Those fins are sweet! I'm lovin the ingenuity and talent shown in that design Blakestah, you deserve mad props! Second, Super Fat Pat, that board is BEAUTIFUL! That's only your second board? That's darn impressive.
Thanks for the additional pics! I'm just starting my first HWS and this keeps the inspiration high. Of course I'm making an assumption that yours is an HWS, aren't I? Could be a wood-railed sandwich, I s'pose. But beautiful and inspiring however it's made!
Well, I finally did it. I took the boxes apart, took the bumpers out of the surftrux and locked them into place. I felt the difference on the first wave, and for the rest of what ended up being a short session out at middle peak.
The difference:
With the fins locked into standard thruster position I felt like I had the brakes on the whole time, compared to what the board felt like with the fins rotating. On my first wave I took a late drop a little behind the peak. Usually I would be able to hold on tight and, IF my lack of skill didn't cause me to go flying, make the section and be having a great time all the way to indicators. Today I made the drop, dug into the bottom turn, and almost literally stopped. That's what it felt like; I was just sitting there watching the wave close out in front of me.
That scenario repeated itself a couple times and I found my self lining up much closer to the shoulder than I've been used to lately. Another big difference was that with the surftrux rotating, I just think about turning and it goes. With the fins fixed I felt like everything was work, slow work. You get the picture.
For the way I surf, the surftrux have really expanded the boundries of what I can or can not do. I can only speak from my own experience, but just want to say THANK YOU DAVE.
The game, she's a little rigged, of course. SurfTrux go better with slightly longer base width fins than thrusters do. So if you lock them in place, they feel real draggy.
The "best" thruster fins for that board are likely at least 1/4" shorter base width. You would find better thruster action in that case, and they would lack drive as SurfTrux.
Because SurfTrux lets the outside rail fin collapse, you need a little more base width to get the same bottom turn action.
Of course, it is highly controlled when you use the same board and fins and fix them, and SurfTrux will always win if you use SurfTrux fins. If you used the 'best' thruster fins it would be a lot closer.
Thanx for the update. Glad you like them. We got lots more.
dave, can you change the fins in the surf trucks or only the bumpers?
Fins are changeable. The fin is simple with a simple rectangular tab and no cant built in to the fin. If you make your own fins, have Rainbow make them, or just want to cut down another fin company's fins to try them out (one of them will work easily), drop me a line. OR if you just want the specs on the fin tabs, they are 1.5" long 0.45 inches deep and 0.25" thick with 2 1/8" holes drilled for access to the hub.
I recommend 0.25" more base width that what you would use for a thruster. The fins that come with it are 4 5/8" base width. If you normally like long base widths, it may be worth making some longer ones. But most people are around 4 3/8" and the stock fins will fit the bill. If you normally use the same size fin, like Bud, you will probably not experience stronger turning than you normally get on your thruster, just less drag between turning. But you can get both with the right size fin.
I was so impressed with the concept I forked over the $ (full retail - I have no interest in Dave's business) as soon as they were available. I just received them and haven't tried them yet. It just seems that standard toe-in is kind of like dragging a fin sideways through the water unless you turn all the time. Some of us just like to cruise.
The guys that have to do two little turns to get around a section might consider one big glide turn?
FWIW, the design and engineering is (IMO) top notch. The demo single rotating fin system I still have is equally impressive.
Think about it... drag a fin sideways??? Doesn't make any sense at all to me.
I was surfing with Pat yesterday but did not get a chance to chat about the surf during or after.
I am glad you made the post that I was just about ready to make wrt the fins size.
Very impressed
Christian
A happy customer is someone who is told what he is going to get, likes the sound of it, and gets what he was told he was going to get.
If you take your current thruster, get fins 0.25" longer in the base, and use them in SurfTrux in an otherwise identical board, I think you will like the result in that it will be faster and turn better. If you use the standard thruster fins it will turn close to the same and be faster, and it will not make nearly the same impression.
So in a sense you might say the key is using bigger fins...but those fins are unusable in a thruster because of how bogged down the board gets. With SurfTrux the board does not get bogged down with bigger fins, and they are just as powerful in turns.
So is the drag from thruster configuration mostly just from the opposing angles of the center fin and the operative rail fin, or from the combination of that and the length of the thruster cluster, Dave?
Reason I ask is because if you just shortened the length of the fin cluster by a half inch, it seems like you would have a cluster with the same amount of drive, but looser, assuming you moved the center fin up, or tighter, if you moved the rail fins back.
And you wouldn't have to give up the assistance the outside rail fin provides.
The fin cluster configuration measurements seem to me to have evolved into the standardized version because of the uniform tail width and pod width of the usual size of the usual performance board.
