MyPaipoBoards Forums

I had the pleasure to try my board finless at J-Bay. Here are some photos from a small day. Leg and flipper movement in this sequence is obvious.
I tried the board twice with small 2" twin fins. The first time was a different spot, which was fuller and was a turning oriented wave. Because there were white water sections, I thought I'd try fins. The board board projected around sections and did what I wanted it to do.

At Jbay, where the focus was speed and hollow sections, the drag was noticeable and I thought the board didn't fit the curve of the wave as naturally and wanted to take a different tack to what I wanted. I could have persisted, but much preferred the board finless in this style of wave.

Great to see you have fun at J-bay.

Thinking about what you have said I think the big difference with finned and finless is finless its easier to move on the board and find the place where your in harmony with the rail so the board feels good.
Finned is very complicated, you throw into the mix , fin positioning, size , amount and design. With the few finned boards i have tried I found I feel a position is good for rail work, then i have to move to feel right for the fins. So I feel the fin on them has maybe been in the wrong place. (what I have tried i fee there were to close to the tail)

So then you end up on a finned board the does not work as you would like, wanting to move the fins, but to where and not simple to move fin boxes.

Must be nice to be pro to have 10's of free boards to get these things right.

Hard to find fault with speeding along in trim on a wave like that, regardless of what you got going on the bottom.

Nomas,

These were really fun waves, ideally suited to long speed lines and tube-riding. I want to pay more attention to the subtleties of riding finless.

Chris Garrett who has been shaping my latest boards sent me half a photo of a channel bottom. It will be interesting to see how it rides.

Bob

"I want to pay more attention to the subtleties of riding finless" YES, riding finless requires much more finesse (and patience) than riding with fins. I've never been accused of being patient...

I was watching some footage of Derek Hynd, and it included what would be considered standard lines drawn on a surfboard and quite different lines, such as tail drifting in the lip and controlled slides.

I've never really tried doing the latter but it thinking about this, while standing you have your weight balanced on two points. Prone is quite different as in addition to hands, there is your body which can move forward/back, push down/unweigh and move sideways - not grossly but small movements. The pushing down of thighs is related to the weighting/unweighting of legs, which as the photos show alter there position in and out of the water. Reminds me of surf mats, but they have the added dimension on variable pressure/distribution of inflation. The guys who ride boards with handles, use these in a variety of ways but in the main they are ridden with fins.

This will differ significantly in relation to type of board. On boards much shorter than I ride, there is more of a counter-lever movement where your head/upper body is forward of the board.

It is a long learning curve.

Yes, always fascinating that though they are all "surfing", how they feel and their dynamics are quite different from each other.

Controled slides are definitely part of the finless fun

Controlled slides are also possible with 3-fin paipo boards if there isn't too much fin. My sidebites on my Austin paipo shape are just small enough to easily slide out, but also big enough to serve their purpose. Different story with my Bonzer shape.