Tribal MK2 Carbon Slalomfin might also be a speed monster

Another very promising design by Chris Lockwood and Peter Weitenberg. First tests are in and I am amazed by the drive and ease of use of this given fin. I am comparing one on one with the Z-SLM which was and in many waterstates still is my favourite for long. I need some more tests but if the Tribal MK2 proves to be as good as it presented itself in the first two tests, it could cover the range the Z-SLM gives and add something extra.

Chris was very clear he designed this fin as pure slalomfin and it can be felt. Upwind drive and crosswind drive is clearly better than the Z-SLM. The SLM flies off the wind in rough conditions and I thought this thick design which totally sets itself apart from the current consensus: going for thin foils in PWA style type of fins, would give in on broad courses. To my suprise it doesn't...at all.

If first objective one on one GPS speed measurements tests prove to be right, it's because of one probably one unforeseen ability of the fin: stability. At the right size, the fin rides like on trainrails. A frikkin' slippery trainrails.

On flat water, the Sym Speed has already proven itself to me last year and it beat the Z-SLM hands down for my weight (light to normal). On open water it was also faster than the other fin I tested extensively and to me is the best speedfin so far: the Z Asy. This last fact stunned me as I was sure I would go faster with the Z-asy.

Behind a bank though, there is still nothing that can beat the drive of the Z-Asy. But I little bird told me that might change soon.

So...either this is marketing bull****. Or this is for real. I'd say, test for yourself.

A small tuning tip. Don't go too small on the Sym speed. It's not needed. Control will stay and speedloss is non existent. Dare going smaller on the slalomfin and change it into the speedmonster it also holds inside. This might even or specifically be good for PWA riders daring to think out of the box. If I were riding PWA in the now, I would go 4cm smaller in size at the same drive but way higher speed. The thick foil can give it and add speed at lower needed surface. The thick foil also adds to a rock solid feel underfoot and will never give in. It litterally flies over the chop and when you land the fin at the next wavetip it's just there. I was driving the fin like I never drove a fin before with my legs and it just held and I could feel it would just be getting faster and faster and faster as soon as waterstate goes flatter this summer, our summer.

Fuerte can be won this way at true Fuerte conditions. It's just a tip...

And dear Aussies. What you call cold when sailing, in our regions is being seen as warm, so would you be so kind to stop naggin'about that. Until your dick freezes off, like at the places we sail you have got NO right to talk about cold anymore.

Look at you over there. You've got the nicest waves, nicest people, possibly most bewildering nature on Earth, most peace and quiet around you, litterally, of all inhabitants on Earth. I applaud you for living there and if the moons are with us, we will come and visit some of your great speedvenues for sure, one of these coming years.

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BSN101 said..
I have a CLSL2 38 & 26. Love the 38 yet to try the 26.

Well i was led to believe that they were both CLSL2? But given that they have different patterened carbon they may be different. Ill ask CL when I speak to him next or if anyone can shed some light.

The 38 is great and I hope to use the 26 this winter

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decrepit said..
Yes external skin is very different, but who knows what's happening inside, the overall layups may be the same.

The 38's square layup will give stiffness along the fin, so not much flex, but will allow twist. The 45 deg pattern of the 26, will allow some flex, but no twist. It all depends if all the layers through the fin go the same way. I suspect there's a variation through the fin. and the flex/twist characteristics are similar.

Look better, they are both 45?. Mine (30, 34, 37, 40, 44) are same as BSN101's 38. BSN101's 26 is in spread tow carbon.

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geoITA said..
It would be extremely interesting to have reports about how does the MK2 compare vs. previous designs such as the CL SL2 and SL3.

I had the CLSL2 38 unfortunately I smashed it up so just recently got the tribal SL2 38..I had to do this as the original CLSL2 was a special fin it holds my local spot pb and the ride compared to other good fins for my board was different league,
I have only used it twice, first outing I set the sail as per usual ( analy measure my d/h with a ruler to exact mm) and instantly it was like having my old Freind back! But wasn't quite right it was seriously powerful and was feeling it in my legs and speeds were slightly off, I was worried I should of got a 36/37, anyway it was a quick sesh and didn't get chance to fiddle much, that said I added a couple of mm of d/h on my last run and it came alive! so second go I added 4/5mm more than my std set with the CL wind was 17kt and on trusty patrik 115v4 and koncept 7.0 (2019) inland fresh water and gusty and not flat..first run nicely powered checked gps and expected a 28/29 and was 31.5kt..what? Literally no effort no concentration no big bear offs pretty much std beam reach..this surprised me..I continued but wind was dropping all the time that said it turned out to be 2nd fastest sesh (over 11 years) for the spot,
I can't claim too much as it was only the first go using it in anger but for the blast it got my thoughts were,
The Cl was a loose fin and absolutely fab in the patrik, went great across wind and could lob it off wind at will and accelerated nicely always flying, the board seemed to default flying off the back and skimmed the chop like no other board/fin combo I have sailed (beam and broad) not tested against many fins but did go faster than what I tested against.
The tribal SL2 seems just slightly more powerful but say 85-90% similar feel to the CL the 10/15% difference was in beam reach speed, I'm not the best upwind but felt it stonked up with no aggro, downwind it didn't feel quite as loose and felt the nose was riding a tad lower I noticed I tripped a bit of chop scrubbing a bit of speed..when I say tripped it was very minor and would do it like once..I had to concentrate on stance more off wind to stop it - that said I was hitting speeds at lower angles than the CL so didn't need to go off as much

again it was only really a first test and impression, I'm not a slalom sailor but hoon around with a gps trying to go as fast as I can, I would say I'm quite heavy on the back foot and the tribal is rock solid, from the session the difference between max and the 10 sec average was small and based on the Max's were inline with the CL the average was up and they were consistent, I felt the tribal hit higher speeds with more ease minimal effort and the averages were up...in a nut shell your sailing faster, probably luck but also bagged the best planning chop gybe ever
if you have neither fins then u need one if u have a CL you won't regret buying the tribal but you would be a bell end selling it..unless your selling it to me of course

oh and if u have a patrik 115 then u really do need one, mr d if you see this then your boards should come with these...you'll sell more!

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eastcoast said..







Oh and they fit the patrik fin box with no sanding and dead flush

What size? Bought from the web site? How long did it take to get to you?

I have a custom SL mk1 52
cm inG10 for the windy days on big kit. And I love it. I wish Slowie had have pushed into a Mk2 tho. The 52 is super well behaved and forgiving when pushing real hard on it.
My Mk2 38 is amazing in extreme conditions on my 125 board. Everything else is scary but not the fin. Crash free on both for 12-18mths now.