Hi all,

anyone have any sound advice on where to buy a nice, cheap but good, longboard fin?

I'm shocked by the price of fins and would consider making my own, anyone ever done this? any advice? materials - wood, plastic, resin?

your favorite fin?

true ames, fins unlimited, ebay. users here vegaluca, glide, puravida, charlotte.

re making them - you need to lay about 35 sheets of glass fibre one on top of the other glassing as you go and then cut out your design and foil you could shape it in wood and glass it - all very messy and time consuming - not worth the effort to save 50 odd euro.

These lads are the right job, got mine for something like €35 delivered and got in 4days from the US!!!!, saw the same fin on MSW for 45pound stirling

Well worth a look

And you get a free sticker.......

which one?

quick before they run out of free stickers!!!

cheers

Well I got this one in red and I find it great, but it really depends on the setup your looking for......

Do you want trad or progressive etc.., depends alot on the board too,
you'll get plenty of advice here anyway

They have an basic explanation of most of the fins there also

Thanks guys,

Charlotte is sorting me out.

The explanations for the fins on the web are fine but does anyone have any experiences of any fins they'd like to share?

(to be honest i am developing a pet hate for the "sales based" descriptions of both boards and fins I find on the web - I want the facts)

I'm just getting off a pop out and onto a longboard (homemade 9 6). I class myself as advanced beginner (no style) just looking for a bit of a glide at the minute, surfing beach breaks up to head high. The board will be a bit of an all rounder so i guess the fin should be too. any suggestions?

I really like the
True Ames Greenough (Stage 6) Fin.
but only cus it looks cool.

i'll probably go with the True Ames Heritage though

What's your favorite fin? and why?

It depends on what board and what wave. I have a few fins that I swap between:

10" Greenough 4a. Nice fin, good drive, I just find that sometimes there is too much of a delay between initiating a turn and the board actually turning. It slips out a bit as well.

10" MD3 which is the as the Greenough 4a, just thicker. Lots of drive but still turns well. My fin of choice for performance longboarding.

9.5" fin by the Fibre glass Fin Co that has a big base, goes in at the middle and out again at the tip, that works real well for nose riding.

9.5" Josh fareberow flex fin. Good fin, but over flexes on me when there is any power in the wave. SO generally good in small waves where the shape of the wave face changes a lot (flax helps smoothes out the transition)

10" McT fin that comes with the Redline, this was my favourite, but it is now 9.5" long after a bit of a grind. Classic shape, mainly stiff, small bit of flex through the tip.

10.5" McT fin that was on Beaners Model T the first time he won the Longboard comp. Its now on my redline as its exactly the same shape as the above, just a bit longer. My fin of choice for noseriding.

10" South Coast Axe fin - not tried it much, more of a pivotal fin so you really have to get over the tail of the board.

10" and a 9.5" South Coast fins, nice shape but both fins fractured owing to flex stress.

Just got a 6" WR fin, hope to try it out on my longboard this weekend.

Generally I like a fin that wont over flex and spin out, so that you can put plenty of weight behind a turn. It is a very individual thing, and I think very related to your own weight and the way you like to surf, nearly as much as to the board itself.

There are still a load of fins out there that I would like to try. I still find it surprising how much changing a fin changes the character of a board.

Hope that helps.

cheers mpb,

lots to digest,
do you mind me asking what weight you are? I'm a petite 14 stone.

I'm guessing this would mean I should be using longer stiffer fins.

So many variables.
Looking forward to trying stuff out anyway.

Depends on the time of year!. About 13.5. I just find the stiffer fins a bit more direct, ie, you turn and the board reacts quickly. When riding singles I prefer fins that are 9.5" upwards as well.

what are the dims of the board you made?

Its all so interesting. Fecking love the mechanics/fluid dynamics of it all.

I recently got myself a TK Flex 9.5" and a MD3 9" for my Fireball. I had a full day on Friday on mellow enough shoulder to head high waves and the TK Flex was perfect. It felt very smooth and suited the conditions. The next day however I took the same set-up out on a punchy head high beach break and it was terrible. Caused me to get nailed a few times. I had surfed the same spot during the week with the standard 8.5" McTavish fin with tiny TurboTunnel side bites and got on much better. The TK Flex seemed to "give up" when you cranked hard on the bottom turn and caused me to get nailed a few times as the board seemed to just bog down in the tail and I just stood there waiting for the lip to arrive. I suppose this must be the fin over flexing?? I had to nurse my board through the initial turn and couldn't sit as deep on the peak as I would have liked. Now I know I should have had the MD3 on but was just too excited to get in the water to change fins!!

These yokes feel great on the Fireball with its standard 8.5" fin (from my limited experience) http://www.turbotunnel.com/product.asp?productid=165177. No drag compared to the larger side bites while adding a little extra bite on bigger punchy waves.

By the way does this explanation of the TK Flex make sense or am I just imagining things???

That fin guide is quite useful

Thanks MPB

Any chance of making it a sticky

I'll tell you the dimensions of the board after easter when i've made it!!!

9'6" and just about as wide as my arm can take

planing something like this
http://www.swaylocks.com/resources/detail_page.cgi?ID=2167

perhaps a bit fuller in the nose and turning in earlier to the tail

hope that makes sense