Surfing Waves

I'm right between small and medium size, I weigh 67kgs/147lb and will probably still grow, should I go medium or small?

What is your skill level? For most less than advanced surfers, the extra drive from the bigger fins is more valuable than the extra looseness from the smaller ones

Ie mediums

dtc wrote:What is your skill level? For most less than advanced surfers, the extra drive from the bigger fins is more valuable than the extra looseness from the smaller ones

Ie mediums

I would say I was intermediate - would there be a huge difference?

DannyG wrote:I would say I was intermediate - would there be a huge difference?

It's interesting how "everyone" is either a Intermediate surfer or Beginner-Intermediate surfer.
It might be a huge difference for some surfers and not matter if all three fins were different sized to some other surfers. Your twin brother ( if you had one ) may like smaller fins versus you liking larger fins. YOU need to swing the golf club or fishing pole, you need to throw the bowling ball or setup the suspension on your MTB. Why don't you go to your local surf shop that has the Futures Fin Tree and borrow the small fin and try it. Then borrow the medium and try it. Only YOU can decide.
What did the shaper recommend you go with ?

to add to wkk: if your fins are

- way too small - you will get little drive, maybe spin out, have little confidence in pushing big turns (esp bottom turns)

- way too big - you will just go in a straight line, fast but pretty hard to turn

- in the middle - there are good and bad issues, like everything its a trade off. So as wkk said, you may prefer extra looseness and someone else might prefer extra drive. The difference wont be huge, but it may be noticeable. As I mentioned, for most people they like extra speed, but if you are able to pump well and create your own speed and so forth, then maybe those benefits are not as important as being able to turn a little bit easier. Then on the other hand (see, all trade offs) if you are surfing big waves you might want more hold; or if you are surfing a small board you might want extra drive.

Personally I would still probably go mediums; but if you can try out the fins as wkk suggested that is ideal.

Size F4, good all around fin for beginner to intermediate, no deep inner foil so no radical cutbacks but also less drag do easier paddle. If you are a barrel chasing semi pro the metric am1 or am2, Lots of hold in the pocket and on the wall. In between I like the old M size 460's

I wrote a topic on this a few years back. Basically the same size. I was riding futures small fins, then decided to get Fanatic (if you've never heard of it its like netflix but for fins) and it completely changed my views on fins. Like Waikiki said you gotta go out and try different ones. I basically sampled the entire futures line on one of my utility boards...then sampled them again on another more standard shortboard shape. Every fin has different characteristics and all depends on the way you surf. I used Finatic for a year...completely changed my surfing for the better

thantthein wrote:I wrote a topic on this a few years back. Basically the same size. I was riding futures small fins, then decided to get Fanatic (if you've never heard of it its like netflix but for fins) and it completely changed my views on fins. Like Waikiki said you gotta go out and try different ones. I basically sampled the entire futures line on one of my utility boards...then sampled them again on another more standard shortboard shape. Every fin has different characteristics and all depends on the way you surf. I used Finatic for a year...completely changed my surfing for the better

Couldn't agree more , fins are such an area to explore and if you realise this your choices become as functional and as individual as. Personal golf clubs.

I refer everybody to my fin primer in the hope that people go beyond the generic that comes with the board.
Fins, rail and bottom contour, a marriage beyond compare if you get it right. If not divorce them one by one and play around!

To ad to this discussion: a change in fins can be spectaculair, I just found out.

I (76kg 182cm 54yo) loved my Firewire Addvance 6'6" (48L) for it's ease of paddling and wave catching, but was always struggling to control that big, wide and fat shortboard on my backside when shoulder high + waves. Since I'm a regular footer living in a land of big lefts, I was thinking of selling this board. Lucky I didn't.

I always used FCS PC-7 (Large, inside foiled) thruster fins because everything felt just right on forehand or smaller backside rides.

Yesterday I tried a radical change in fins and went to an overhead (ultra crowded) left. I put in a Thruster combination of extreme small G-XQ (quad rear fin set with 80/20 foil) and for center a medium sized Shapers Fibre Flex S5.

The effect was spectaculair! It kept all the positives like fast paddling and (longboard like) wave catching but now on the backside in head high+ the board was so incredible loose and in complete control I felt like I could do anything I wanted, and I did. Stoked!

dtc wrote:- way too small - you will get little drive, maybe spin out, have little confidence in pushing big turns (esp bottom turns)

I never felt any slip in the bottom or any turn that is. What I did feel was in the turn the abillity to sit deeper in the G-force and put more and more pressure on the legs to generate more drive. Maybe this way I will soon find the max in pressure these extreme small side fins can still hold, but I'm not there jet.

So for now this is the magical setup. Feels like a whole new board!

It's funny because the general opinion is, if i'm right: bigger fins give more control/hold in bigger waves.

My experiment proofed exactely the opposite: smaller (the smallest in this case..) fins give more control in bigger waves

It could be this is only true in specific situations, the Addvance 606 is a bit of an unusual shape with all that volume (48L), so maybe not a general rule after all?