Is fin cant absolutely necessary?

Hi Team,

I’ve just built a 6’8" hollow wooden board with a thruster fin setup and I’ve used futures fin boxes for the first time. I understand that I can buy fins with the cant included in the fins. However, I’ve made my own fins for this board and overlooked the issue when shaping them. Seeing as I’m just at (good beginner - bad intermediate) level, is cant that important for this board? Or for my level of ability? I will only be using it on nice small days (2-3 feet). I have a 1/4inch toe in. 

I will just make new fins if it is absolutley necessary, but if its not something that will effect my fun, I’ll do it another time.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Actually I do not know, but I do ride mostly single fins.

If you watch old surf vids on youtube, everybody rode singlefins in the past. so I could ask the question, is a thruster setup necessary?

The answer is finally technical and individual preference. No it is not necessary to ride a thruster, a board rides with a single fin. Yes it is necessary, because some manouvers may not be possible with a single fin, but there may be some riding aspects that you can do only with single fins. some boards may be better equiped with thrusters, due to their intentions, same witth single fins…

 

And I assume, the same is with cant. I would just go for it, try it and see what happens. If you are content, leave it like it is, if you have the chance to get some future fins with cant just for trial purpose, chance the fins and see what works better for you.

Question;  Is fin cant necessary?   Answer;  No.  but then again;  Are fins necessary?  There is a difference between “fun” and performance.   

You installed finboxes, so why not just try it. Do you have anything to lose?

Sailboards do not have cant or toe-in on their thrusters. Toe-in just adds drag when going straight, it only helps when pumping. To my undestanding cant is a way to decrease the effect of the opposite sidefin and increase the effect of the engaged side fin when the board is tilted. But by no means necessairy.

Just go for it, you probably won’t notice the can’t. More likely to notice is a sloppy foiled fin profile :wink:

…Mc Ding; with that simple phrase you said everything what I tried to say (but did not came to mind) to a die hard D fins fans yesterday. Fun, performance; but may be they still do not get it.

Regarding cant; the cant is intended to “leverage” the board; air the board working in hand with the bottom and rocker. Working with the outline (hip, wing; different type of outline curves there) is intended to turn the board. Small hot dog surfing board have more cant; guns have less cant.

If you want to only flow there with the wave in those gutless surf; better with less cant. As these D fin die harders bombing me with more “vibe” arguments than facts, you can do whatever but to enhance your ride, is better to have some tilt on the side fins if not better to use it as single fin; then try to find what type of fin do you need for your type of riding and surf condition

 

 

I employ Probox hawaii fin system which has different inserts for 0 4 6 and 8 degrees of cant and ~1/2 inch fore or aft adjustment.

I find the 0 degree  cant boxes make my  board want to turn flatter and seems less happy on rail, where as more cant it holds higher in the wave face and is happier on rail and turns crisper, but is easier to overpower when really laying into a hard bottom turn, and more so when that bottom turn is not quite in the Trough but lower to mid face…

  I predominately use the 6 and 8 degree inserts on my rail fins. The 4 and zeros in my rail fins never felt good to me, and I did not really try again, but it could have been the conditions.  

Try your fins as is,  get used to them, then  borrow something different, or modify their bases to have some fin cant.  If you find that when you put the board on rail it fights being on rail or just does not respond like you would prefer, then fin lack of fin cant could be part of the problem.

 

Handfoiling fins and achieving a nice foil is quite difficult, and foil has a huge effect of fin performance.  When I take a contour gauge to some of my earliest fins, I wonder how I ever once thought them acceptable and that they worked well.  The same contour gauges used on store bought fins will also reveal poor foils on many.

 

One can slap a flat plywood ‘fin’ in their board and keep the assend from sliding sideways through turns, and on good waves might even feel ‘just fine’.  But a well foiled fin opens up a whole new playing field.

 

Dont be afraid to go thick either, a thick fin is much easier to hand foil accurately, and thick fins turn better.

 

Advanced beginner/ bad intermediate is not going to notice any added drag in  straight line trim speed from a thick fin, but they will be able to feel more fluid response and stability through turns with a thicker fin.

 

So try your fins as is, but plan on making more, with better foils and with some cant after you borrow some to compare the feel. 

I bring a fin key and sometimes another fin with me in my wetsuit to change in the lineup.  I have changed fins, and moved fins for and aft, and switched the canted inserts in one session just to see the effect in the same general conditions. 

 

 

 

Thank you all for your advice, greatly appreciated.

The general consensus is to just give it a go as they are, which I was kind of leaning towards myself. Or as mentioned above, just try the single fin. As far as the foils are concerned, I have foiled them as closely as possible to a thruster setup I already have on a similar board, with the addition of a larger center fin for a 2 + 1 or single. You are right, I wont actually know if my handshaping is any good or worth while until I get out there, worth the try though. Ill be interested to compare them to store bought fins.

I’ll mix and match and make some canted fins in the near future to compare.

Just happy to know that my oversight wasnt a complete mess up.

Thanks again.

I agree, Thanks for the links. I’ll look them up

Heavy back foot, you get away with (or prefer) less cant. More weight forward, some cant needed to keep the fin engaged through turns.

My 2c