Single Fin Guide

the fact of the matter is that most average surfers would be best suited on something other than a thruster. all things being equal (rocker, length, width, thickness, etc...), the other fin configurations have distinct advantages over the thruster that outweigh any supposed "drawbacks" (which, being an average surfer, most aren't really going to notice). quads & bonzers hold better & tighter to the face when dropping in, esp. late & steep. they also generate more of their own speed, & since speed is the foundation for all good surfing, will help average surfers ride waves to the best of their abilities & thus have more fun. though it's changing slowly, i think most surfers ride thrusters still b/c that's what they see in the mags, in contests, & under the feet of the local pros. it's not a coincidence that quads are being favored more & more by pros in waves like cloudbreak & chopes. they go fast & don't slide out when they get high & tight in the tube. prior to quads reemerging, single fins were the fin set up of choice for guys surfing mavs, waimea, & other true big wave breaks. why? b/c the bigger fin held better. the only time a single fin is going to wash out on an average wave is if it's positioned wrong on the board.

as i mentioned earlier, single fins tend to force a more refined, smooth style on the rider. it's less about imposing your will upon the wave & more about doing what the wave requires. this is the antithesis of modern surfing, & so can be hard for people to grasp.

 

I have a board almost exactly as you described, OP. It is really hard to surf one of those rail-to rail, it is kind of a get up and trim kind of thing as someone mentioned before. I feel like I am never really standing in the sweet spot on mine, If I am forward enough to be cozy on the drop, then I'm too far forward to make a hard turn off the tail. If I scooch down to the tail, I feel like there is no drive when I've finished the turn and am back on the face. I find it fun on big choppy days where it's drop in, get shacked and/or get sacked. Just stand in the center of it and hope for the best. Retro wise, I have much more fun on my MR style fish or my simmons-ish egg.

 

this is the kind of thoughtful post we should have more of. its evident you have thought this through. i can't
offer criticism as with 50 yrs shortboarding experience i still haven't (in the process) worked my way through
the quads. they DO hold well and they DO go faster....but as a rider with experience i have seen the thruster
written off before only to have this not be the case. i'm progressing through the new stuff and i guess i have
only to add 'don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.'

 

"as i mentioned earlier, single fins tend to force a more refined, smooth style on the rider. it's less about imposing your will upon the wave & more about doing what the wave requires. this is the antithesis of modern surfing, & so can be hard for people to grasp."
I have been grappling with this in my later years. I thought I was 'regressing' in terms of how I surfed due to age but I'm thinking it's more of a return to the way I surfed in my younger days due to what we had in terms of surf craft. I have found myself surfing more and more on the types of boards like Lee described above but I seem to be more inclined to let the wave do it's thing. Old age? Old fart? Both?

 

Nah man, it's a more Zen approach imo. Be one with the wave type stuff.

 

thanks. 50 years...****, i hope i'm barely halfway there! hope i'm still as excited by surfing then as i am now!

i don't think the thruster will ever fade completely. paired w/ the standard hpsb, it IS a good design...if you surf like the pros. i just think that it's not necessarily the best for the average surfer in average waves...95-98% of the surfers.
i know a lot of older, experienced, & highly skilled surfers who think a lot like you do, baddy, & see the thruster as the be-all, end-all of high performance surfing on a shortboard, & i think a lot of that has to do w/ the fact that they got to see twins, quads, etc...come around the first time (i mean, really, none of this is new) & they SUCKED...the fin placement was balls. it amazes me how well guys surfed on early shortboards back in the late-60s, 70s, & 80s...those boards were utter ****. i've been lucky to ride a few here & there & it was interesting purely from a historical perspective, but the boards were horribly unrefined. modern incarnations of these ideas are much more refined & the fin placement is very dialed in.

 

YANG: THIS left me jaded and cynical; kinda the opposite of 'rose colored glasses.' were i to rise from the
ashes of this i would say 'don't underestimate our sport.'

 

I liked the volume of the early thrusters. They got you in early and went fast. When they made them into potoato chips, that's when the retro thing took off. People were tired of bogging down with Kellys equipment so they went to hybrids and alternative shapes like bonzers. I have not surfed a modern quad, but am intrigued. The one I had in the mid eightys was squirrly as hell, and I have a scar on my calf due to its fin placement. But it's easy to see why they are so fast and responsive, and if the fin placement is tweaked (I have read some in other threads about the two main variations of quad fins - one which gives you more of a tighter config so you get more hold on hollow drops -like that happens around here alot) I'm ready to try one out in chest to overhead juice.

 

Will these fins help me get more power out of my duck heel squat while I am pumping down the line?

 

sorry; this is why i shouldn't be allowed to write in the mornings. that 3rd cup of coffee was clearly too much.

 

<sigh> the bonzer predates the thruster by almost 10 years.

 

sigh I didn't mean they invented the hybrids and bonzers after the potato chip thrusters, just that they decided to give these other, higher volume shapes a whirl. Most lineups now are populated with a bigger mix of shapes than I have ever remembered. When I started, almost everyone surfed single fin shortboards, with a few logger thrown in, then everyone went twin fin, then thruster. All you would see out there were thrusters for years, except for the occasional logger. Then, BOOM! Every other board is a fun shape, or a fish, or a bonzerr, or a six fin vee tail, or a 13 foot log. Its cool.

 

both boards i use the most now are quads and i can humbly tell you 'so far so good.'

 

i guess i just get a little bristly when people categorize bonzers & alternative/hybrid/high volume shapes together w/out distinction. most times, you wouldn't even know someone is riding a bonzer unless you flip the board upside down.

i mean, does this look like a high volume hybrid?

 

I think that's the key to surfing a single fin. You don't try and fit all these turns and maneuvers into a wave, instead you do what the wave calls for. Every turn has a purpose. And I don't think that's regressing at all, in fact I think that's the opposite. Don't get me wrong, the pros and guys on tour can do what they do, because they are who they are, and make it look good and effective. The average surfer sees the pros and trys to surf like them. We aren't pros and we will probably never surf like them.

I surfed shortboards for years and my surfing never progressed much. I'd try and surf like my favorite surfers. When I got my first longboard my surfing took off. I learned how to take the more "zen" approach to a wave. This eventually lead to me getting a single fin shortboard and I love it. I developed my own style rather then trying to duplicate some pros style. Single fins saved my surfing

 

heard that bassmon, longboards saved my surfing. I wish I picked one up 10 years ago but I was too busy buying pro-model boards and trying to "air". Man, Hard to imagine all of the great waves I wasted.

 

When I ride a retro style single, something in the 7'0 range, I feel like I'm riding a lowrider Caddie. They're a total trip... but you have to change your whole mindset and approach.

 

Great 70's single fin riders: Terry Fitzgerald was my fave for the fast high trim and Shaun Tomson for his stinkbug front foot tube riding. Check out Shaun at the end of 5 Summer stories and Stormriders for the Sultan of Speed (T. Fitz) if you can. Great old stuff and radical for the day surfing on singles.

 

Great thread, having a single fin, thruster, and quad in the rotation has made me a better surfer, having only one (thruster) limited me for years but now I have the options and freedom to switch it up when I'm in the mood.