5 Fins the NEW Fad? - 60 Days of Summer Day 36

So we have had singles, doubles, tri, thrusters and quads - which are currently the favoured choice out here and around the world. We have been here before numerous times and we have always returned back to the trusty single fin. I myself have been using a twin fin set up for more than a year on my wave board and while in some areas I see improvements it does seem to come at a cost at other times. Recently I have wondered whether I should follow the fad and grad myself a quad and I must say the Quatro ones look kinda sexy! With all this hype about quads at the moment I wonder how long it will be until we start to see a The Five Fin Concept being used and photographed? As we add more fins we get more weight but some of that issue has now been negated by the new Slot Box from Tabou and Starboard which cuts the weight of the boxes down dramatically.

The new Slot Box saves weight and makes it easier to attach your fins, important when you have lots of them.

So could we now see five fins become the norm and if so what format would it take? One of the issues is that we need to have board and fin companies working together; those who have been reading my posts will know that I have been working with Black Project fins the newest kid on the block in terms of fin design out here and this is what they said when asked: Could a five fin set up be the new quad?

“Hmmm, 5 fins? The problem is that every time you add a fin you decrease efficiency due to losses at the fin tip and interference drag at the base. The benefit is that you can get a faster roll rate due to the shorter fins which have a smaller rotational moment. So to put it succinctly the more fins you have the easier it is to roll from one rail to the other..." sounds good!  "but the more drag you have which requires more energy to overcome." Not so good! "If you have plenty of wind and a steep fast wave you have plenty of energy to play with and it may not be a problem.” So it sounds like it could work on Ho'okipa's fast waves.

I didn’t have time to get in contact with Quatro but will try to canvass some opinions and post them here in future updates. Based on the above comment and the recent trends to me it seems likely that we’ll see people testing the 5 fin set up this winter.

Okay, time to talk about today’s action. It was great to get my bike back as it has been in for some repairs at Maui Cyclery in Paia and I went out for a short test ride before I take it into the back country and immediately I knew two things, firstly the bike felt great and secondly it was very windy again!

When I arrived at Ho’okipa it was immediately apparent that it was going to be a better day with what looked like a more consistent (4.5m) wind and small waves. Jumping was certainly on most people’s minds and crashing was the order of the day. In comparison to past years there is a core of sailors who seem to be pushing themselves more that they normally would in the summer and I wonder how much that is down to the fast that Jimmie and Franck have continued to shoot all summer when normally the beach park would be devoid of professional photographers at this time. I myself have certainly been motivated to get out there is the knowledge that I’ll get shots.

Lets start with some jump shots...

If he gets any more inverted he'll have to move to Australia.

Here me controlling my crash landing rather than going for the second scoop. I seem to have a mental block, I have plenty of hight, plenty of rotation but apparently not enough balls! Maybe the knowledge that it was Friday 13th was holding me back?

This was a sweet pushloop tabletop from Graham

Low altitude push

Still working hard on improving backloop consistency - hard in the recent strong winds.

This was the jump of the day.

Shawna Cropas showing that girls can jump. Here pictured with here great looking new JP Quad.

For those who had the patience and were not scared of being hit by the crashing jumpers there were some teeny waves to slash and bash. With September approaching proper waves will be here soon, I just hope that we get a swell on September 1st. I am not sure that I will be able to leave the island if we get some early swells, I might just have to quit my job and stay!

Some nice wave shots...

I set up a GoPro mount today which almost didn’t happen after I broke one of my mounting pieces as I tightened too hard, arhhh… luckily I was able to raid Col’s van and grab some tools to fix. I got a couple of pics that I like and some video (which I will post later).

For anyone learning forwards note 3 things here: #1 my hand position way back on the boom, #2 how my body is inboard and looking back and #3 that I have sheeted in hard. This was quite a big forward and they are so much fun but you have to wait to start your rotation or you will over cook it.

Note the very different position here on this pushloop.

I have had alot of questions about my mast mount and this image clearly shows its position, here set up for jumping.

Overall, a fun day on the water, hopefully more of the same tomorrow.


Sailing record = 91% (32/35)


On Water record = 94% (33/35)

More to follow…