Choosing Between a Single Fin or Tri Fin?

[Whammx]

Hi guys,

I have the opportunity of choosing a longboard and considering I've not owned a longboard before I'm not sure what to do here.

I have a six footer tri fin which I absolutely suck on, though I use it all the time considering I want to be out in the water.

Most likely the longboard will be a nine footer, though am not sure whether to choose a tri fin or single fin?

Any advice is appreciated.

[APH]

Hi Whammx, I still consider my self a novice, but I think the majority of replies are going to be "Depends what kind of surfing you plan to do".
Single fin lends itself to more cruisy, longer arc turns whilst tri fin (2+1 for Jaffa) can be used in a more performance sense. This a very general overview but hope it helps. I ride my boards as a single fin as I like the cruisy, loose feeling I get, and was told once that single fins can paddle easier, less drag, Dont really know if this is true and if so its probably by a minuscule amount. Enjoy what ever way you choose to ride, besides a lot of boards give you the option of removing the side bites and moving the centre fin backwards and forwards so "experiment" will probably be mentioned as well in replies

[jaffa1949]

A six foot tri fin is most likely a thruster (that is 3 fins all of the same size), everybody nod their head and say, "thank you Simon Anderson".
Go bigger, get a longer board that enables you to have a three fin configuration or have it as single, simply more options early days get your basics down and develop things from there.
APH is on the money with his advice and if you read other posts in the longboard section you can get more advice on how to surf

[Mdowling56]

Honestly, on a 9ft board and with you being new to surfing/LBing, you probably wont even be able to tell the difference. Like Jaffa said, get a 2+1 set up so that when you do get better and have to make a choice between performance or nose riding, you'll be able to config it the way you want. However starting out i'd probably go with a 8-9" single fin on that board. Going to make the board more stable and let you focus on lines and form rather then pumping and carving and such.

[billie_morini]

Mdowling,
when I learned to surf on my 9-ft board with side bites, I could easily tell the board was more stable with the side bites in. They helped prevent the board from rotating along the long axis. This is helpful to beginners because they have trouble with balance, popping up evenly, and placing weigh in the correct places. All 3 of these things are somewhat mitigated by the side bites. Now, did I receive the benefit that side bites are primarily designed for? Nope.

[Katsura]

There could be a reason those learner's softies are always tri-fin for stability. but it also be because they don't want to stick a big skeg in the middle for a learner board just in case they injure themselves. So instead they spread the load of a single big skeg into 3 euqlly small ones.

As a plane geek I resent you this compare:

vs

[billie_morini]

Kat,
so very cool! thx.
billie