I finally got round to putting some yellow fins in my Mistral Twinser. Steve Thorp sent them to me ages ago to try out. The Mistral comes with some of those high tech Maui Ultra fins, they certainly look very trick. But are also very small, blade like and stiff. The theory is they are foiled with the bendy raked back bit cut out. As a consequence they are pretty stiff. I'm not really sure about the benefits of this, they are certainly very loose.
Steve's fins look much bigger in area, and I have to say, having not really changed fins around before for any performance reason they transformed the board. It had a much softer dependable feel and went upwind better. Also less noticeable was that sort of sideways drift you get with twin fins, especially when you want to make a sudden change in direction to bear off and hit a ramp. Also if you lost them (then they are easy to find, because they are bright yellow!), they were easier to pull back, or even feel like they slipped in the first place, meaning more control. So, it's a big yes for the fins so far, plenty more feel and control!
Steve's fins look much bigger in area, and I have to say, having not really changed fins around before for any performance reason they transformed the board. It had a much softer dependable feel and went upwind better. Also less noticeable was that sort of sideways drift you get with twin fins, especially when you want to make a sudden change in direction to bear off and hit a ramp. Also if you lost them (then they are easy to find, because they are bright yellow!), they were easier to pull back, or even feel like they slipped in the first place, meaning more control. So, it's a big yes for the fins so far, plenty more feel and control!
Hey Clyde,
ReplyDeleteStev-0/Kiwi Steve here and have had the same experience with you with the K-4 fins:
I have been using K-4 twin fins (17-16-15cm) in NZ for a few months in conditions from nasty 'egg-box' sea states, to cross-onshore mush and to prefect cross-off logo high DTL reef breaks. They rip and I can't see my use my G10 fins again in a hurry! Even though they seem so soft they don't spin out even in the harshest sea state and when totally overpowered!...plus they go up wind better!
The K-4 fins work awesome on the wave face. Sooooo much more traction and torque off the bottom and top turns. You can feel the fins flex with the carve when really loaded up off the bottom turn - but through the last quarter of the turn they then 'whip' the board around and provide a extra squirt of acceleration to drive you back up the wave face more vertically than ever before!
The top turn on the K4 fins is something else. You can crank as hard as you like and they engage traction like a 4WD off the top and keep turning. You can feel the fins loading up and flexing but you get whipped around so fast and can 'round house' the cut back super hard into the breaking section, or do those new school super whippy cut backs. Also I have been doing the best and longest lip slides ever as the fins release easily off the top to initiate the slide but they come back in again just as easily to control the end of the slide and let you sail off feeling like a rock star.
Simply, the more energy you put into the initiation of a bottom/top turn the more performance the fins will then deliver back to you! The fins release the energy you put in at the exit of the turn in the form of a squirt of acceleration right where you want it!
Also in cross-onshore mush when going front side the fins will load up but then release off the top turn far easier than G10 which makes tricky front side riding easier in onshore winds.
Basically, I am doing turns I've never done before on my Mistral 84 twin fin and I have sailed that board a lot prior to swapping to K-4 fins!