Just picked up a used Lost motivator and was considering trying a small trailer fin with the quad set-up. Anyone out there tried a trailer or nubster fin with the quad set-up?
I like my nubster because it fills the empty slot,but it is too small to do anything that I would notice.i just hated the empty box.i don't surf well enough to see that it does anything.neither would 99% of surfers.
yeah i got a 5 fin stewart s winger, at first i tried it as a 3 and quad but its really meant to have that 5 fin. the more you get on and surf with it the more you'll get used to it. it always would feel like to me that it was harder to turn at first.
I throw a nubster in in the back on my small wave board if I'm surfing it on bigger, and especially steeper, days. Definitely think it adds a bit of stability on steep drops when you've got to make a bit harder of a bottom turn
the 5 fins ive ridden have been set up with trailer fins in the quad spots. Loosens it up a bit. Assuming youll get more drive but it will be tight on turns as sandblaster said
Surfingwasteland, what are the dims of your leading and trailer fins then? Have you used the same trailer on the 5 fin or leave it open?
the knubster does add a slight bit of stability. I found it pretty useless on my couch potato because it doesn't have enough rocker to handle waves that need much stability. If the motivator has enough rocker to handle a steep wave, then, yeah, I'd put the knubster in on those days
Yea... the Nubster helps put a little smoothness into the transition from rail to rail on quads. Especially on the rail oriented style quads... not so much the McKee style setup.
if you believe it. if it weren't for Kelly slater's air at long beach...the thing is too small to do anything.
I've played with the Future Fins TMF on my Firewire Spitfire and it makes a difference. On bigger steeper days it adds stability on bottom turns that would get out of control with just the quad setup. Tried it on smaller days and it takes away a little maneuverability.
i have a motivator also. tried the 5 fin deal and honestly didnt notice much of a difference. after like 2 or 3 times i ditched it and went back to my DMB-5 quad setup. give it a shot though ya never know.
Hey man, How you like the board? I have one too and love it under waist high, once it gets steep, the board has too much float for me. I have wanted to get a nubster too... but there is no rocker in the board and it has a pretty straight outline. I am realizing that its good for certain days but not a quiver killer. Good luck and I hope yo ulike the board as much as I do.
This is one of the things I never understand on here....correcting other people's own experiences. Look man, you've made it clear you don't think the nubster or trailer does anything for you, and you can't fathom that it would for anyone else. That's fine, but as a number of other people have noted (in this thread and others), depending on their set-up, the conditions, etc., they found some benefit in it. Maybe the OP, will too? The whole "most people aren't good enough to understand the nuances of their equipment" theory is kind of played to me. If you take the time to experiment with and dial in different set-ups, then you will notice the differences, even when they're small. I agree, you're not going to have some mind-altering session and instantly become a better surfer when you tweak your equipment just a little bit, but that doesn't mean that there's no perceptible change either. There can be a middle ground. Maybe for you, with your particular set-up, in the waves you usually surf, adding the nubster doesn't drastically affect how you surf (also, why do you hate the empty box? Do people really think that matters? You want to talk about "in your head"...separate thread, I digress), but I can tell you, on my small wave board (5'8" bottom feeder), adding the nubster most certainly does make a difference when the surf gets bigger and better. It's not huge, but TO ME, ON MY BOARD, the 5th fin definitely gets rid of some of the looseness and skatey feeling, and also helps to set a good bottom turn without getting that slidey feeling you can get sometimes on quads during steeper drops. That nubster, to me, has actually expanded the range of waves I'll ride that board in for that reason. That's all beside the point, though. Mostly, what I'm saying, and I always see this on these threads, is that you've made your point known. You don't think it does anything. That's fine. Plenty of other people agree with you (the majority even), and some people don't (myself included - respectfully, of course). You don't need to chime in again and again after every single post which posits that a 5th fin of any kind MAY have some hint of a positive benefit at times, just to make sure the world understands that it's all in their head and that fin isn't doing anything. Other people might have their own experiences with nubsters/trailers to offer - I can tell you now, one way or the other, they certainly know better than you if they noticed a difference with the 5th fin in or not, positive as you may be that they weren't able to notice anything at all. And maybe they didn't notice anything! I'm not trying to say anything concrete in the other direction, either! Just that people's own experiences, what they noticed while trying out any kind of 5th fin.....well, someone's experience isn't really up for debate. Lastly, I do not mean this as some kind of unidirectional rant at you in particular, AT ALL, BB, so I apologize if it seems that way. Just using this thread as an example - I see that line of thought on here all the time that you have to be a pro surfer to be able to notice the minor changes you might make to your equipment, and not only do I disagree, but I think it's a shame to discourage other people from taking the time to try different things and seeing what works for them in what types of conditions.
Just think for a moment. When you lean hard into a turn if you are on a twin fin or a quad, the outside fins pop out. Therefore the inside fins and your rail (and the inside tip of your swallow tail if you have one) is all that is keeping you from sliding. Add a center fin, and you have more grip on those power carves. Skatey v. drivey. The bigger the center fin, the less skate and more drive you will feel. If the center fin is too small for the steepness of a late drop/critical bottom turn, you either need to put a bigger fin in the center, or use a different board that is narrower and has a rounded pin or a pin tail.
...I was there that Saturday and Sunday the event finished. Really amazing to see the pro's so close up and so damn good.. That Slater air was ridiculous, but you are totally right... That little nubster got soooo much attention during the event. People were losing it over it, lol.
