5 fin groveler variations

Personally... I would not recommend riding it as a twin. Ride it as a thruster if you want. But really, that board... in 2' soup... should be ridden as a quad. If it's feeling too stiff as a quad, and you are looking for a more skatey feeling, try bigger front fins and smaller rear fins.

But the reality is, with the width of that tail, it's never gonna feel as loose as you think it will by just rearranging fins configs.

 

I usually ride a 5 fin board with all 5 fins.

 

Ps- quad. If it's not lose enough as a quad- change up your fins- look for a set or mix a set so that you have smaller trailers. I'm surprised how big some quad fins are- I hated my first quad until I changed the fins

 

depends on how wide the tail is. My couch potato sucked with anything other than as a quad. My mutant works as a tri, but rides best as a quad. So, I now always just go to the quad setup on wide tailed grovelers.

I can see how you'd want to experiment with your particular board, but don't be surprised if twins or a tri ends up being inferior to a quad in slop...you might be wasting a session.

If a quad setup on it isn't working on it the way you want, you might be riding it wrong. Make sure your back foot is as far back on the tail as possible during turns. If your traction pad is currently stuck too far forward, heat it up with a hair dryer, peel it off and re-stick it with spray adhesive as far back as possible .

 

All these guys have the right info. Do not ride as a twin. To be honest, I bet your back foot is too far forward and you aren't using the fins as much as you could. Try focusing on that, it might help. If not, smaller trailers like was mentioned.

I ride quads almost exclusively because I really enjoy the drive and the looseness through the second half of turns (my observations at least). I tend to have my foot just in front of the lead fins while pumping and when I do turns I move my foot back. Its all trial and error so keep testing the possibilities and find what suits you.

 

Here's a little vid, not sure if it will help...
[video=youtube;IUj_CctARfA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUj_CctARfA[/video]

 

I just picked up a board similar to yours.
I rode it this AM in pretty crappy conditions. Used it as quad with Large fins in front and Small fins in the back. I still need to dial it in, but im really digging it. Also never rode anything with such a wide tail, turns seem to draw out not as quick to get it around.

 

if you get your foot all the way to the back and crank deep on rail, even a wide tailed quad will turn on a dime...of course, you need speed first.

 

I did notice this. I only got like 7 waves this morning, towards the end i was shifting my weight back and getting some tighter wraps in. Def happy with my purchase!

 

So I took my groveler out today. Waves were kinda mushy, but about 3' on set.

Anyway, I set up the groveler as a 3 fin, instead of the recommended 4 fin. Surfs so much better.
The 4 fin set up was REALLY loose.

Currently have Large fins on it.

 

Large quad fins will create more lift, and make the board more responsive (looser). Taking the rears out and putting in a double foiled trailer will reduce lift by as much as 50%. Smaller quad fins will also reduce lift, but you will lose drive as well.

 

I must have tried 4 different set ups so far:
1. Quad - L Front/ L Back - Felt like I was riding a longboard.
2. Quad - L Front/ M Back - Better, but sluggish
3. Quad - L Front/ S Back - slid right out of a front-side barrel. must have been to far forward and just lost the a ss
4. Thruster - Large fins all around (today) - FUN! Controlled! tighter turns

Gonna swap out the Large center with a medium center to see if I can tell a difference for tonight's glass off.
Pretty sure I'll be sticking with 3 Large fins tho. Me likes!

 

I'm no fin guru... but all of those points above sound like either your foot placement, or fin placement, is off for your style of surfing and the width of that tail.

 

yeah, that tail looks pretty wide to me. Thrusters are easier to surf for a couple reasons, but mostly because that's what we grew up with and are used to. If you can get into the habit of getting your rear foot way back on turns, a properly finned quad setup will be significantly faster than a thruster in small, gutless waves.

 

Agreed... especially with that "out on the rail" fin placement for the rears.

 

I actually noticed that last night when I had all my boards out on the ground.
The rear quads are pretty close to the front fins. All my other boards, the quads are closer to the center fin

 

If you want to, take a square and make some measurements of where the trailing and leading edges of your fins are. With what I call the "on the rail" setup, I'll put the trailing edge of the rears 1/4" further in from the rail than the front fins, and put about 1" of space between the leading edge of the rears and the trailing edge of the fronts. But I'd never use that setup on a wide-tailed board (16" or more). I would, and have, used that setup on HPSBs with good success.

For boards with wide tails, I go with the "Rusty" setup (which is what I have on my small wave board, that has a 16" tail), or the McKee setup, the latter being the setup that most resembles a thruster feel. The Rusty setup is in between.

 

Not a fin guru, my a$$!
Good stuff - Thanks!