Surfing Waves

got a 9ft bear performer longboard .
the board came with a 8" fin plastic basic type and 2 side bites .
looking to up grade to a better fin would a 6.5" or a 7" fin be ok to run with the side bites .

I haven't done it yet myself because I prefer to ride single, but my shaper recommended a 6.5" with sidebites for my longboard (which looks about the same shape as yours and is 9')... Should be good to go!

Hey, I recently bought myself a 9" Fluid foil FatBoy,I stuck it in my 9'3" board on its own and it's fantastic. Give single finning a try, you never know, you might like it!

If it's the blue Bear in the photo, I would put in a 9" standard fin. If you must use side-bites, I would go 7.5" or 8.0".

Single it at 9" side bites then smaller centre fin as suggested, play around with where you set up the centre fin , forward for looseness , back to tighten it up. Play with it, get the tuning right for you. Have aread of the fin primer!

thanks for the input .
i have a 9plus 9" fin that i ride with .
so a 7.5 not nothing smaller .
what would the ride be like if i put a 6.5 this is just out of curiosity .

No difference between the 7.5" and the 6.5" fin if you're going straight to the beach in the white water. But if you're trimming along the face and transfer from inside rail to outside rail to turn, there's a slight difference. Try this, put your 7.5" fin all the way forward in the box. If you don't like how that feels, then you won't like how a 6.5" fin feels when it's in the center of the box.

If the board is a "performance" long board it will have a bigger tail rocker so it can be turned radically from the tail and if you use a smaller fin, the tail will disengage more = slides and breaking the tail free in hollow section if you are forward on the board, you can go to an equal multifin solution and have bigger side bites but really you are best advised to look at how and what you want to surf and tune your board accordingly.
Go out and play with lots of fins and combinations have fun with it. there will be some epic fails please take videos but every wipeout leads to a little more understanding

ok thanks jaffa.
i was looking a rainbow mysto cutaway 7.5 or a rainbow tk flex7.5.
i don't want to spend a lot at the mo max £60 ish .

I originally restarted surfing on a longboard and came to find that the longboard seemed to slip in turns so I got a fin that was an inch longer and it made no difference but then I found I enjoyed making tail slipping turns so I gave up on changing the fins. All of a sudden my board started to loosen up and it became really fun to surf sliding all over the place. What I figured out happened is the screw that holds the fin in came out and the fin was tilting and sliding around during the turns. LOL

I'm always amazed about looking at surfboard features, what is the performance feature you are looking for? Is it glide, better turns, more hold in hollower sections. Or just plain pretty ?
You can read up on the fin prime to understand what you are asking for, The gear guide on this forum has this information too.
There is a book I have just read to review and I think it covers a lot of information about all facets of surfboard design.

I'll give it a plug
The Surfboard Book by Sean McCagh.
Surf Patrol will probably enlighten you about where you can get it! May even turn up in theSurfing Waves shop ( hint Hint)

I use a 9 inch flexi in summer smaller days and a 6.5 inch dolphin with side bites for winter. The winter setup has the centre fin about one inch back from the front of the fin box. That helps stiffen it although very slightly and will vary depending on your fin and board. Enjoy!