Board sliding around in big surf... bigger side or center fin?

Just curious if I should upgrade my side fins or a larger center fin to try stop my board skimming across the wave as I drop into larger waves.

I've tried running the board as a thruster and a quad.. both being the same fin up front.

The boards my 9'2 evoke carbon.

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hilly said..

Nugdam said..
Just curious if I should upgrade my side fins or a larger center fin to try stop my board skimming across the wave as I drop into larger waves.

I've tried running the board as a thruster and a quad.. both being the same fin up front.

The boards my 9'2 evoke carbon.

Biggest issue is width and litres there. How heavy are you?

Cannot beat thin rails and narrow boards in bigger waves.

Im about 95kg boards 145 litres. Surf was quite dumpy so I take my thrasher board just in case things go south... Plus its stable in the slop.


I should of taken my creek out I guess.

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hilly said..
Biggest issue is width and litres there. How heavy are you?

Cannot beat thin rails and narrow boards in bigger waves.

+1

Sliding in bigger waves is nearly always due to not burying the rail enough, either because your rails have too much volume for your weight, or lack of technique (try to move your feet closer to the rail in turns, especially the backi foot).

Try also to delay a bit the turn to let time for the rail to dig into the water.

Here I am demonstrating what you must not do: laying into the turn while the board is still somewhat flat. Thisis makepeople slide out most of the time.Inturnsthe body should be at a straight angle with the board. Just think of laying in turns on a bike, your body and bike have the same angle.


This is better, no sliding possible then:



Otherwise, if you are looking for the best grip in fins without being stiff, nothing beats the C-Drives in my experience.

Good point Colas. As a mountain bike rider you actually lay the bike over more than your body for best grip through a corner driving your weight vertically into the tyres so as not to slide out.

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Nugdam said..
Just curious if I should upgrade my side fins or a larger center fin to try stop my board skimming across the wave as I drop into larger waves.

I've tried running the board as a thruster and a quad.. both being the same fin up front.

The boards my 9'2 evoke carbon.

Definitely worthy a try.

I've got a boatload of fins that I'm swapping in and out of my single fin log SUP and higher performance longboard SUP with either a single or 2+1.

What I've come up with is that if I scale down the total surface area of the three fins or of the single, the boards can't go top to bottom and I can feel the fin(s) breaking loose (at the wrong time). On small waves it can be fun to slide around the turns. But in big waves when I really want to layout a turn like Colas above, I want more hold - I don't want to slide on the bottom turn.

So, on the 2+1 for example, if the center fin profile is narrow and it is not holding well enough, I'll add some side bites.

For a single fin I like a wide profile fin so that it works all by itself. Some longboard fins are just too narrow.

For 2+1 I like a narrow profile center fin and then scale up and down the sidebites until I get what I want.

So, if I were you, I would try either bigger sidebites (or with wider profiles) or a wider profile center fin.

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Nugdam said..
Just curious if I should upgrade my side fins or a larger center fin to try stop my board skimming across the wave as I drop into larger waves.

I've tried running the board as a thruster and a quad.. both being the same fin up front.

The boards my 9'2 evoke carbon.

Have you tried moving the rear fin back? Had the same problem (different board) and it solved it..... had lots of fun finding the sweet spot