Need lots of advice from experienced longboarders

[jaffa1949]

I posted some picture of my fin setups that may be of interest to you, in the Uncle Jaffa's fin Primer.
Unfortunately the fin companies haven't made a generic fin box so some designs are limited to the box or plugs that come with the board.

I am finding the C drives great for pushing the high line in hollower waves to get that extra bit of speed. When I can't use the C drive fins the futures vectors do the same job. By I can't go head to head with them as the fitting systems are entirely different.

[curtistaxi]

Thanks- I'll look at them. I'll have to learn to noseride next. I did catch a (almost)cheater 5 on a nice chin high left on Sat. My front foot was about 6 inches in from the nose and the front of my back foot about two feet behind the heel of my front foot. I held a real nice line like this for about 15-18 feet then it felt right to back off to the tail. I think I was nearing the bottom of the wave and if I would have kept holding it would have pearled. I got a small barrel on Sat as well. I tried a few times to go for a full blown hang ten but almost immediately it pearled. Obviously wave selection and positioning and feel will come into big play as I learn to noseride. When I crash after pearling on these ill fated attempts to noseride I make sure to go deep and let the board pass me by before I surface. I also cover my head with my hands right after I crash. I maintain this as I come up to avoid fin lacerations to the face and head. I got cut a small 1.5 inch laceration all the way to the skull on my shortboard many years ago. I could stick my fingertip right on the skull. The water was so frigid the thing stopped bleeding in a few minutes. We were 2 hours drive from any medical attention in a remote area of Northern Baja so I figured just keep surfing. It healed but ideally it needed a few stitches. So now I cover up the head and face like crazy after a fall unless I know the board is at a safe angle from me.

[muzza]

curtistaxi, you mentioned that you were going to try a McTavish F4, but I didn't see any comments about it.

Did you try an F4 in the end?

If you did, did you try it as a quad?

[curtistaxi]

No I just went with the Walden . The only reason I did was after extensive research on the internet I discovered the volume( buoyancy) of the Mctavish wouldn't support my weight as per the manufacturers specs.