups will be better suited to the lean models.

Have surfed the 8.6 SF lean in 5ft surf. Very skatey as the rails don't bite into the faces. Fat rails are great for small waves. Thin rails are much better for big waves. Would only surf the SF in 1-3ft. More speed across the face as a quad but also ran 2 quobbas in the front Trust and JL fins in the back 2 fin boxes.