What fin to use for down winding?

Hi guys
Just wondering what style of fin you are using on your downwinders and how do you find it? Have you gone with something to help with stability or something to help with tracking to increase stoke paddling on each side?
I just got a futures triangle cutaway. Nice looking fin and once my board is out of repairs looking forward to testing it ...

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mickeyb said..
www.vmgblades.com

My preference is the mako 37 for downwinding.

Nice choice. The Mako 37 is on my wife's JL Stiletto.. The stiletto is not a downwind board by any stretch, but the Mako sure does compliment it.
Personally, I prefer the Allison/Jeremy Riggs Aercor for downwinding. Doesn't get better than that IMHO.

Area10, c'mon, have at it!

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DavidJohn said..
This is the best DW fin I've ever used and at $60 it's one of the cheapest.. It's the 9" FCS tooless longboard fin.. The 8" version also works great.

I have the FCS II size 10 and like it as a beginner for that extra stability.

ive had my SUP quite a few yrs ( 11'6" Naish with a bit of rocker and quite stable )
I tried my first down winder a cpl of days ago in 10-12 knts. It was hard work. my question is is this board unsuitable for the purpose.?

DavidJohn, for JL Rail 28" wide which size of these FCS Connect fins would you recommend?

I have at home also an SIC fin, more straight. I think it is called the Spitfire design. What is the major difference between that and a dolphin shape fin!

The SIC fin looks like this

I only ever use tool-less fins as I'm way too lazy. I've got the 7', 8' and 9' FCS dolphin fins like DJ, and also a Slater Trout FCS if I want to be a bit loose and a Jeremy Riggs / Larry Allison fin that also uses the tool-less mechanism.

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viatormundi said..
DavidJohn, for JL Rail 28" wide which size of these FCS Connect fins would you recommend?

I have at home also an SIC fin, more straight. I think it is called the Spitfire design. What is the major difference between that and a dolphin shape fin!

The SIC fin looks like this

I'd recomend the 9".. but you might need to check that it fits your JL board (it should).. and you shouldn't be concerned in the least about the click in feature.. I trust it 100%..

You will not notice a big difference between the dolphin shape and the spitfire shape at low speeds except when it touches in shallow water.. The spitfire shape will catch and grab rather than slide and drag without catching like the dolphin shape can..

At higher speeds in particular planing speeds is where you will notice the biggest differences.. When surfing a wave or runner and you're turning left and you keep the board flat to lessen the drag of digging a rail you will feel the fin creating lift and making the board lift its upwind rail and want to turn left.. and once the upwind rail starts to lift the amount of lift from the fin increases making the turning effect worse.. This lift effect is great for windsurfers that want to go upwind but just like windsurfers if you want to go downwind or surf a wave you don't use a spitfire shape fin.. You use a more dolphin shape fin..

IMO a good DW fin is one that offeres good tracking (but not too much) and good stability (but not too much) and needs to have enough have enough curve in the tip to drag when it touches and enough rake to not catch weed.. but not too much because too much rake makes the board hard to turn..

Spitfire fins work well on long unlimited DW boards because the fin doesn't need to help with stability or tracking because these big boards have already have good tracking and stability but the one thing these boards don't do well is turn.. The spitfire shape helps big boards turn but imo they don't work well on 12'6" and 14' boards unless you have no interest in surfing or DW..

I like a fin that feels very neutral so you don't know it's even there.. It just works.. and you should try and use as small a fin that you can get away with to reduce the drag..

There is a blue version but more expensive. Is it worth to pay extra?

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DavidJohn said..

viatormundi said..
There is a blue version but more expensive. Is it worth to pay extra?

If you don't mind paying the extra I'd recomend getting the blue one mostly because they look nicer but don't expect any difference in performance..

I have four of the black (molded glass) and one blue.. one orange.. and one of the original green (machined glass) fins and the cheaper black molded glass fins have a bit more flex that's not noticable on the water but if you lay your board on hard ground resting on the fin it's likely the fin will flex left or right as the board leans over unless the board has a wide flat bottom.. It does no harm in fact the cheaper flexier option is probably more board friendly if you happen to hit any rocks..

I use these black fins as my center fin in my Nalu now if I'm surfing in small waves in shallow rocky areas and when I hit rocks it's a softer thud rather than the sharp crack that you hear with a machined glass fin so I'm guessing you're less likely to do fin box damage..

Thx a lot David.

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DavidJohn said..
Is it an 11'6" Nalu?

hi.
it looks just like the one on the left in the pic

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PhilC said..
ive had my SUP quite a few yrs ( 11'6" Naish with a bit of rocker and quite stable )
I tried my first down winder a cpl of days ago in 10-12 knts. It was hard work. my question is is this board unsuitable for the purpose.?

Hi Phil.. yes that board is unsuitable unfortunately IMO.. I had 2 or 3 of them back about 6-8 years ago.. I've tried downwinding on it and it's hard work.. It's a bit like taking a time trial road bike (bicycle) on a mountain bike downhill run.. (not much fun)

It is do-able and you might have fun but compared to a flat water specific board or a proper downwind board the difference is like chalk and cheese.. If you have good downwind skills it would help heaps to make that board work but it will not have the speed and glide of the right board for the job..

I remember my biggest problem with DWing the 11'6" Nalu was when the nose pearled the board almost completely stopped and the nose did a little shimmy left and right as it returned to the surface..