Hi, so im progressing from RB to shortboard. Ive ridden my Ahd free diamond 77 149litre. OFO 50cm. 52cm Select freeride fin. Me 108kg 6'2". Cheetah 8m.Wind 14-16kt Bearing in mind this is my first ride on this board. Board planes easily. Into straps easily n when fully powered up the board wants to lift onto the fin n become airborne. Guessing im doing around 25kts. What size n style fin should i be using?
Thanks crew!
The Tribal site has a guide for fin board sail combinations. It's for their fins but gives a view of what to look at given your kit. Rider weight might get mean +size by 1or 2. A guide only.
I have always measured the width of the board in front of the back foot straps (the one foot off rule) which is what you have done & used this as the maximum length when struggling to plane (I look for the biggest chord/width I can find) & drop down 2/3/4 cm from there depending on the chord/aspect/stiffness of the fin to my next fin down (gauged by how it feels).
Being about your size I have usually managed to hold this size down, in a really big gust I will head upwind to stay in control if I have the room, though I am running the straps outboard so you might have to reduce size a bit if you are running the front straps inboard, which is what I did when I went to my first short board. Perhaps shorten the fin by the distance between the inner & out straps if this is the case due to the decreased leverage?
I am guessing you probably have looked already, but I always see what you can find/try second hand fins as you wont know what each fin will do till you try it out & when you crunch the tip (which you will do at Golden Beach) you are less concerned with a second hander.
put a fifty on it but get use to balancing that fin ,my xcite is the same and you do have to hold the rail down, what mast position are you using forward will help.
weigh like you and use that size sail in those winds
i typically use a 48 cm with 8.x sails and that is a good fin spacing - delta of 4 cm from your 52
for average joes like me
agree with moving mast base forward as required ... flatten it all out
Select to expand quoteolskool said..
Grich62, mast base in middle of track.
move it forward and see if that helps
Seeing as you use Select fins, this might help: www.select-hydrofoils.com/en/fin-selectors//
Choose freeride, then match your criteria to the graphs.
IMHO, the drop from a 52 cm to a 50 cm is too small. You might consider a 48 cm fin to better gauge the effect of the fin change.
Hope this helps.
Cheers WindmanV.
So what i want to know is a 'freeride' 52cm develops 'x' power. Id like that 'x'power on a shorter pointer style fin. Any rule of thumb used to convert from freeride size to pointer size?
Hi Olskool,
what a sweet board. I owned and used it for 16 years.
The standard Select FreeBlade XL 52 fin was used with a 10.5m2 NP V8 and later with a Gaastra GTX 9.8.
A very similar fin of 40cm was used with my 7.5 MS-2 sail (and I would not use a smaller sail on this board.
My weight is 91kg so I would throw in a 44/45cm Freeride type in your case.
Yes, you could use 48-52cm fins at 25kts. but why should you? The board will feel much looser and more eager to turn with a smaller fin.
Too much lift makes the ride too much "work" and less pleasure.
Have fun
Sunzi
Sunzi, sweet!! Thanks for the board relevant info. 
Did you ever try a pointer style fin? Quite easy to ride. I can see itll be my goto board.
Hi Olskool,
no I didn't. My 40cm Fin is labeled: Wave slalom 400 G-10 U.S.A. from Steamlined. Basically like your Select fin.
The shape of the FreeDiamond 77 (which was probably the best out of the whole serie) yells "EASY" to you. Easy planning, easy gybing, very well behaved and supports a "passive" riding style. Due to it's lenght it releases itself gradually from the water and is hence the next step for you coming from a RB.
The negatives: You can't drive the board as much as a shorter/wider slalom board over the fin which will limit the maximum speed. Hardly noticable for Joe Public. If you do races you loose the straight line blasting but catch up when gybing.
I think the pointer fins are for a different category of boards. Just me thinking. Borrow a classical 44/45cm FR fin at 25kts to find out yourself.
Cheers from Munich/Germany
Sunzi
PS: The board also appears on the Calema forum(Florida) Tinho is one of the most senior instructors in the US he has a strong (positive) opinion.
Sunzi, yes agreed as you have said regarding length n planing. It does get onto the plane much easier than my 130 Xcite ride does. Its also Much smoother to ride than Xcite. Due to the concaves id think.
Hello, olskool,
As a matter of interest, Select try to give advice on fin characteristics. If you have a look here https://www.select-hydrofoils.com/en/fins/windsurf/race-slalom/rhino-light-wind/, notice that the Rhino gives the most lift (power when getting going), but loses out in control. I doubt that the Power Edge freeride fin lift curve has the same value as the Rhino curve. If you are sailing with friends that have fins that you are considering, you might borrow one to see how it works in your board.
In my case, I can compare a 42 freeride to a 42 pointer, because I used to use both in one board (currently recovering from a stay in hospital, so sailing less than I'd like). The freeride is mainly used to allow the board to gybe more easily, compared to the pointer (the freeride fin is an old Fins Race Slalom [closest in the current Select range is the S1 XL Slam Evo] and the Freeride is an MFC Freeride Pro).The freeride is easier to gybe but does not point as high as the pointer. The pointer is harder to gybe but points much higher than the freeride. At your level, unless you are racing, I'd suggest that you continue to use the freeride style.
As others have noted, if your board is tail-walking at high speed, this is an indication that your fin is too long. There is no rule of thumb to convert freeride to pointer and I doubt that a shorter pointer fin would develop the same lift as a longer freeride fin.
Hope this helps.
