Twinzer fish

[SaltWaterHeart]

I just traded my Bing quad fish which was becoming too big for me as I’ve been progressing to smaller boards for a 5’9” Larry Mabile twinzer fish. Stoked on it and can’t wait to try it out. The fins that came with the board seem okay, but there are two cheap plastic sides and the two rear/inside fins are fiberglass. I’ve read that it is good to have side bites that slightly overlap with the inside fins, as the twinzer design is for those fins and the bottom contours to feed water to the big twin fins to produce more drive and speed. The sides don’t appear to overlap, and I was thinking of getting either some fiberglass side bites or simply a fresh set of twinzer fins (all 4). I’ve looked at fins from Fins Unlimited, Naked Viking, Rainbow, and True Ames. Really like the new McCallum twinzers from Captain Fin but they are Future fins, though I pinged them about an FCS set.

Any ideas or advice for a good twinzer fin set? Thanks!

[Naeco78]

Hey man, sounds like a sweet board. I havent tried a twinzer yet but I remember reading that most of the side nubs are glassed in now because people would loose them so often because of the smaller size. Might be part of the reason it only had plastic sides when you got it.. theyre also small enough where it might not have much of a flex pattern for the nubs anyway. I probably wouldnt bother swapping those out for fiberglass unless its for the size like you said.
I find that most boards go best with the fin set the shaper originally had in mind. If it's not listed, sometimes you can find one second hand that had the fins glassed in.. and then look for a similar template.. maybe like the one below. You're right the side nubs look bigger than most of the sets that i've seen.. which were more like a bonzer nub.

[alex_k]

I've used the Rainbow twinzer fins on a 7'6" and an 8'2". They work great (though I never surfed a different set of twinzer fins). Both boards are drivey and fast yet plenty loose if I get the rear foot back and allow for a large radius rail turn with feet fairly far forward. As mentioned above, however, I lost so many on the 8'2" (single futures tab) I got the 7'6" with glass ons. This was improved slightly be filing the base of the fin if necessary so both the leading and trailing edges of the fin sit flush with the bottom of the board. Avoid filing the sides of the fin tab unless absolutely necessary because you want a tight fit. Hope that helps!

[IB_Surfer]

I use the FCS FK2 fins, they work great. I also use bamboo fins when I want it to look nicer but the FK's work better

[SaltWaterHeart]

Thanks everyone! It’s the slow season where I’m at and we haven’t really had good swell since May but we had a little hiccup of a swell last week and I was able to try the twinzer out. Honestly, felt amazing and totally forgot about the idea of swapping the fins it went so good. What I thought of doing in my mind I was able to do on the wave on that board perfectly, it was insane. First wave was a long bottom turn with 2 solid vertical top turns. One of my sponsored/ambassador California surfer and shaper friends saw me on it and was hollering. Always encouraging when someone you know has surfer much longer than you and is better gives you a shout out and respects your surfing. Loves the speed and the board just flows in and out of turns seemlessly. Very responsive, in a good way, but still loose as fish tend to be. My front side fins actually have 2 tabs so they lock in the box fine. I like to experiment with fins so may try things out down the road with 2 glass fins to feel the difference, but I’m honestly content with it as is. Goes so good. Definitely feels like a shortboard but slightly looser and not quite as connected a feel. I have a twin keel long fish and had a quad fish before this, but highly recommend trying a twinzer. So fun.