Those fins are sweet! I'm lovin the ingenuity and talent shown in that design Blakestah, you deserve mad props! Second, Super Fat Pat, that board is BEAUTIFUL! That's only your second board? That's darn impressive.
Thanks for the additional pics! I'm just starting my first HWS and this keeps the inspiration high. Of course I'm making an assumption that yours is an HWS, aren't I? Could be a wood-railed sandwich, I s'pose. But beautiful and inspiring however it's made!
Cheers,
Schiffie
Well, I finally did it. I took the boxes apart, took the bumpers out of the surftrux and locked them into place. I felt the difference on the first wave, and for the rest of what ended up being a short session out at middle peak.
The difference:
With the fins locked into standard thruster position I felt like I had the brakes on the whole time, compared to what the board felt like with the fins rotating. On my first wave I took a late drop a little behind the peak. Usually I would be able to hold on tight and, IF my lack of skill didn't cause me to go flying, make the section and be having a great time all the way to indicators. Today I made the drop, dug into the bottom turn, and almost literally stopped. That's what it felt like; I was just sitting there watching the wave close out in front of me.
That scenario repeated itself a couple times and I found my self lining up much closer to the shoulder than I've been used to lately. Another big difference was that with the surftrux rotating, I just think about turning and it goes. With the fins fixed I felt like everything was work, slow work. You get the picture.
For the way I surf, the surftrux have really expanded the boundries of what I can or can not do. I can only speak from my own experience, but just want to say THANK YOU DAVE.
Pat
The game, she's a little rigged, of course. SurfTrux go better with slightly longer base width fins than thrusters do. So if you lock them in place, they feel real draggy.
The "best" thruster fins for that board are likely at least 1/4" shorter base width. You would find better thruster action in that case, and they would lack drive as SurfTrux.
Because SurfTrux lets the outside rail fin collapse, you need a little more base width to get the same bottom turn action.
Of course, it is highly controlled when you use the same board and fins and fix them, and SurfTrux will always win if you use SurfTrux fins. If you used the 'best' thruster fins it would be a lot closer.
Thanx for the update. Glad you like them. We got lots more.
dave, can you change the fins in the surf trucks or only the bumpers?
Quote:
Fins are changeable. The fin is simple with a simple rectangular tab and no cant built in to the fin. If you make your own fins, have Rainbow make them, or just want to cut down another fin company's fins to try them out (one of them will work easily), drop me a line. OR if you just want the specs on the fin tabs, they are 1.5" long 0.45 inches deep and 0.25" thick with 2 1/8" holes drilled for access to the hub.
I recommend 0.25" more base width that what you would use for a thruster. The fins that come with it are 4 5/8" base width. If you normally like long base widths, it may be worth making some longer ones. But most people are around 4 3/8" and the stock fins will fit the bill. If you normally use the same size fin, like Bud, you will probably not experience stronger turning than you normally get on your thruster, just less drag between turning. But you can get both with the right size fin.
Hi Dave -
I was so impressed with the concept I forked over the $ (full retail - I have no interest in Dave's business) as soon as they were available. I just received them and haven't tried them yet. It just seems that standard toe-in is kind of like dragging a fin sideways through the water unless you turn all the time. Some of us just like to cruise.
The guys that have to do two little turns to get around a section might consider one big glide turn?
FWIW, the design and engineering is (IMO) top notch. The demo single rotating fin system I still have is equally impressive.
Think about it... drag a fin sideways??? Doesn't make any sense at all to me.
Now that was a stand up post Dave.
I was surfing with Pat yesterday but did not get a chance to chat about the surf during or after.
I am glad you made the post that I was just about ready to make wrt the fins size.
Very impressed
Christian
Quote:
A happy customer is someone who is told what he is going to get, likes the sound of it, and gets what he was told he was going to get.
If you take your current thruster, get fins 0.25" longer in the base, and use them in SurfTrux in an otherwise identical board, I think you will like the result in that it will be faster and turn better. If you use the standard thruster fins it will turn close to the same and be faster, and it will not make nearly the same impression.
So in a sense you might say the key is using bigger fins...but those fins are unusable in a thruster because of how bogged down the board gets. With SurfTrux the board does not get bogged down with bigger fins, and they are just as powerful in turns.
So is the drag from thruster configuration mostly just from the opposing angles of the center fin and the operative rail fin, or from the combination of that and the length of the thruster cluster, Dave?
Reason I ask is because if you just shortened the length of the fin cluster by a half inch, it seems like you would have a cluster with the same amount of drive, but looser, assuming you moved the center fin up, or tighter, if you moved the rail fins back.
And you wouldn't have to give up the assistance the outside rail fin provides.
The fin cluster configuration measurements seem to me to have evolved into the standardized version because of the uniform tail width and pod width of the usual size of the usual performance board.
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